Evangelism Explosion
Tools to Help Share Your Faith
Abbreviated Outline of the Gospel Presentation
I. The introduction
A. Their secular life
B. Their church background
C. Our church (their impression)
D. Testimony: church and/or personal
E. Two diagnostic questions:
1. Have you come to a place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven, or is that something you would say you’re still working on?
2. Suppose that you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” What would you say?
II. The Gospel
A. Grace
1. Heaven is a free gift
2. It is not earned or deserved
B. Man
1. Is a sinner
2. Cannot save himself
C. God
1. Is merciful – therefore doesn’t want to punish us
2. Is just – therefore must punish us
D. Christ
1. Who He is – the infinite God-Man
2. What He did – He died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase a place in heaven for us, which He offers as a gift
E. Faith
1. What it is not – mere intellectual assent or mere temporal faith
2. What it is – trusting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life
III. The commitment
A. Transition: “Does this make sense to you?”
B. Commitment: “Would you like to receive the gift of eternal life?”
C. Clarification: “Let me clarify this…”
D. Prayer
E. Assurance
IV. The immediate follow-up
A. Partners in Growing booklet
B. The means of growth
1. Bible (seven-day callback appointment)
2. Prayer
3. Worship
4. Fellowship
5. Witness
C. Appointment for church
1. Evangelism is a “trilogue” rather than a dialogue. We are speaking not only to the lost persons before us but also to the Holy Spirit above us and within us, that He might open their eyes and enlighten their minds to understand what we are saying in order that they might be saved. Depend on the Power of the Holy Spirit, or else witnessing is in the flesh and not in the spirit.
2. Evangelism is a way of life. It is a lifestyle, not a one time event.
3. The Laws Of Persuasion
Jesus’ Use of the “Five Laws of Persuasion”
(Please refer to the conversation with the women at the well in John 4)
Attention: He began where she was and got her attention. “Give Me to drink.” “How is it You ask Me? We have nothing to do with each other.”
Interest: “If you knew who was asking you for water, you would ask Me and I would give you living water.” Now she was really interested. “Where would You get living water? The well is deep and You have nothing to draw with. Are You greater than Jacob who gave us this well?”
Desire: “he who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst.” now she desired ardently what Jesus offered. “Give me this water so I will never thirst again or have to come here to draw.” Here she was, a woman of ill repute, having to go to the well at noon when no one else was there. Everyone else came in the cool of the day. She seems more interested in no going to the well to draw than in not thirsting again. “Give it to me.”
Conviction of sin: (truthfulness of claims): “Go call you husband.” He put His finger on her sin. Did she have to have her husband to be saved? No. That was to pinpoint her sin. “I have no husband.” “You’re right. You have had five husbands, and the man you live with now isn’t your husband.” He drove home the evidence of her sinfulness.
(Diversion) She tried to avoid the issue. “Our fathers worship in this mountain; You worship in that mountain… When Messiah comes, He will tell us about these matters.”
Commitment: Jesus used something from her digression to get back on the main subject and confront her with the decision she must make: “I who speak to you am He.”
Now she confronts the living Christ. She must either accept or reject Him.
The Introduction (Making Friends)
A. Becoming a friend
B. Precluding Common Objections
C. Creating a smooth transition into the gospel
D. Earning the right to ask personal questions
E. Finding out where the person is spiritually
F. Discovering If the Person has what you are offering
G. Creating a desire to hear the gospel
H. Asking permission to share the gospel
I. Determining what the person is now trusting in for salvation
J. Telling the person he/she is wrong without making him angry
A. The Person’s Secular Life
1. Observe
2. Ask questions
3. Be quiet and listen
4. Pay a sincere compiment
B. The Person’s church background
C. Our church – The person’s impressiosn
A. When Should you call for appointments
B. What is the Best way to make appointments?
C. What should take place en route to the visit
D. What about team member’s appearance?
E. What should be said at the door?
F. How should the team sit in the prospect’s home?
G. What should other team members do during the presentation?
Don’t carry a large Bible on your visit
Don’t give the references when you quote Scripture
Do quote just the relevant portion of the verse
Do anticipate objections and preclude them, if possible
Do stress the positive benefits of the Gospel
Don’t use leading questions
Don’t use misleading questions
Do start where the person is
Do dangle your bait in front of the prospect
Do ask permission to ask questions
Do ask your prospects opinion
Do listen to your prospect talk
Do be conservative in your estimation of what happens on your visit
Don’t feel you have to secure a profession
Do be overly modest as you talk about your church
Do avoid critical comments about other congregations
Do smile, especially as you ask the two commitment questions
Do make your exit sweet
Do watch your grooming and manner of dress
Do ask a friend if you have bad breath
Don’t sit in the car at the prospect’s house and pray
Don’t laugh outside the home en route to your car
Contents are a summary of :
“Evangelism Explosion – Fourth Edition” by D. James Kennedy, Phd.
Copyright © 1996 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois