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On Mission to Apply the Truth of God’s Word to Life

What I've Been Reading: Tell it Often - Tell it Well

When I was in college I took a course entitled “Personal Evangelism.” The purpose of the course was to equip students to share our faith with others. In order to pass the class students had to personally share the Gospel with a certain number of people and turn in a report that they had done so. At that time I had just been saved and I had never shared the Gospel with anyone personally. I thought about dropping the class because I knew there was no way I would be able to share the Gospel with someone. I figured my only hope was that if someone walked up to me and asked me directly I might be able to do it. Thankfully, I did have the opportunity to share the Gospel with someone. It turns out it wasn’t something to be dreaded or avoided at all costs. It was actually fun! Who knew?

Evangelism is something that most Christians neglect. Sometimes lack of knowledge is the problem. Many Christians have never been taught a simple method of sharing their faith. Sometimes apathy is the problem. Life is filled with so many other problems and needs that we just do not care very much about the eternal destinies of other people. Sometimes we have a conviction problem. We believe the Gospel but some Christians are uncertain that Jesus is the only way to salvation. For others motivation is the problem. We know we should share the Gospel, we know how to share the Gospel, but we just aren’t very motivated to do it. Whatever condition you find yourself in Mark McCloskey’s book Tell it Often-Tell it Well will provide you some encouragement.

In the initial few chapters of the book McCloskey provides a detailed explanation of the Gospel. This section guides believers to precision in our explanation of what Jesus has done. In the church we have become so familiar with terms like “forgiveness" and “reconciliation" that we might not even be able to explain to someone what they mean. Based on this understanding of the Gospel, McCloskey then clearly explains what evangelism is, beginning with the evangelism we see in the New Testament. One of the most important statements he makes in this section is that “evangelism... is a verb, not a noun” (49). McCloskey next deals with the type of person God uses in evangelism. The reason every Christian is able to share the Gospel is because "the Holy Spirit is the witnessing Spirit” (81). Following this section McCloskey provides some helpful analysis of the secular mind. Even though this book was written a few decades ago, much of his analysis of society and the needs of people remain relevant to our current cultural climate. McCloskey also provides chapters on how to interact with those who are nominal in their faith, or misdirected, including those who are part of cults and other errant belief systems. He includes a few chapters explaining the different approaches to evangelism. The author helps readers understand that while it is helpful to practice friendship evangelism, we share enough in common with all people that we can share the Gospel with anyone. He rightly reminds readers: “There are just too many people who need to know Christ as soon as possible to insist that effective evangelism must be relational in approach” (171). In the final section of the book McCloskey moves to more practical matters such as a method for communicating and training others and a strategy to mobilize Christians to share their faith.

As we enter a new year I found this book to be a great encouragement to be more intentional about evangelism. If you have any interest at all in growing in this area of your Christian life, get this book and read it. You will be greatly helped.

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