Evangelism Training: What is Evangelism?
Lately we've been talking about evangelism at Church Acadiana. Evangelism is something that God has called every Christian to do (Acts 1:8). We're all called to be Christ's witnesses -- to try to bring our friends to Christ. But to be an effective evangelist, to be an effective witness, you need to know what evangelism is. Evangelism is sharing the Gospel with people with the aim of persuading them to accept Christ. To be clear, evangelism requires the sharing of the Gospel, or the Plan of Salvation.
Sometimes people confuse their personal testimony with the Gospel, but just sharing your testimony is not evangelism. Nobody will ever get saved and go to heaven because they believed in your testimony. A testimony can highlight the power of the Gospel, but in the end, in order to evangelize you must share the Gospel with them. People are saved when they hear and believe the Gospel.
As well, mercy ministries, such as helping the poor, are not evangelism. Displaying the mercy and compassion of God can make our evangelism more believable; it can adorn the Gospel; but it is not evangelism. Nobody will go to heaven simply because you fed and clothed them in the name of Jesus. People are saved when they hear and believe the Gospel.
This means that there are multiple ways that you can evangelize. If the essential element of evangelism is sharing the Gospel with people, then you can do that by inviting people to church to hear the Gospel, or by giving out Gospel tracts, or by sharing the Gospel on social media, etc. But the most obvious method of evangelism is by verbally explaining the Gospel in a friendly conversation.
Sometimes people confuse their personal testimony with the Gospel, but just sharing your testimony is not evangelism. Nobody will ever get saved and go to heaven because they believed in your testimony. A testimony can highlight the power of the Gospel, but in the end, in order to evangelize you must share the Gospel with them. People are saved when they hear and believe the Gospel.
As well, mercy ministries, such as helping the poor, are not evangelism. Displaying the mercy and compassion of God can make our evangelism more believable; it can adorn the Gospel; but it is not evangelism. Nobody will go to heaven simply because you fed and clothed them in the name of Jesus. People are saved when they hear and believe the Gospel.
This means that there are multiple ways that you can evangelize. If the essential element of evangelism is sharing the Gospel with people, then you can do that by inviting people to church to hear the Gospel, or by giving out Gospel tracts, or by sharing the Gospel on social media, etc. But the most obvious method of evangelism is by verbally explaining the Gospel in a friendly conversation.
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