Some evangelistic resources

Here’s a selection of talks I’ve given in evangelistic settings
Carols Service:  Isaiah 9
Why the Cross?:  Matthew 26:36-46
Who is God? (an evangelistic talk on the Trinity):  Galatians 4
Come and eat with Jesus:  Mark 1:40-2:17
Right with God:  Romans 3:21-26
How not to lead a trivial life (a talk at a pub quiz): Colossians 3:4
Satisfaction in Jesus (a mission [...]

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Some Christianity Explored Talks

I spoke every other week on Christianity Explored (an evangelistic course based in Mark’s Gospel).
Here are the odd weeks then.  The text is slightly different and I’d say better than the audio.  I often departed from my script to save time.
CE 1 – Introduction – Christianity is Christ. (Text)  (Audio)

CE 3 – Why did Jesus [...]

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Jesus is God-sized – God is Jesus-shaped

Preached on John 1:1-2 this morning (audio here).
My last two points were this:
Jesus is God-sized
and
God is Jesus-shaped
 
I wonder whether much of our evangelism is aimed at persuading people of point number one.  And I wonder whether that emphasis, if divorced from the second point, is quite dangerous.
Here’s what I mean – when we tell an [...]

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Thank you preacher- that was boring, uninspired, obscure and moralistic

Of course the words they use are ‘faithful’, ‘clear’, ‘helpful’ and ‘challenging’.
But we all know what they mean.
By the way – when did ‘faithful’ become a synonym for boring? 
I want to be understood on this point – when I advocate gospel-alone evangelism - that is not a licence for boring preaching.  There are illegitimate solutions to boring [...]

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The Truth that is in Jesus [Thawed out Thursday]

Given our current discussion about apologetics, thought I’d thaw out this post…
 
We’ve noted the danger of fiting Jesus into a pre-fab system of truth. We don’t want to do that.  But Missy has asked the $64 000 question.  It’s basically this: What do we do when speaking to a non-Christian - isn’t it desirable at least sometimes to bring Christ [...]

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The Gospel is not a good idea

I’ve just come back from a prayer meeting focussed on mission events we’re holding next year.  The woman I was praying with earnestly asked the Father,
Lord, we don’t want to persuade people that the Gospel is a good idea.  We want them to meet the living Lord Jesus and be born again.
My Amen was hearty [...]

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Whitefield on The LORD our Righteousness

Lex Loizides quotes Whitefield’s oft repeated sermon: The LORD our righteousness.
‘Alas, my heart almost bleeds! What a multitude of precious souls are now before me! How shortly must all be ushered into eternity! And yet, O cutting thought! Was God now to require all your souls, how few, comparatively speaking, could really say, ‘the Lord [...]

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Christianity Explored – week 3 – Why did Jesus come?

My talk from last night.  (I’ll publish text and other talks later)
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Christianity Explored – week 1

Here’s my introductory talk to Christianity Explored.
Audio here.
Text below.
Basically a bit of Reeves’ “Which God are you talking about?”, a bit of Tice “Christianity is Christ” and a bit of Keller “Since it’s a relationship, don’t make Him into a Stepford Jesus.”

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Calvin on the proper and the accidental office of the gospel

Last week Dave Kirkman helped me to distinguish between what Luther called God’s ‘alien work’ and His ‘proper work’.
Death is the alien work.  Life through death is gospel and God’s proper work.  But it’s extremely important not to view death and life as equivalents in God’s eyes.  One is the alien work, transformed by the [...]

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Good news for the poor

Social engagement or evangelism-only? 
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What is the mission of the church?
 
Here are three factors that unnecessarily polarize the debate:
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1) We think in terms of church programmes.  We frame the whole debate in terms of how many of our 15 scheduled hours of church-run activity must be devoted to helping the needy each week. 
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2) We look for justification [...]

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Come as you are

From Spurgeon’s book: All of Grace
Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are, but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. …The Gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at [...]

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The Gospel and Social Action – Paul Blackham

This video is very well worth the ten minutes plus.
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Might…

Hilarious!

From Tony Reinke
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We don’t need better preaching…

We don’t need better preaching, we need a better gospel.
Yes I’m being provocative and hyperbolous.  Let me remind you that this is a blog.
What I mean is this: there’s a lot of focus on becoming better preachers.  The real need is to preach a better gospel. 
These thoughts were prompted by a Spurgeon comment as quoted by [...]

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Changing world – changing ministry

A video briefly existed here charting an alarming rate of decline in birth rates in the west combined with incredible Muslim birth and immigration rates. 
Apparently the statistics are absolutely unreliable.  See here.  Thanks to Daniel Blanche for pointing this out.
Sorry to spread the error. 
Anyway – it’s still true to say that through immigration the unreached [...]

