Focus on the Gospel

A friend wrote me saying that he had been asked to give a course on evangelism and wanted any ideas I might have. Here is what I wrote back to him:

Focus on the gospel, not on technique. Too many evangelism courses focus on saying specific sentences and on how to “close the deal.” I think that matters but it’s not the main thing. Most evangelism fails because Christians don’t understand the gospel. The more we marvel at the great gospel of Jesus, the easier it will be for us to share it. I guess I’m saying that it’s not enough to “know the truth,” but the truth must amaze us and humble us and move us to joy and to prayer. When that happens, sharing it with others will come naturally.

So spend the bulk of your time on theology. Teach who God is, who man is, how we got so messed up, what that really looks like, and what God did by sending his Son on our behalf and how his death and resurrection is the key to EVERYTHING! I would teach it like that—in caps—so that the students glory in the gospel. That was the secret of the early church—they gloried in the gospel. When we do the same, we’ll see the kind of results they saw 2000 years ago.

 What do you think? Other suggestions?