INTENTIONAL:
Evangelism that takes people to Jesus
By Paul Williams
10publishing. 101 pages. £3.99
ISBN 978 1 910 587 522
‘My heart rate rises, my palms get sweaty and my mouth goes dry.’ What Christian activity could possibly be being described here? No prizes for guessing… evangelism! Perhaps reading a book on evangelism isn’t top of your list as you guiltily reflect on the fact that you haven’t shared your faith for some time.
But fear not, my opening sentence comes straight from the book. It’s refreshingly honest about fears and failures! It opens acknowledging that most of our problems with telling others about Jesus stem from fear, of being ridiculed, of not explaining things properly, of putting people off. He dissects this into three C’s: we can lack Conviction of the saving power of the gospel; we often lack Compassion for lost people if we’re honest; and we lack Confidence, both in our ability to evangelise and in God’s power to save!
But the big take-away point is that the most important thing for us in any conversations we have, is to talk about Jesus. This sounds obvious, but so often when asked a leading question we can instead go down various rabbit-holes of philosophy, science, and cultural hot topics. Although it is important to address our friend’s questions, what they need most is to go to Jesus. Going there first takes our friends to the centre of the gospel, and also avoids what the writer calls an ‘unnatural crunching of the gears’ where we try and shoe-horn Jesus into the conversation at the end!
And usefully, realising all conversations are ‘unique’ and ‘messy’ he takes some high-frequency questions often asked and gives help. Where you might go in the Bible to prepare for such a question, where you could possibly go in conversation, and how to lead the subject to Jesus. This is far more helpful than other books, where cringe-worthy scripted conversations unrealistically leave the recipient begging for salvation in a few short sentences!
The strength of this book is in its brevity, honesty and amusing British analogies which makes it more accessible than many other books I’ve read!
