Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
June 2017 – Google “evangelism methods,” and you may quickly have 512,000 options to browse through at your leisure. Online, one huckster declares, “I will teach you precisely how to lead your unsaved family members and friends to Christ.”
Another guarantees every pastor that his super plan will “get 70% of your church to evangelize and invite after just one Sunday.”
Since New Testament times, evangelism – outreach, witness, sharing Christ, whatever label it wears – has been a central pillar of what is expected of the follower of Christ. Recent decades have seen many methods or plans of evangelism – the Roman Road, the Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion, etc.
While generations have successfully used those plans, new paradigms are still emerging, and each promises phenomenal success. But Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us “there is nothing new under the sun.” When it comes to sharing one’s faith, that Old Testament principle still rings true.
Still, some new models have exciting potential. The Greatest Journey is a new tool from Samaritan’s Purse to reach and disciple Third World children.
The core: seeking the lost
One simple way of looking at evangelism is well articulated by Michael Talley, college pastor at Alliance Bible Fellowship in Boone, North Carolina. In Ibarra, Ecuador, he shared morning devotions before a Samaritan’s Purse team of some 75 people there to distribute Christmas Shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child. Talley said that first, evangelism must be defined.
He taught from Luke 15, where Jesus shared three parables – a shepherd seeking his lost sheep, a poor woman searching diligently for a lost coin, and a father longing for the return of his rebellious son (the “prodigal son”). Seeking the lost – that’s the core of evangelism.
The care: seeing them worthy
Talley challenged the team not to regard the children receiving Shoebox gifts as “projects” or “less than” in any way, but to care about them as souls worthy of being reconciled to God.
He read from 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (NASB):
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
To team members, Talley said, “Never forget. You are Christ’s ambassadors.”
The commission: showing them Christ
Finally, Talley cited Jesus’s command in the Scripture often called the Great Commission – “Go … and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). But he pointed out that the Bible stops short of a one-size-fits-all scheme. No precise prescription is to be found.
To summarize, Talley cited Colossians 4:5-6:
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
Talley said Christ followers are to walk in wisdom, seize every opportunity, and demonstrate the grace and truth of the gospel.
The heart of the Great Commission is quite simple: Show Christ through your life. Just go – on your own way, in your own voice, with your own story of salvation. 
Learn more about Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan’s Purse, and The Greatest Journey at samaritanspurse.org or call 828-262-1908.
