Evangelistic Approaches Which Probably Don’t Work

Today’s guest post come to us from Martin Saunders for ChristianityToday.com.

I’m not suggesting that evangelism isn’t vitally important, or that there aren’t good ways of attempting it. However, a mix of our natural embarrassment around the practice, and our culture’s predisposition to quick, easy and painless solutions can mean that we often put aside any commitment to traditional evangelism, and try something else… something easier. And these things, generally speaking, don’t work.

Here’s a few examples of what I mean:

  • Twitter – The combination of its inherent brevity and the emboldening effect of being able to hide behind a digital avatar means that when conversation happens between people with opposing views on Twitter, it’s heavy-handed, often unkind and generally unpersuasive. However, since it creates an illusion of broadcasting our views to the receptive masses, we can be fooled into thinking that we’re evangelizing
    them. We’re not.
  • Arguments – We don’t live in a culture of backing down; if anything social media has enabled us to become more entrenched in our views. So while we might feel awfully righteous when we’re putting that atheist right about the flaws in evolutionary theory or the problem with their view of where morality comes from, we should also be aware that we’re probably actually pushing them further away from open-mindedly exploring the claims of Jesus.

Click here to read the full article and the remaining two examples.

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

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About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.

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