This session took place in the house of a deacon and his wife on April 7, 2012 (see Appendix 6). We had a potluck dinner fellowship before the class started. After one
12Fay and Hodge, Share Jesus without Fear, 7.
hour, we sang and shared praises and prayer requests. I asked the attendees to break into their small groups for prayer. After thirty minutes, we came together and talked about their assignment of writing their personal testimony. Then, I requested each group to have someone share his or her testimony.
The session centered on helping participants overcome an attitude of seasonal evangelism. One way to do this is to master one method of evangelism. The participants would do well to have a habitual lifestyle of evangelism and allow it to become second nature to them. This would help them overcome an attitude of evangelism as an
obligation. They would learn to share the gospel out of compassion for the lost without fear, as it becomes a natural part of their daily Christian life.
The first section provided guidelines to improving their testimonies. Three guidelines were given, with an acronym of ABC13: (1) ask the Holy Spirit to guide your preparation, (2) be brief and to the point about your past, and (3) center on Christ, not yourself. I admonished them not to exaggerate or glorify their past. Their testimonies focused on the amazing grace and power of God that saved and changed them.14
At this point, I presented some methods of evangelism. My objective was to give them a chance to see some approaches of evangelism and select from them. First, we talked about the ABCD of evangelism which stands for (1) Admit you are a lost sinner (Rom 3:23), (2) Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16), (3) Confess him as your Lord and Savior (Rom 10:9),and (4) Don’t put it off (2 Cor 6:2).
The second method that we discussed was what I called the four REs of evangelism: (1) Realize that God loves you (John 3:16), (2) Recognize you are a sinner
13Cecil, The Seven Principles, 162-64.
14Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Evangelism Is . . . How to Share Jesus with Passion and Confidence (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2010), 249-50.
(Rom 3:23), (3) Repent of your sins (Acts 3:19), and (4) Receive Jesus into your heart as Lord and Savior (Rev 3:20).
The last method of evangelism that we studied was One-Verse Evangelism. I distributed a copy of the outline as illustrated by Randy D. Raysbrook (see Appendix 20).
This method, based on just one verse, Romans 6:23, was presented as follows: The presenter drew two cliffs: one on the left side and another one on the right. The presenter would take time to determine what the prospect understood about wages, sin, and death as he would write each word on the left side of the cliff. Then the presenter emphasized to the prospect that the verse did not stop there. He would writethe next word, “but” in the middle and bottom of the two cliffs. At this time, the witness tried to discover what the prospect understood about the words: gift, God, and eternal life. The presenter would write those words one by one on the right side of the cliff. The witness would then draw a cross between the two cliffs. He would then say the last phrase of the verse: “Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” At this point, thepresenter would write the words“Jesus Christ, our Lord” on the cross. Then, he asked the prospect whathe needed to do to cross from the left side of the cliff to the other side.
After the presentation and explanation of the different methods of evangelism, I gave the participants the freedom to determine which one they felt most comfortable using. They unanimously chose One-Verse evangelism since they do not have to
memorize many verses and the presentation would be a lot easier, simpler, and directly to the points. This was in addition to explaining it with a diagram, and taking time to
interact with the prospect. This method would help the presenter keep the attention of the prospect. The non-believer would not get confused with so many verses being quoted by the presenter. This is especially true for prospects who never had a chance to read the Bible, let alone study it. I went ahead and showed some videotaped demonstrations of
One-Verse Evangelism to the delight of the participants.15This greatly enhanced their excitement and desire to use this method.
This session concluded with the following assignments for the participants: (1) view the video clips on their own computer, (2) practice it with their respective spouse, or family members, and (3) practice with their respective partner according to their
availability. I reminded them that cross-cultural evangelism is engaging in spiritual warfare that requires the power of the Holy Spirit. Learning to share the gospel is cooperating with the Holy Spirit by allowing him to work in us and through us. The session closed with my prayer asking specifically for God to bless each one as they started to practice presenting the gospel with the One-Verse Evangelism method.
Cross-Cultural Evangelism
We focused the next sessions on the three racial components of the International Bible Church: Anglos, African Americans, and Filipinos. The intention of these sessions was to educate participants on the historical, cultural, and religious background of others within the church. With these cultural characteristics in mind, the participants learned to be sensitive and respectful to other people’s cultural and religious backgrounds, and to tactfully establish rapport and relationship with them. The ultimate objective was to help them learn to contextualize their evangelism according to the culture and religion of a prospect.
Session 7: Cross-Cultural Evangelism