The Broken Hearted Evangelist – Jeremy Walker
(Reformation Heritage Books, 2012, 150pp)
The Broken Hearted
Evangelist takes the unique tact of viewing evangelism through the lens of
Psalm 50 and how David’s confession of sin and plea for restoration is coupled
with a promise to teach the wicked the ways of God in such a way that they will
come to repentance. In many ways this
very framework is the most helpful thing about this volume. While it is common place in the evangelical
world to acknowledge that recent converts are often the most zealous
evangelists, the author’s linking zeal for evangelism to the experience of
repentance and forgiveness is very helpful and presses home the need to
constantly preach the gospel to not only to the unsaved, but also to one
another to spur on the Body of Christ to evangelism by reminding them of the
great forgiveness they have received.
After beginning the work with a chapter on the obligation
to evangelize, which travels well worn paths, the author moves on to a
discussion of the equipment necessary for evangelism, making the excellent
observation that the primary tool needed by evangelists is the joy of their own
salvation? This is very insightful, and
I think an under appreciated truth, as we seek to grow our church, by growing
the Church Universal, it will be important to emphasize not only the forgiveness
found in the cross, but the joy of salvation as we seek to disciple our people
and encourage them in evangelism.
The author’s next section “am I committed” takes its cue
from the Psalmist’s pledge to teach unbelievers the way of the Lord. This chapter included a helpful reminder that
evangelism is not a fire and forget strafing of unbelievers with calls to
repent or with Gospel tracts, but rather it is teaching the about God. The author also provided a helpful section on
treating each unbeliever as an individual, a needed correction in this era of
evangelism systems and methods. There
is no one size fits all approach to evangelism and that is a truth that must be
impressed modern evangelical church, and the over reliance on programs to do
the work of the ministry has been, in my view, disastrous. Likewise the reminder that in order to reach
unbelievers, we must rub shoulders with unbelievers is a welcome reminder for
those of us in ministry. The tendency to
withdraw into a Christian bubble is the greatest obstacle to evangelism for man
and must be avoided as the author points out.
The penultimate chapter “am I focused?” was in large part
a response (it seemed) to the seeker sensitive movement and its approach to
evangelism, and was helpful and accurate but was not anything new. The reminder that the goal of evangelism is
conversions was helpful, but I am not convinced is entirely accurate. The ultimate goal of evangelism is the glory
of God through the obedience of His people, the addition of worshippers to the
body of Christ through the preaching of the gospel and to magnify the holy
Justice of God when those who have heard the gospel and rejected it are judged
according to their deeds and their knowledge of the truth. To limit the goal of evangelism to conversion
of unbelievers, may be a discouraging message to believers who faithfully share
the Gospel, but do not see the fruit of conversions. This needed perspective was also missing from
the final chapter “Am I fruitful”?
On balance the book was a profitable read, but while much
of the content was good, it was buried under needless verbosity and suffered
from a lack of clarity of thought. Often
devices that would have admirably served as illustrations of a paragraph or
two, were dragged out for dozens of pages, and at times seemed to guide the
author’s writing rather than serving it it.
My overall impression of the writing was that the author was either
struggling to reach a contractually specified page count, or was trying to ape
the style of the puritans. Whatever the
cause, the work would have benefited from a firmer editorial hand, and more
concise thought. While it was a
profitable read, there are many other books on the subject I would recommend
before The Broken Hearted Evangelist.
The Gospel and Personal Evangelism - Mark Dever
(Crossway, 2007, 128pp)
The
Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever was one of the most impactful
and valuable works I have ever read on personal evangelism. It was at the same time intensely practical,
but entirely devoid of pragmatism, in fact in many ways it is a powerful
polemic against the pragmatism that typifies the American evangelical world and
the church growth movement.
Dever opens the discussion with a
pithy section on “why we don’t evangelize”, and while he lays out a number of
specific reasons, he boils them all down to one underlying theme,
selfishness. He prescribes a few
remedies to “stop not evangelizing”, the most important being love. One thing that I have learned is that the key
to evangelizing people is to love them, but like all sinful Christians at times
I struggle to love the unbelievers who are hard to love. This chapter is an excellent corrective.
Having admonished the reader to
share the gospel, he helpfully provides a chapter on what the Gospel is, and he clearly states that it is the biblical truth about God, man, and the
relationship of sinful man to a holy God and that the only hope is the atoning
sacrifice of Christ. His emphasis on a
full presentation of the biblical Gospel was very helpful. Particularly useful was his description of
the resurrection as evidence of God’s acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice. This is a point too often left out of gospel
presentations and entirely absent from many works on evangelism. The resurrection is key to any gospel
presentation and Dever gives it the attention it demands.
Dever then provides two helpful
chapters “how we should evangelize” and “what isn’t evangelism.” Particularly helpful and convicting to me
was his call to evangelize with a healthy balance of honesty, urgency and
joy. I can be so mindful that I deserve
hell, that my personal evangelistic focus tends to be on honesty and urgency at
the expense of joy. I also deeply
appreciated the chapter on what isn’t evangelism. It is one of the most succinct and helpful
primers on the subject I have read. Particularly
helpful was his brief discussion of the role of personal testimony. I was certainly taught that one method to
evangelize is to “share what God has done for me”, and while I would affirm the
telling of personal testimonies, Dever provides a helpful reminder that
testimonies that do not include a clear articulation of the Gospel are not
evangelism. His section on the
difference between evangelism and results was also needed and encouraging. While this is a truth I know and embrace, he
expresses it in a succinct and memorable
manner and provides a map for teaching this truth to others as we seek to
disciple one another in the area of evangelism.
His discussion of what to do after
evangelizing was excellent, especially his discussion of responses to the
gospel, both negative and positive. It
was very helpful, and provided a needed reminder that there are nuanced responses
to the Gospel, and that we need to differentiate between the kinds of negative responses,
and react accordingly. Sometimes it is
wholly appropriate to shake the dust off of our feet, and other times not and
Dever gives needed guidance here.
His chapter on why we evangelize was
the most convicting portion of the book for me,
specifically the call to evangelize out of the love for God. The fact that evangelism is the means of
bringing more worshipers to God and more glory to God as he shows mercy to
more unworthy sinners seldom enters my thinking, and this is a serious
fault. My evangelism is too man
centered. I will meditate on this and
pray and my prayer is that I am renewed in my thinking, and that my love for
God motivates me to more personal evangelism, and a more active pursuit of
opportunities for evangelism.
I was also deeply impacted by
Dever’s constant call to pray about the nuts and bolts of personal
evangelism. I pray for opportunities,
and I pray for salvation, but I don’t pray for a lack of fear, or for new
relationships with unbelievers or any of the other details I should be praying
about.
Perhaps the biggest impact this book
will have on my future ministry, is as a resource. I have been looking for a short, God focused,
resource to help equip and motivate people to evangelism, without locking them
into a system or a technique, and I have found it in The Gospel & Personal Evangelism. This is simply the finest work on personal
evangelism I have read in many years.
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