I believe that the current model of evangelism has become a joke. When I was taught "how to" evangelize, I was given a "Que dice la biblia?" and told to begin one-on-one Bible studies. When I did it, it worked. The first three people I studied with became believers in Jesus. Now, this may have also been due to the fact that the three people were teenage boys, and the other two people who were in the room were American, teenage girls... but, I digress. Since that time, this pattern has not worked. I just don't see students jumping at the chance to study a fill-in-the-blank worksheet that tells them "all they need to know" about Jesus in 6 short lessons. For that matter, I find it rather arrogant to assume that 6 short lessons will teach you everything you need to know about Jesus.
The book of Acts has amazing stories of 3000 people turning to Christ after one sermon. But, the celebration in which the sermon takes place is the Jewish festival of Pentecost. This means that everyone there had some sort of apriori knowledge of the message being spoken by Peter. They had the history, the scriptures, and the background necessary to understand the radical message being proclaimed to them. Past this story, the message is brought to groups, families, and individuals, but there is not another mass-conversion like that in Acts. A man catches up to a chariot on foot, he disappears and reappears in Samaria, Peter has a vision, Paul is blinded on the road, and the jailor is shocked by the prisoners morality and ethic.
So, I have three questions that I wish for someone to answer:
1) What is the Gospel/Good News of Jesus Christ? - please don't give me a one sentence answer...
2) What about your life would draw people in to know Christ?
3) How are you living differently than the culture around you?
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