Approaches to evangelism
Encyclopedia
Throughout history, Christian
s have used many different approaches to spread Christianity
via the practice of evangelism
. Christianity began with only a few different evangelical approaches, but over the years, many different forms of evangelism have been employed by various groups to spread the faith. Many of these forms of evangelism are often employed in only certain parts of the world by Christians in different geographical areas. In particular, most new approaches to evangelism today have arisen out of Europe
or the United States
, especially when new technologies are used for the effort of evangelism.
Open-air preaching is an approach to evangelism characterized by speaking in public places out in the open, generally to crowds of people at a time, using a message, sermon, or speech which spreads the gospel. Supporters of this approach note that both Jesus
and many of the Old Testament
prophets often preached about God
in public places. It is one of the oldest approaches to evangelism.
One of the earliest open-air preachers of Christianity, according to the gospels, was Jesus Christ, whose first specifically recorded sermon was the Sermon on the Mount
, which took place on a mountainside in the open air. In the Gospel of Luke
6:17-49, it was recorded that Jesus also gave an open-air sermon known as the Sermon on the Plain
.
After Jesus's death, many of his apostles and followers open-air preached the gospel in the Temple of Jerusalem
or in other open spaces.
During the Middle Ages
and the Protestant Reformation
, open-air preaching was often employed by Protestants throughout Europe
who could not always preach inside churches, which were mostly Catholic
. Open-air preaching in Europe
continued during the rise of Puritan
ism and other Protestant movements, It was often used in Pastoral
environments as well as in cities, the former sometimes due to a desire to avoid the authorities, and the latter because, for one reason, it could reach eccentric people living in cities who would not otherwise hear the gospel.
In the time period of the late 19th century and early-to-mid-20th century many famous open-air preachers in the United States began to preach, such as Billy Sunday
and Billy Graham
. Graham in particular used a combination of open-air preaching and the recent advent of televangelism
to broadcast his sermons, which often took place in large venues such as stadiums, to large portions of the world and millions of Americans.
John Wesley
, founder of Methodism
declared, "I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners by preaching three days on my father's tomb than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit." ... "To this day field preaching is a cross to me, but I know my commission and see no other way of preaching the gospel to every creature".
Wesley's contemporary, Anglican preacher George Whitefield
stated: "I believe I never was more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields." ... "I now preach to ten times more people than I should, if had been confined to the churches." Including the “field” outside Park Street.
It was said that one of the regular practices of America evangelist Dwight L. Moody
in the late 1860s "was to exhort the passersby in the evenings from the steps of the court house. Often these impromptu gathering drew as many hecklers as supporters."
Open-air preachers throughout history have often noted that preaching to large crowds often causes preachers to be abused in certain ways, typically by having objects thrown at them such as rotting vegetables or unsanitary liquids of many varieties.
Charles Spurgeon
, the famous open-air Baptist preacher of England, believed that open-air preaching was instrumental in getting people to hear the gospel who might otherwise never hear it, and many open-air preachers today believe that it reaches many more people at once than other approaches to evangelism do. Charles Spurgeon recommends several things for open-air preachers, such as never trying to speak into the wind, trying to speak away from the wind so one's voice will carry farther, (sometimes up to half a mile by Spurgeon's account) keeping sermons concise instead of overly verbose and complicated, use illustrations and anecdotes to keep the crowd interested, and to not speak at the very top of your voice so you don't wear yourself out too quickly. Spurgeon also recommended to never use tents when preaching due to their muffling effects, and to be careful of what is on the other side of walls you may be preaching in front of, since people behind the wall or living in spaces in buildings could harass preachers.
.
Trickle-down evangelism was practiced throughout China multiple times during the Middle Ages, with examples such as converted or sympathetic officials helping the Jesuits or other parts of the Catholic
church spread, or the expedition of Marco Polo
resulting in the Mongol ruler of China Kublai Khan
inviting the Pope
to send "teachers of science and religion" to China.
Trickle-down evangelism was also applied often in European areas during ancient times, such as in the northern Sweden
area, as the Catholic Church tried to send missionaries into the area.
through the years of 1912 to 1917. The international organization Every Home for Christ began door to door preaching in 1953 throughout many countries, and as of 2010, total home visits by their members became 1.3 billion. Many local parishes and churches worldwide use this approach to evangelism.
Groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses
and Mormons
are famous in particular for spreading their beliefs by door to door evangelism at people's homes, often in pairs or small groups. Both group's main organizations use Door to Door preaching to a great extent. Full-time missionaries
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints use this, and other techniques, to find people to teach.
message preached in a sermon. Often, this will include an altar call
where people are invited to come forward and "accept Christ". The use of altar calls is somewhat controversial, while it is practiced by many evangelical
churches, some Calvinists object to it in the grounds it creates false conversions.
Supporters of this approach to evangelism often cite Matthew 5:16 as a proof verse. Supporters also often point out that Jesus drew people to God by showing them kindness and performing good deeds, while detractors sometimes note that people may not realize one's good behavior is due to Christianity. Supporters claim this is more effective than direct evangelism because of the perception that it is harder to live 'righteously' than to preach a sermon.
related to those who took an interest in him as friends, or that it is more effective than other methods of evangelism which are seen as less personal.
This approach is also known as "loving someone into the kingdom."
, visual art, drama
, film
) are used to present a gospel
message. Examples include Wendy Alec's novel 'The Fall of Lucifer', Christian rock band Delirious?
and Sebastian Bach
's musical composition "Matthäuspassion
" (Saint Matthew Passion). However, some ministries refer to this kind of evangelism as simply the practice of finding creative ways to evangelize.
One of the most famous examples of creative evangelism is George Handel's oratio, "Messiah
", written in 1741. It is the most performed major choral work in history, has been tied to the revival of the Church of England
and to influencing famous evangelist John Wesley
's theology concerning Eternal security, and in modern times, has around four million viewers per year.
Campus Crusade for Christ
, an evangelical Christian association with branches in a multitude of countries, owns the distribution rights for a movie called "Jesus Film", a presentation of the life of Jesus Christ. This movie, which has been translated into 80 languages, has been viewed by about 850 million people.
The Presbyterian Church (USA)
Diocese of Hyderbad in Pakistan
uses this approach to evangelism among tribal groups in areas of Pakistan which have a high population of Sindhis.
message. It is typically a short presentation of the Gospel lasting only a few pages, and is typically printed on small pieces of paper. Estimated numbers of tracts distributed in the year 2000 amount to around 5 billion. It is often used in conjunction with street preaching or door to door preaching. As an approach to evangelism, many modern evangelists attest to the usefulness of gospel tracts to spread the gospel.
is an approach to evangelism characterized by an evangelistic message presented through the medium of television
, often through a charismatic sermon. Large Christian television networks such as the Catholic broadcasting channel EWTN or the Protestant televangelism channel Trinity Broadcasting Network
feature many televangelist preachers.
Televangelism was started in the United States and Canada in the mid-20th century, as a primarily evangelical Protestant approach to evangelism. It made Christian viewpoints much more visible in the world at the time than they were before.
Maria Miranda, the most listened to radio evangelist from Latin America
in 1990, was heard by over 100 million people per day through 537 radio stations in 22 countries during that time. in Yemen
, a country in which 97 percent of the country is listed as Muslim, 10 percent of the population listens to Christian radio. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
has had a radio station on KFUO
called "The Lutheran Hour
" since 1925, had 5 million listeners by 1931,
and broadcast in over 31 languages with 40 million listeners in 1987. The first missionary specific radio station, HCJB
, went on the air in Ecuador
on December 25, in 1931.
where the gospel
is presented on the internet
. This may include a website
defending the accuracy of the Bible
, someone discussing their faith in a chat room
, evangelical messages or advertisements on the home pages of Christian organizations, or other methods of using the internet to spread Christianity.
In the United States, the Internet Evangelism Coalition, set up by the Billy Graham Center
in 1999, initiated Internet Evangelism Day on the last Sunday of April every year.
, Ray Comfort
, and Todd Friel, who practice this form of evangelism on their radio show, refer to it as 'phone fishing'.
The huge growth in cell phones and other mobile devices is opening up the way for new and creative
methods of mobile evangelism.
However, some critics of this approach note that other religions appear to use a similar method to spread their faith.
by the Holy Spirit
about people God wants them to go to. There is a close correlation to personal evangelism. This type of evangelism may be referred to as a game of searching God's treasures which are people. The revelation that the group of people may get is often in the context of places, clothing, hairstyle or situations.
