Evangelism Today

I. What is the current status of

evangelism in the western church?
A. Most churches have reached their
plateau or are declining.
B. Most pastors do not focus on the
area of evangelism as their primary
purpose.
C. Most church members feel
inadequate in communicating the
Gospel to another person.
II. Why is it that most believers do
not evangelize?

There are many potential reasons

why most believers do not
evangelize. They may not
evangelize because:
A. They are unsaved themselves.
B. They have a wrong belief system

1. They do not believe that Jesus is

the only way.

2. They do not believe in a literal

hell.

3. They believe that if you are

“basically good,” you will go to
heaven.
C. They are fearful.

1. They fear discussing serious

spiritual matters with people.

2. They fear potential confrontation.

3. They fear potential rejection.

4. They fear talking to strangers.

D. They are procrastinators (John
4:35; II Cor. 6:2).
E. They are discouraged.
F. They misunderstand their call (II
Cor. 5:18-20; Acts. 1:8).
G. They misunderstand the needed
qualifications (John 1:40-51).

H. They are indifferent to the idea of

witnessing.
I. They have had bad personal
experiences in the realm of
evangelism.
J. They have wrong priorities (Luke
9:59-60).
K. They have been affected by wrong
stereotypes.
L. They are intimidated by people in
the world.
M. They are not proud of their local
church.

N. They are ignorant of the process

of salvation.
O. They are ignorant of how to
witness of Christ.
III. How do we deal with our guilt for
our lack of evangelism?

A. We do not want to evangelize out

of a sense of guilt or because we
feel that we have to.
B. We want to evangelize because we
want to.
The only way that we can move to the
realm of desire in this area is to get a
better perspective about what is
actually happening in the eternal realm.
When we share our faith we have the
potential to assist people in:
1. Coming out of death into life.

2. Coming out of darkness into light.

3. Coming into an experience of

abundant living.

4. Fitting out their place in heaven.

C. We need to see the difference of
bringing people to Christ and
bringing Christ to people.

D. We need to understand that we

are not the ones who open and
close doors (Col. 4:2-4).

E. We need to understand that fear is

normal but it can be overcome