Failure to share the gospel at all. Because evangelism is sharing the gospel, the main way to go wrong is to fail to tell the message at all. Sometimes people who are doing social work think that by caring for the poor or helping the oppressed they’re “sharing the gospel without words.” They’re not. They may be doing wonderfully kind and selfless things for others, but evangelism means telling others the message about Christ.

The only “best” way to evangelize is to tell someone the whole gospel message and call him or her to faith in Christ. That may mean building a relationship first, or not. It may mean writing a letter to a family member or sharing the gospel with a friend over coffee. It may mean preaching a sermon in a church or hosting an evangelistic Bible study in your home or anything other way you can think of to share the gospel. 

The message is what matters. The method, as long as it reflects the truth and is spoken in love, is somewhat flexible.

Contact evangelism is often dismissed as pushy and ineffective, particularly in our postmodern era. It’s said that evangelism should always occur in the context of a relationship. What do we say?

The Bible tells us that God the Father, Jesus and Paul call for decisions. So should we. 

Difference 1: Evangelism is telling others the gospel. Apologetics is defending the truth of the Christian faith. Difference 2: Apologetics addresses everything from the existence of God to the reliability of the Old and New Testaments. In contrast, evangelism is telling one specific message: the good news about what Jesus Christ has done in order to save sinners.

The altar call confuses “coming forward” with coming to Christ. In order to be saved, people must repent of their sins and believe in Christ, which has nothing to do with walking down an aisle.

The gospel is not an easy message. It confronts people as sinners facing the judgment of God. It calls them to repent of their sins and submit to Christ as Lord. It’s understandable that our hearers will put up some resistance. So how hard should we push?

While some might want to leave evangelism to the preachers, apologetic experts, or maybe just to the extroverts generally, the New Testament asserts that all Christians should evangelize:  

Personal testimony. Talking about what God has done in your life may encourage Christians and intrigue non-Christians, but it isn’t necessarily evangelism. Evangelism is telling what Jesus Christ has done to save every sinner who will ever turn from his sin and trust in Jesus.

Evangelism is telling others the good news about what Jesus Christ has done to save sinners. In order to do this you must tell others that: