The Discipline of Evangelism: Lessons from a Professor of Evangelism
- Chuck Lawless
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
I’ve been a believer more 50 years—29 of which I’ve also been a professor of evangelism. I’m
not, though, a natural evangelist. I have to push myself to do it. I have to work at it. I do it, but I saturate it in prayer and ask the Lord to help me push past my introverted personality—and I do find great joy when I’m obedient in this task. There’s nothing quite like introducing somebody to Jesus!
For the next several weeks, then, we are going to focus on the discipline of evangelism. My goal is to challenge you to regularly tell non-believers about the good news of Jesus. To start, here are some of the lessons on evangelism I’ve learned over those years:
Evangelistic passion is usually most potent when we first become believers. That’s when the gospel is most fresh, alive, real, and personal. We almost can’t help but talk about Jesus then. In fact, some of us—starting with me—were probably obnoxious in those days (though I’d still rather be obnoxiously zealous than kindly silent about the gospel).
Regardless of what your position or title is, it’s easy for evangelistic zeal to wane. I’ve been a lead pastor or interim pastor, missionary trainer, and professor—sometimes all at the same time. I’d be lying, though, if I said evangelism is always natural and normal for me (as I noted above). All of us can lose our passion when our Christianity becomes routine, no matter how long we’ve been Christians or how involved we are in our church.
Sometimes we must do evangelism out of obedience more than out of enthusiasm. For me, that’s when I must lean on my belief in the message of the gospel and tell others its truth. What we believe about Jesus should compel us tell others about Him even when our personal fervor in the gospel is waning. My experience, then, is that obedience usually leads to increased joy and returning zeal.
It’s easy to think we’ve proclaimed the gospel when we’ve actually failed to lay out God’s plan of salvation. Just because we preach or teach does not mean we have told people how to be saved. Most of us need to be more intentional in this task, making sure we tell others about our lostness (our need for redemption), our hope in Christ as Savior, and our called-for response of repentance and belief.
Living a good life in front of non-believers is not sufficient for leading them to Christ. Yes, their seeing lives transformed by the gospel is powerful, but it’s the hearing or reading of the gospel that moves them toward salvation. God sends us to our neighbors and the nations so we might tell the story—not just live it in front of people. Actually proclaiming the good news is not optional for any believers.
It’s tough to be evangelistic when we don’t know many non-believers anyway. I know we must tell the good news to everyone, including people we don’t know well, but genuine, light-bearing relationships do open the door to evangelism. We church leaders too often get caught in the Christian bubble and can’t even name a significant number of non-believers with whom we are genuine friends—so it’s no wonder we don’t evangelize.
We will not likely do evangelism if we’re not broken over lostness. Separation from God is real. Judgment on non-believers is going to happen. Eternal lostness is agonizing. Knowing those truths—while also knowing the accompanying truths of the joy and peace of knowing Christ—should compel us to evangelize. Broken hearts over lost people should lead to speaking voices that tell good news.
Evangelism is offensive spiritual warfare. We are trying to reach people following the prince of the air (Eph 2:1-3), blinded by the god of this age (2 Cor 4:3-4), living in darkness (Col 1:13), caught in the devll’s trap (2 Tim 2:26), and under the power of Satan (Acts 26:18). It’s not surprising that evangelism is hard since the enemy fights back against our efforts. One of my goals in this series is to help you win this battle.
Local churches must offer evangelism training. At a minimum, we must train believers how to (a) connect with non-believers; (b) actually share the gospel; (c) respond to questions and objections; and (d) follow up with those who believe. A lack of intentional training is almost a guarantee of a non-evangelistic church. It usually means your church is just like so many other churches: inwardly focused and non-evangelistic.
God is still drawing people to Himself. Revelation 7:9 reminds us of that truth: “After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” We keep loving non-believers, keep walking faithfully with Christ, and keep proclaiming His message because we know He is still working. Somebody is waiting to hear. Somebody is waiting to hear from us.
If you’re looking for resources for start doing evangelism, here are a few:
Nobodies for Jesus (a short, simple book I wrote about fascination over Jesus that leads to Great Commission living)
Lord, I’m Caught in the Bubble (an e-book from Church Answers)
the “Hope Initiative,” a Church Answers (with Thom Rainer) strategy for turning churches outward—one of my favorite simple tools