Paul’s Evangelistic Methods, Part 1
"The Conversion of Saint Paul" by Caravaggio (Wikipedia)
For Bible Study up at Mayer Community Church, we’re discussing Mark Dever’s helpful book, What Is A Healthy Church? The chapters for this evening are focused on the gospel and conversion. While re-reading his chapters, and considering ways to encourage evangelism by the members at MCC, I began to review the wide variety of evangelistic approaches used by the apostles. The apostles felt an incredible amount of freedom in sharing the content of their faith. They viewed almost every type of discussion or activity as a means of proclaiming Christ. Their evangelistic approach was deeply personal and highly informed.
At the same time, I began to consider the relatively anemic form of evangelism that I have encountered at many churches. Abut two weeks ago, a pastor gave me a tract and said to me, “This tract is great, because you don’t even have to talk to them about the gospel. A lot of times, if I’m in a hurry, I just give them one of these and leave it at that.” (Emphasis mine.) This is not the apostle’s approach!
In light of that contrast, I thought it would be helpful if I kicked off a semi-regular series on the ways in which Paul and the other apostles shared the gospel. The hope is that looking at these methods (or the lack of method!) might encourage us to share the gospel more freely. Today, I want to focus on Paul’s very simple and very personal approach in Acts 26:1-23.