Evangelism Quotes and Illustrations
1. Paul Harvey
said, "Too many Christians are no longer fishers of men
but keepers of the aquarium."
2. Paul Little in his book "How to Give Away Your Faith"
defines witnessing: "Witnessing is that deep-seated
conviction that the greatest favor I can do for others is to
introduce them to Jesus Christ."
3. Elton Trueblood, the Quaker scholar, once compared
evangelism to fire. Evangelism occurs, he said, when
Christians are so ignited by their contact with Christ that
they in turn set other fires. It is easy to determine when
something is aflame. It ignites other material. Any fire
that does not spread will eventually go out. A church
without evangelism is a contradiction in terms, just as fire
that does not burn is a contradiction.
4. Evangelism is not what we tell people, unless what we
tell is totally consistent with who we are. It is who we are
that is going to make the difference. If we do not truly
enjoy our faith, nobody is going to catch the fire of
enjoyment from us. If our lives are not totally centered on
Christ, we will not be Christ-bearers for others, no matter
how pious our words. [Show and Tell, Citation: Madeleine
L'Engle, quoted in Christian Reader (May/June 1998, p. 50)]
5. Recently, I saw a letter written by a relatively new
Christian to the person whose life had influenced hers so
greatly. She actually lists about a dozen qualities she
found contagious in the life of this older Christian. Listen
to some of what she wrote: You know when we met; I began to
discover a new vulnerability, a warmth, and a lack of
pretence that impressed me. I saw in you a thriving spirit -
no signs of internal stagnation anywhere. I could tell you
were a growing person and I liked that. I saw you had strong
self-esteem, not based on the fluff of self-help books, but
on something a whole lot deeper. I saw that you lived by
convictions and priorities and not just by convenience,
selfish pleasure, and financial gain. And I had never met
anyone like that before. I felt a depth of love and concern
as you listened to me and didn't judge me. You tried to
understand me, you sympathized and you celebrated with me,
you demonstrated kindness and generosity - and not just to
me, but to other people, as well. And you stood for
something. You were willing to go against the grain of
society and follow what you believed to be true, no matter
what people said, and no matter how much it cost you. And
for those reasons and a whole host of others, I found myself
really wanting what you had. Now that I've become a
Christian, I wanted to write to tell you I'm grateful beyond
words for how you lived out your Christian life in front of
me.
Basically, she was saying, "Thanks for being a Contagious
Christian." Reading a letter like that motivates me to live
as a contagious Christian too. How about you? I'll bet you
want your life to count for a whole lot more than trinkets
and toys and zeros on a pay check, too. From: Becoming A
Contagious Christian
6. Recently I heard Dieter Zander, the pastor of the first
GenX church in America speak at a conference about reaching
people in the age of relativism. He cited a Barna study that
asked people to use single words to describe Jesus. They
responded, "wise, accepting, compassionate, gracious,
humble." Then he asked them to use single words to
describe Christians, they said, "critical, exclusive,
self righteous, narrow and repressive."
"There is a difference between knowing the good news and
being the good news," Zander said. "We are the
evidence! How we live our lives are the evidence. Everything
counts--all the time."
"With previous generations, a strong preacher could give
a good message, even if the church was hypocritical and
critical and people would still get saved," Zander
continued, "but not any more. I'm seeing a change in what
seekers are looking for. Not something they can relate to.
They are looking for a transcendent God. They don't want to
be entertained they want to be transformed."
7. There is something wrong when people are leaving the
church to find God
8. "It is our privilege to have world evangelism as a
passion, not our responsibility to have as a burden."
Mary Nordstrom
9. Jim Wallis writes in The Call to Conversion
(HarperCollins, 1992, p.
108) his testimony: "When I was a university student, I
was unsuccessfully evangelized by almost every Christian
group on campus. My basic response to their preaching was,
"How can I believe when I look at the way the church lives?"
They answered, "Don't look at the church, look at Jesus." I
now believe that statement is one of the saddest in the
history of the church. ...People should be able to look at
the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is
about."
10. "Our English word witness comes from an Old English
word we do no use very much anymore but we used it in
Elizabethan times and afterwards. It is the word wit. 'To
wit' means 'to know' A 'wit' is 'a knowledgeable person.' So
a 'witness' of some who knows something and testifies to
it."
11. A free flowing river purifies itself and is alive with
life. So also is the Christian who becomes involved with
others in sharing the Gospel. That Christian will discover
the reason for his or her existence. Being involved in the
ministry of a witness is essential to finding the
fulfillment we desire as humans.
12. Richard Baxter, the Puritan preacher of the 17th century
conveys the urgency, the zeal of Christian witness when he
said, "I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a
dying man to dying men!"
13. Jesus issues the same call to all, but to different
tasks. Someone put it rather quaintly: "to some, Christ
calls 'leave boat and bay, and white-haired Zebedee.'" To
some, the call is harder - "stay and mend the nets for me."
14. CT STUDD: "wealthy, nationally famous athlete put it
all aside to disappear into the mission field: China, India,
and then Africa. Lost from sight for 13 yrs without contact.
WHY? 'Some people love to dwell near church with choir and
steeple bell. But I want to run a rescue station a yard from
the gates of hell.'"
15. Alexander Whyte said, " It would change your whole
heart and life this very (day) if you would take Peter and
Cornelius home with you and lay them both to heart. If you
would take a four cornered napkin when you get home, and a..
Pen and ink and write the names of the nations, and the
churches, and the denominations, and the congregations, and
the ministers, and the public figures (men), and the private
citizens, and the neighbors, and the fellow-worshippers -
all the people you dislike, and despise and do not, cannot,
and will not, love. Heap all their names into your unclean
napkin, and then look up and say, 'Not so, Lord, I neither
can speak well, nor think well, of these people. I cannot do
it and I will not try. If your acted out and spake out all
the evil things that are in your heart in some such way as
that, you would thus get such a sight of yourselves that you
would never forget it." [As quoted in (R. Kent Hughes.
Acts: The Church Afire. Wheaton, ILL: Crossway Books, 1996)
pp. 147-148]
16. Dr. Ellin Greene, of the University of Chicago, has
said, "We get so quickly sidetracked from the simple
story nature of our faith. We begin to think that theology
saves us, that truth is somehow embodied in our theology of
the Atonement, or our mastery of eschatological charts. But
when Jesus wanted to communicate the truth of God's kingdom,
he left out the polysyllables and told a story about a woman
who lost a coin or a man who dug for treasure. The kingdom
of heaven is like this . he said. Dare we ask for more
scholarly explanation from the Son of God?"
17. David Brainerd, the famous missionary to the American
Indians, proclaimed this truth throughout his ministry. He
said, "I never got away from Jesus and Him crucified in
my preaching. I found that once these people were gripped by
the great evangelical meaning of Christ's sacrifice on our
behalf, I did not have to give them many instructions about
changing their behavior."
18. Howard Hendricks said, "In the midst of a generation
screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering."
19. "Jesus . . . wants us to see that the neighbor next
door or the people sitting next to us on a plane or in a
classroom are not interruptions to our schedule. They are
there by divine appointment. Jesus wants us to see their
needs, their loneliness, their longings, and he wants to
give us the courage to reach out to them" (REBECCA
MANLEY PIPPERT, Draper's).
20. "When it comes to community ministry, we finally put
our program where our mouth is. Instead of expecting the
community to come to church, we decided to take the church
to the community." Mark Krenz
21. Michael S. Hamilton, Assistant Professor of History at
Seattle Pacific University wrote, "In the 1930's, most
missionary agencies emphasized evangelism, church-planting,
and discipleship. In 1998, however, four of the five largest
overseas ministries specialized in relief, development, and
education work. For many of these agencies, evangelism is a
secondary concern."
Assembled by Paul Fritz
Friend of Answers2Prayer.org
Appearing Sunday, June 8, 2003