What is evangelism?

Question 11017.

Biblical evangelism is the announcement of good news that has already happened. That is what the word means, and getting the definition right settles most of the anxiety that surrounds the subject.

Say the word in a congregation and watch the shoulders tighten. People picture doorsteps, awkward conversations and the friend they alienated in 1998. Very little of that has much to do with what the New Testament actually describes.

What biblical evangelism actually means

The Greek verb is euangelizo, to announce good news, and the noun euangelion is the good news itself. The vocabulary comes from the herald who arrives in a town with news of a battle already won, not from the salesman who arrives with a product to shift.

That distinction does more work than any technique. The herald is not responsible for the outcome of the battle, nor for making the news attractive. His task is to deliver it accurately and audibly. Biblical evangelism is telling people something true that has already taken place.

So the content is fixed. Paul summarises it: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, He was buried, He was raised on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). A conversation that never reaches the death and resurrection of Jesus has not yet become evangelism, however pleasant it was.

Why it is necessary at all

Underneath the question of biblical evangelism sits a doctrine of human need. People are not spiritually neutral and in want of improvement; they are separated from God by sin and unable to remedy it. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

Paul reasons it out step by step. How are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching (Romans 10:14-15)? The chain runs through people who speak.

This is why I cannot treat evangelism as an optional interest for the keen. If the news is true, withholding it is not modesty. I have set out the message in its shortest form when writing on the gospel in its simplest form.

Who is supposed to do it

Some believers are given as evangelists (Ephesians 4:11), and they are a gift to the whole church. That does not excuse the rest of us, any more than the gift of teaching excuses parents from instructing their children.

Peter writes to ordinary scattered Christians under pressure: always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). The expectation is that people will ask, and that you will be ready.

Notice how much of the biblical evangelism in Acts is done by people whose names we never learn. The church scattered by persecution went about preaching the word, and the great Gentile breakthrough at Antioch came through unnamed men from Cyprus and Cyrene rather than through apostles.

What it is not

It is not manipulation. Paul refused words of flattery or a pretext for greed (1 Thessalonians 2:5), and any method that relies on emotional pressure, social embarrassment or engineered crisis has stepped outside the pattern. A decision produced by pressure is a decision that dissolves under pressure.

It is not winning arguments. Apologetics has a proper place and I value it, but the aim is a person rather than a point, and I have watched Christians demolish an objection while losing the human being who raised it.

And it is not living quietly and hoping someone notices. A good life provokes the question; it does not answer it. Biblical evangelism requires words at some stage, because the news is information about events that a kind manner cannot communicate.

Who does the actual work

Here is the relief. Conversion is not achieved by the persuasiveness of the speaker. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

The Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:8). That is His work, not mine, and no amount of eloquence substitutes for it. I have written more about the Spirit’s role in witness.

This cuts both ways. It removes the pressure to produce results and it removes the credit when results come. Faithfulness is the measure of biblical evangelism, and faithfulness is something anyone can offer.

The manner matters

Gentleness and respect are not optional decorations. Peter attaches them directly to the command, and Paul tells Timothy that the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, correcting opponents with gentleness (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

Listen more than you expect to. People rarely object to what you think they object to, and the stated objection is often a proxy for a wound. A question asked in genuine interest will take you further than three prepared answers.

And be honest about difficulty. Biblical evangelism that promises an easy life is misrepresenting the terms, since Jesus spoke plainly about taking up a cross. People can tell when they are being sold something, and they respect being told the cost.

The fears that stop us

Most Christians who never evangelise are not disobedient so much as frightened, and the fears are worth naming. The commonest is the fear of the question you cannot answer, which is easily solved by three honest words: I don’t know. Nobody expects you to have settled the problem of suffering over a sandwich, and offering to find out is a better answer than a bluffed one.

The second is fear of the relationship. You will lose some standing with some people, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Jesus said the servant is not greater than his master, and if they persecuted Him they will persecute us (John 15:20). What I would say is that the cost is usually smaller than imagined and the regret of silence is usually larger.

The third is a fear of hypocrisy, the sense that your own life is too inconsistent to speak. Every evangelist who has ever lived has had that problem. Biblical evangelism is a beggar telling another beggar where the bread is, and the beggar’s poor table manners do not make the bread less real.

Underneath all three sits the fear of failure, which rests on a misunderstanding. If the outcome were mine to secure, the fear would be reasonable. Since biblical evangelism is a herald’s work and the result belongs to God, the worst that can happen is that you tell the truth kindly and it is refused.

Where it happens

Mostly in ordinary places. Andrew found his own brother, Philip found Nathanael, the Samaritan woman told her town, and the demoniac was sent home to his own people. The New Testament pattern runs along existing relationships far more than it runs through organised campaigns.

So the question for most Christians is not how to meet strangers but how to speak honestly to the people already in their lives. That means being known as a believer early rather than concealing it for two years and then attempting a conversion.

Workplaces deserve a word of caution. Be scrupulous about your employer’s time and your colleagues’ freedom to decline, since an evangelism that exploits a position of authority or badgers a captive audience does the gospel no favours and may well be unlawful. Do the job excellently, be openly Christian, and let people come to you.

Congregational life plays its part too. Paul imagines an unbeliever walking into a gathering and being convicted by what is said there (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). A church that is intelligible to outsiders is doing evangelism simply by being clear.

So, now what?

Name three people. Write them down, pray for them by name each day, and ask God for an opening rather than for courage in the abstract.

Then work out how you would say the gospel in two minutes, in your own words, without jargon. Most Christians have never done this, which is why the moment passes when it comes. I have written practical help on how to share the gospel.

Then start where it is easiest rather than where it is hardest. Biblical evangelism usually begins with a colleague you already like or a neighbour who already trusts you, and the confidence gained there is what carries you into the harder conversations later. Nobody begins with the relative who argues about everything.

And take the pressure off entirely. Your job is the announcement, not the outcome, and God has never yet needed your eloquence to reach anybody. Who is the one person you would speak to this month if you knew you could not fail?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16, ESV