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Useful tools for the ongoing task of witness into the world; prayer, listening, and thanksgiving.
It can be annoying when you don’t have the right tool for the job. I remember once deciding to use a knife as a screwdriver when I couldn’t find the real thing, only to have more success opening the flesh on my finger than any screws. The scar on said finger is an unfriendly reminder to go and get the right tool next time.
When it comes to evangelism, there is no shortage of ‘tools’ to help the church become effective in its witness. These tend to be resources that help an individual or the body at large in the task, and my own work developing Advance Groups are one such tool in that mold. Yet, as brilliantly helpful as these things can be, I wouldn't suggest that any particular resource is necessarily essential to evangelism. The usefulness of a resource is always dependant on things like context and culture.
But there are a number of ‘tools’ for evangelism that transcend any resources we might produce. Their efficacy does not hinge on context or culture. These tools are essential to evangelism because they directly affect the faithfulness of our witness and the fruit that comes from it.
The tools I refer to are actually spiritual practices, but like all good spiritual practices, they are profoundly powerful and practical - for our own lives and for those with whom we share. And yet, these things can be easily neglected when it comes to evangelism, perhaps because we view them as spiritual practices more so than as specific tools useful for the ongoing task of witness into the world.
So let’s take a look at three such tools across the three parts of this series - prayer, listening, and thanksgiving - and seek to utilize the best tools for the precious task of evangelism.
from Christianity Today Magazine
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