Shut Up and Pray - "The Five Pillars of Evangelism"

Stories of Faith - Book 7 - Shut Up and Pray (and Other Stories of Faith)

Here you will join John and Sofi in their discussions about the Christian Faith. They are fictional characters who are attending the Alpha Course to get their Questions of Life answered.

It is an opportunity to learn more about Relational Evangelism and the kinds of topics and questions (and even answers) you might want to employ when you are involved in a Spiritual Conversation.

We aren't shy talking about sin and the disease we have within and we aren't worried about telling the truth right from the start. After all, they want the perspective of the Bible and what better place to give it to them than from the Book of Romans. This is not your typical collection of short stories and we believe you will be fascinated from beginning to end.

"Introduction - The Five Pillars of Evangelism"

There seems to be a number of essential elements that we need to include in our effective witness to the gospel. Flexibility is fine and variations are not a problem but the idea is to include these five pillars somewhere in your spiritual conversations.

Evidence

Start with some evidence for the existence of God, the truth of the Bible, or the resurrection of Christ from the dead just to get the discussion rolling.

Testimony

Give your testimony of the process you took to become a Christian to verify that they are following the proper path by asking questions and getting answers.

Relationship

Remind them that all the evidence in the world won’t convince them entirely of the truth of Scripture because the real issue is relational. We don’t trust God with out lives. We don’t want Him to be our Master in any way.

Judgement

Let them know about the Judgment to come after death and that the only way to survive it is to replace our fear of God with love but we need to do that while we are alive. You can’t learn to love God when you are overwhelmed with fear in His presence.

Substitution

Tell them that Jesus was our substitute on the cross to deal with the problem of sin and fear but the trade-off is that we get a new relationship with God where He is in charge. We need to accept that willingly and wholeheartedly like a man getting married to the woman of his dreams.

Evidence. Testimony. Relationship. Judgment. Substitution.

You can see all of these elements in the stories in this collection but the most important part of the process of evangelism is prayer and fasting. Evangelism (and Discipleship) is true spiritual warfare and should never be taken lightly.

You and I cannot convince anyone to become a Christian. It is a spiritual work but requires our prayers which demonstrates to God that we are taking it seriously and want it badly.

These are the five pillars of evangelism and should be applied diligently at every opportunity.