There is an ever-growing number of courses fashioned to help us all
become better evangelists. The outcomes, however, can sometimes be
dis-empowering, with church members feeling defeated and confused.
Chris Harding suggests that our difficulties come less from the skills
and tools we are taught in evangelism classes and more from the
fundamental attitudes we hold as members of the church towards those
outside. He says, ‘I believe that the less we make of the distinction
between church members and non members the better our evangelism will
be’. See Attitude is (almost) everything. (1,500 words)
David Claydon, the International Director for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
Has written a major article on Christians relating to people of other faiths (10,000 words – download as a pdf file). He discusses the following material.
The driving desire to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ
A. Dynamic truths
1. Relationship
2. Atonement
3. Assurance
4. Love
B. The Dynamic Spirit
1. Barriers to hearing the good news
2. Communicating
3. Different ways of being a witness to the gospel
4. What not to do: challenging the beliefs in another religion
5. What to do in a person-to-person situation: friendship evangelism
6. Crossover points: language and/or culture.
7. A concern
8. Apologetics
9. Dialoguing
10. Other ways of making contact
11. Examples of what to say and do
12. Clarity and commitment to one's own faith
13. Preparation
14. Some ways to generate a context for sharing your faith
Questions for personal and group reflection
What does the bible say about evangelising people of other faiths? John Olley discusses this in God and the gods— a look at biblical attitudes to other religions (7,000 words – download as a pdf file). The contents of this substantial article are:
1. The Bible addressed to God’s people
2. God’s people and other faiths—the Old Testament
- Genesis 1-11: God, the creator of all humankind
- Genesis 12-50: Abraham and blessing for the nations.
- Moses, Jethro and Pharaoh
- The Canaanites: a paradigm for others?
- Some gentiles in the Old Testament - the “god of heaven”.
- Israel as a witness to Yahweh among the nations.
- All truth is God’s truth
3. Christ, the one Lord— the New Testament.
- A look at the gospels
- Acts and the world of many faiths
- The letters of Paul
4. One God and One Lord for One World