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Look at the fields – they are ripe for harvest

 
Gospel for Asia (UK site here) sends native missionaries into the Asian harvest field at a fraction of the cost of sending westerners.  100% of your money goes to the field.  You can sponsor a missionary for £20 a month.  Think about it.
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And you know in a funny way that’s a bit like cheeses

My friend John (not a Christian) was joking with me over breakfast about Christians crow-barring Jesus into talks that begin elsewhere.
“I’d like to hear a Christian speak about God and Jesus for 15 minutes and then say ‘But you know in a funny sort of way that’s a bit like cheeses… or monkeys… or communism, [...]

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Not receiving it – receiving Him

Enquirers into Christianity often have difficulty with the concept of appropriating grace.  And given how we often present it, that’s understandable.  Often we tell the enquirer simply to receive grace as a free gift. They, naturally, wonder what on earth that looks like. So we reply with greater vigour ‘Just receive the free forgiveness and [...]

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The New Birth

My great friend (and regular commenter here) Will Mackerras recently preached a cracker at Farm Fellowship (where Paul Blackham ministers).
Do we really believe that a person in Christ will naturally and organically produce righteous fruit – just as someone in Adam will naturally and organically produce wicked fruit?  Do we have a proper understanding of our new [...]

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The context is key. The context is mission.

In preaching through 1 Corinthians recently I listened to a lot of sermons on chapters 9 and 10.   Two themes in particular were hammered home by preachers. 
In chapter 9 there’s the olympic training regimes (v24-27).  In chapter 10 there’s ‘glorifying God’ in all circumstances (v31).  But so often the context of these verses is ignored.
So [...]

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How to put on a pre-evangelistic event

Follow my simple scheme:
STEP 1:  Ask yourself this question.  What is more attractive than Jesus?  Let’s call this thing X.
STEP 2:  Lift X high.  Be loud.  Be proud. 
STEP 3:  Celebrate a job well done when unbelievers agree that X really is better than Jesus.
 
Presto!
 
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Evangelistic talk for youth

Stef Liston preaching to youth in an evangelistic meeting last month.  It was part of Bible by the Beach 2009.
 
It was an absolute pleasure to be there.  I’m glad I stumbled on the blog link this week given I’m blogging on preaching.  This is a great example of holding out the word of life. 
 
It’s called “One kind [...]

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A theology of preaching – part 2

Go to theology network for the full paper on preaching.  I’ll post it here in chunks.  Be great to talk about it if you want to comment.
The Speaking God
Let’s begin at the beginning.  Our God is the Speaking God.  The eternal life of Father, Son and Spirit has ever been an out-going, communicative life.  Because [...]

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1 Corinthians 9 sermon – part five

Continued from here.
Where do we draw the line though?  Is Paul infinitely flexible? Just a chameleon with no integrity?  No, look at those brackets in v21:
21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to [...]

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1 Corinthians 9 sermon – part four

…Continued from here.
Let me ask you a question: What does an evangelical look like?
‘Evangelical’ is just a label that bible believing Christians like us use for ourselves. It’s taken from the word ‘evangel’ which means ‘gospel’. An evangelical just means a ‘gospel person.’ So what does an evangelical look like?
The scandal is – everyone knows [...]

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1 Corinthians 9 sermon – part two

Continued from here.
What does it mean to give up our rights for the sake of the Gospel?  What does that even mean?  What is the gospel?  Let me summarize it for you:
‘Gospel’ is a word that just means good news.  And here is the good news that the bible tells us: 
[SLIDE - the Gospel]
Jesus Christ [...]

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Gospel outline?

Ok, I’m off for the weekend – but that doesn’t mean you can slink off.  I have work for you all.
I’ve just thought of a gospel outline – probably for a tract.  But I need you to fill in the details for me.
Provisional Title:  “What for?“
Six sections (of course):
For Him – Creation is for Christ, [...]

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Ten thoughts on planning missions

 Like many churches across the country, we’re planning our involvement with the Passion for Life mission initiative taking place in Easter 2010.  Here are ten thoughts on these kinds of missions in no particular order.

