The Gospel & Personal Evangelism
Evangelism has always been something I have been encouraged to do. I fear, then, that I am not alone in what I will call an “over-familiarisation” with evangelism. That is to say, I am so used to the concept of evangelism that I do not question what it means to evangelise. Mark Dever’s book is a brilliant practical, personal, guide to what gospel evangelism looks like, and provided great clarity to my fuzzy view of evangelism.
This is a fairly short book, full of pithy anecdotes and illustrations. It is written, at times, in almost conversational style. Dever clearly wants his book to be accessible and interesting to all kinds of reader – but never sacrifices content for the sake of novelty. The illustrations are all brief, thoroughly relevant, and tightly make the intended point without unnecessary excess. In short, it is engaging without self-consciously trying to appeal to trendy young laypeople. The overall feel of the book, from the introduction to the end of the appendixed “Word to Pastors” is one of passion for the subject matter and love for the reader.
Dever takes us through some crucial areas in tackling evangelism, by asking a major question in each chapter. ”Why don’t we evangelize?”, for example, runs through some common reasons (excuses?) that are given for not evangelising. He sets up each question, explains the logic, and moves on to the next reason. Instead of rebutting each argument in turn, he simply argues positively for an attitude of evangelism, urging us to “plan to stop not evangelizing”. I suspect most readers would associate with many of the reasons given why we do not evangelise – there are few with which I do not! So whilst each of the straw men we construct may be taken down, the heart is so much more warmed by a clear and careful explanation what a mindset for evangelism looks like. ”We forget that it is [God's] will and pleasure for his gospel to be known”, Dever says simply. ”He wants sinners saved”.
This is not a book of deep theological argument, but of deep practical advice to the Christian unsure of why, how or who to evangelise. Covering the span of sharing the gospel (starting to share, what to share, who to share to, what to do next), Dever has written a handbook that should give confidence to the reader apprehensive about starting out with evangelism. He constantly rests on the sovereignty of God as a basis for our confidence in evangelism – not only in that his gospel is so magnificent, but that we can have nothing to fear in evangelism, only joy in sharing this great message. And Dever reminds us of the message we carry, with clarity and brevity, while issuing us with a challenge to share the gospel in one minute or less. ”How would you do that? What would you say the message is?”
I have been used to a culture of talking about evangelism, which is great. But Dever urges us to create a culture of evangelism. ”[by this] I mean an expectation that Christians will share the gospel with others, talk about doing that, pray about it, and regularly plan and work together to help each other evangelize. We want evangelism to be normal – in our own lives and in our churches.” The Gospel & Personal Evangelism is a great encouragement to seize this vision. I highly commend it.
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Ali grew up in London, but is currently at university in the North East of England. He helped to re-launch Crossring in 2009, and has acted as Managing Editor of the website since then. He occasionally dabbles in photography and web development - he also designed and maintains the Crossring website.
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