Conversational Evangelism: Connecting with People to Share Jesus
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Witnessing used to involve laying out the truth and guiding a person to understand and accept it. But the awareness of basic Christian principles has changed and so have the needs of pre-believers. With a passion for people, authors David and Norman Geisler share an engaging, conversational approach to evangelism as they address:
- What makes old models of witnessing ineffective in today’s culture
- Why evangelism must start with relational pre-evangelism
- How to ask questions, listen attentively, and understand what someone believes
- Ways to identify the real barriers to belief in order to build a bridge to truth
- How to keep dialogue going with different personality types
This refreshing, practical resource is ideal for churches and individuals. Readers will discover how God uses their everyday encounters for great things when they switch from trying to witness effectively to effectively being a witness through communication and compassion.
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- Explores concepts and steps that seek to encourage readers towards evangelism
- Attempts to make evangelism an enjoyable experience in the life of the average Christian
- Presents practical exercises at the end of each chapter under Reflection and Application
- The Need for Pre-Evangelism in a Postmodern World
- Introduction to Conversational Evangelism
- Learning the Role of the Musician
- Learning the Role of the Artist
- Learning the Role of the Archaeologist
- Learning the Role of the Builder
- The Art of Answering Objections While Moving Forward
- The Art of Asking Questions of People with Different Worldviews
- Countering Common Misconceptions that Affect Evangelism
Top Highlights
“Evangelism is every day and in every way helping your nonbelieving friends to take one step closer to Jesus Christ.12” (Page 28)
“Belief versus heart longing is the discrepancy between a person’s worldview and his heart’s true longings” (Page 65)
“This combined approach of asking questions, surfacing doubt, creating interest, uncovering hidden barriers, and building bridges to the cross is at the heart of pre-evangelism.” (Page 34)
“Eight main ingredients make up this pre-evangelistic approach: 1) active listening, 2) positive deconstructionism,9 3) a questioning approach that allows others to surface the truth, 4) the boomerang principle,10 which involves removing the burden of proof from us to them, 5) determining the real barriers to the Gospel, 6) finding common ground, 7) a strategy for building a bridge to the Gospel (both intellectual and heart bridges), and 8) a basic knowledge of the Christian faith and what makes Jesus unique (see our suggested resource list in the back of this book).” (Page 46)
“Hence, the first step in Conversational Evangelism is to hear what others actually say that they believe, learn their stories, and then surface the gaps (discrepancies) in their viewpoint.” (Page 56)