‘A mission’ should be part of a church’s ongoing life of mission.  The one-off sports event with gospel talk at half [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 4

…And so idolatry is not the way back to paradise, and neither is worldly success and neither even is biblical religion. All those ways are ridiculous. Here is the way back to paradise – it’s the LORD Jesus Himself.And this is the very deepest irony of the bible – the very deepest irony of the [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 3

As I close let me highlight three ways the bible says we try to get back to paradise, all of which the bible ridicules.
First is we redefine God. It happened as soon as Adam and Eve disbelieved the LORD. The devil said ‘Are you really going to let the LORD be God?’ And we constantly [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 2

Here’s my central contention:
Comedy is serious. And Christianity is comedic.
Now maybe that’s a shocking shift in perception for you – in some ways I hope it is. But that’s my contention: Comedy is serious. And Christianity is comedic. The bible is comedic. The Christian message is comedic:
I mean that in two senses.
In the classical sense [...]

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Comedy and Christianity – draft 1

I’m giving an evangelistic talk on the above subject on Thursday.  I have way too much material and I’m toying with tackling it from a totally different angle – but, well.  Here’s some stuff that I have at the moment and maybe you can help me.  I’ll lay out what I’ve got in installments and [...]

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CS Lewis on Comedy

On Thursday I’m going to speak about Comedy and Christianity (see here and here).
The Screwtape Letters is itself a wonderful argument for the positive Christian use of comedy.  In fact I once heard John Cleese read the book on tape – hilarity itself! 
Lewis’ book consists of the letters of Screwtape, a senior demon, to his [...]

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Al Jazeera on Iraqi converts

Thanksgiving and prayer called for.  Wise as snakes, innocent as doves.
H/T Paul Blackham
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A theology of mission 5 – some talks

We’ve been thinking about a theology of mission grounded in the doctrine of God.
Here are some relevant talks from me on the subject.:
Luke 14 - Mission the way Jesus did it
Mission in 1 Peter
1 Peter 2 – Doing mission together
Here is Paul Blackham on being salt and light
And here is hands down the best talk I’ve [...]

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A theology of mission 4 – Evangelism only?

We have been thinking about mission grounded in God’s own life.  God is the Sending God, His Sent Son and the Reconciling Spirit – this is not simply something He does but who He is.
So it is with the Church.  We have inherited our mission from the Sent One and we too find ourselves not simply [...]

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A theology of mission 3

In the last post, we saw the deepest continuity between God’s mission and ours.
But now we must highlight the discontinuity.
Continuity and Discontinuity
Perhaps the Matthean Great Commission will show both the continuity and discontinuity points:
‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them [...]

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A theology of mission 2 – The Missio Dei

When Karl Barth addressed the Brandenburg Missionary Conference in 1932 he introduced a missiological perspective which has determined the shape of mission theology in every part of the Church. 
“Must not even the most faithful missionary, the most convinced friend of missions, have reason to reflect that the term missio was in the ancient Church [...]

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A theology of mission 1

This began life as an essay I wrote for post-ordination training.
Typically ‘mission’ is understood as an activity that the church undertakes.  On this understanding, the church, alongside its other duties, is also a sender and supporter of gospel workers. 

In this paradigm a church may seek to enlarge their “sending arrow” greatly.  They may tirelessly champion [...]

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Why the West needs winning.

Thinking about the last post…
Why does Matthew Parris see God as the hope for Africa but not for Europe?
Well his diagnosis of Africa’s problems boils down to this: too much crushing passivity and collectivism.  And so…
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the [...]

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We’ll always have Parris

It’s been a busy week.  I’ve only just read this from the the Saturday papers and now realise it’s all over the blogosphere anyway – nonetheless…
Whenever evangelicals lose their nerve, Matthew Parris (columnist for the Times) can be counted on to set us straight – atheist though he is.
There was this famous piece in 2003, [...]

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Some mission talks

Here’s a talk I did in the middle of a pub quiz (audio here).  I posted up the script in advance here.  In the end I modified it a bit.  Essentially the original talk boiled down to ‘Go and live for Christ!’  The changes I made were basically to say ‘See how He lived and [...]

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Barcode Gun or Magnum?

In this post I’ve been thinking about how we tend to pray before evangelistic efforts. 
Often the prayers we say will sound something like:
‘Lord, open hearts in advance of your gospel. Prepare people now so that later we will come across those upon whom your Spirit has worked.’ 
If this is how we think then we’re basically conceiving [...]

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Where is the power?

We’re in the middle of a mission at the moment (prayers always welcome!).  One of the things we’re doing is door-knocking our neighbourhood and we’ve seen people turn to the Lord even on the door-step.  Praise God!
In our morning meetings there seems to be one kind of prayer that recurs more than any others – [...]

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Love is the greatest thing… or is it?

Ok, another little example of engaging with non-Christian world-views.  This is from a wedding sermon I gave a few weeks ago.  The great majority of the congregation were not Christians. The couple asked me to speak from 1 John 4:7-12.  I’ll quote a part of the sermon and then make some comments.  (Just so you know [...]

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Trivial pursuits

Here’s an evangelistic talk I gave last year.  I’m giving a version of it again in a fortnight so any critique would be gratefully received (especially in light of our recent discussions).  It was given at the half-way point of a pub quiz…
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I don’t really think this quiz is fair.  I’m not doing half as [...]

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The truth that is in Jesus

Ok, so we’ve noted the danger of fiting Jesus into a pre-fab system of truth. We don’t want to do that.  But Missy has asked the $64 000 question.  It’s basically this: What do we do when speaking to a non-Christian - isn’t it desirable at least sometimes to bring Christ to them according to their preferred programme?? 
I’m not going [...]

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Four Bishops, Four Pearls

I was reflecting today that in the last fortnight I’ve received four pearls of wisdom from four Anglican bishops.  That’s right, I said Anglican bishops.
The first pearl came from retired Bishop John Taylor who spoke at our ordination retreat.  He told the story of a pastoral visit to a very ill woman in hospital.  It [...]

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Allah is an idol

These are thoughts that I’ve been sharing over at Between Two Worlds on a post called Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammed?
My answer?  Of course not.  Here are some points in no particular order:
1) Let’s let Allah define himself:
“He does not beget nor is he begotten.” (Sura 112)
The Quran defines the god [...]

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Door to Door?

A friend of mine recently posed this statement for discussion
“Five sessions of 5 pairs spending two hours door-knocking is better spent having 5 pairs having neighbours round five times in a season” Discuss.
Some responses:

Good thought!  See especially here where Rory Shiner discusses Gospel intentionality as a good ‘third way’ between cold-contact and friendship evangelism.  He (like [...]

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What age are we in?

Are we in the Post-Christian age? 
Is this age characterized by total cultural memory-loss regarding our Christian heritage?  Is this the age in which people are so far back in their Christian understanding that the mission stategies of previous centuries are virtually useless? 
Are we in the Post-Modern age?
Is this age characterized by the total devaluation of [...]

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What is godliness?

From a sermon on Luke 14 I gave yesterday:
Godliness is radical other-centredness.  Christ-likeness is opening your life out in invitation to the world.

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Calling sinners to Christ

I’ve just written an essay on repentance and evangelism.  It was very hurriedly written, but basically my point is: Unbelievers can’t repent, believers must – all the time. 
One of the implications is that evangelism is calling sinners to come to Christ just as they are.  Two men preaching in the 19th century grasped this very [...]

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What does the ‘priesthood of all believers’ mean?

I’m no expert on the historical use of this phrase but surely there are some unhelpful ways of spinning this evangelical touchstone.  Here’s what I think the phrase must protect:

The church as a whole is the only earthly priesthood the NT recognizes.  (Ex 19:6; 1 Pet 2:9; Rev 5:10) 

Every Christian has equally entered this priesthood. 

None is [...]

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I believed, therefore I spoke.

Our church is in a sermon series encouraging us to put mission at the heart of all we do and say.  It’s got me thinking about one of my favourite verses: ”I believed therefore I have spoken.” (2 Cor 4:13)  I’ve been trying to think, what do I need to believe in order to be the evangelist [...]

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Mission, evangelism and social action – part 5

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
“May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have [...]

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Preaching evangelistically

Check this out.  From Steve Holmes.
‘Our task is not to tell people that they must believe in Jesus, but so to tell them of Jesus that they must believe in Him.’
Spot on!
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Mission, evangelism and social action – part 4

A little detour on Barth…
Last century, Karl Barth was key in re-emphasizing mission as the outflow of the life of God.  At the Brandenburg Missionary Conference in 1932  he said:
“Must not even the most faithful missionary, the most convinced friend of missions, have reason to reflect that the term missio was in the ancient Church [...]

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Mission, evangelism and social action – part 3

God is a Gospel-Alone God.  He is known only in the Gospel.  His very being is a Gospel Being.  There’s no use even conceiving of a God other than the Father revealed in the Son by the Spirit.  If you’re not convinced, read these posts which were digressions to bolster the point:
       The Trinitarian OT
       Oneness [...]

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Mission, evangelism and social action – part 2

I tried to argue in the last post that neither soteriology nor ecclesiology nor eschatology should define our priorities in mission.  Rather, it’s our doctrine of God that must be our first point of call.  It is the God whose being is in the Father’s sending (missio) of the Son who is the proper foundation [...]

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Mission, evangelism and social action – part 1

Here are some thoughts on the inter-relation of mission, evangelism and social action. I have written a longer essay on this on my website here.  Here are some abridged thoughts… In part one I will flag up the doctrine of God issues which ought to be the very foundation of our missiology.  But first, a word of [...]

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