After receiving the revelations they go out and be on the lookout for the people they got the revelation on. In some occasions they are able to speak God's love and the Gospel into somebody's life. In other occasions they pray for them for healing or anything else.
The main focus in this type of evangelism is to let people know that they are valuable for God and that God send them on a search for His treasure. Through this message the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached.
The seventh face illustrates five practices for the new believer to follow: love for God and others, prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship and sharing the gospel of Christ with others.
The idea of EvangeCube was born in 1998 after creators Nathan Sheets and Jim Wyatt returned from a short-term mission trip to Haiti and encountered a marketing promotion using a cube in their mail. The cube's illustrations were completed with the help of two artist: a comic-book illustrator and stained-glass designer.
The cube has been readily received by the Christians around the world with more than 3 million distributed since January 2000.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s have used many different approaches to spread Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
via the practice of evangelism
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
. Christianity began with only a few different evangelical approaches, but over the years, many different forms of evangelism have been employed by various groups to spread the faith. Many of these forms of evangelism are often employed in only certain parts of the world by Christians in different geographical areas. In particular, most new approaches to evangelism today have arisen out of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
or the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, especially when new technologies are used for the effort of evangelism.
Open-air preaching
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and many of the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
prophets often preached about God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
in public places. It is one of the oldest approaches to evangelism.
One of the earliest open-air preachers of Christianity, according to the gospels, was Jesus Christ, whose first specifically recorded sermon was the Sermon on the Mount
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew...
, which took place on a mountainside in the open air. In the Gospel of Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
6:17-49, it was recorded that Jesus also gave an open-air sermon known as the Sermon on the Plain
Sermon on the Plain
In Christianity, the Sermon on the Plain refers to a set of teachings by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, in 6:17-49.This sermon may be compared to the longer Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew....
.
After Jesus's death, many of his apostles and followers open-air preached the gospel in the Temple of Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
or in other open spaces.
During the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, open-air preaching was often employed by Protestants throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
who could not always preach inside churches, which were mostly Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
. Open-air preaching in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
continued during the rise of Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
ism and other Protestant movements, It was often used in Pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
environments as well as in cities, the former sometimes due to a desire to avoid the authorities, and the latter because, for one reason, it could reach eccentric people living in cities who would not otherwise hear the gospel.
In the time period of the late 19th century and early-to-mid-20th century many famous open-air preachers in the United States began to preach, such as Billy Sunday
Billy Sunday
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday was an American athlete who, after being a popular outfielder in baseball's National League during the 1880s, became the most celebrated and influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some...
and Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
. Graham in particular used a combination of open-air preaching and the recent advent of televangelism
Televangelism
Televangelism is the use of television to communicate the Christian faith. The word is a portmanteau of television and evangelism and was coined by Time magazine. A “televangelist” is a Christian minister who devotes a large portion of his ministry to television broadcasting...
to broadcast his sermons, which often took place in large venues such as stadiums, to large portions of the world and millions of Americans.
John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
, founder of Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
declared, "I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners by preaching three days on my father's tomb than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit." ... "To this day field preaching is a cross to me, but I know my commission and see no other way of preaching the gospel to every creature".
Wesley's contemporary, Anglican preacher George Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
stated: "I believe I never was more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields." ... "I now preach to ten times more people than I should, if had been confined to the churches." Including the “field” outside Park Street.
It was said that one of the regular practices of America evangelist Dwight L. Moody
Dwight L. Moody
Dwight Lyman Moody , also known as D.L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts , the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.-Early life:Dwight Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts to a large...
in the late 1860s "was to exhort the passersby in the evenings from the steps of the court house. Often these impromptu gathering drew as many hecklers as supporters."
Open-air preachers throughout history have often noted that preaching to large crowds often causes preachers to be abused in certain ways, typically by having objects thrown at them such as rotting vegetables or unsanitary liquids of many varieties.
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...
, the famous open-air Baptist preacher of England, believed that open-air preaching was instrumental in getting people to hear the gospel who might otherwise never hear it, and many open-air preachers today believe that it reaches many more people at once than other approaches to evangelism do. Charles Spurgeon recommends several things for open-air preachers, such as never trying to speak into the wind, trying to speak away from the wind so one's voice will carry farther, (sometimes up to half a mile by Spurgeon's account) keeping sermons concise instead of overly verbose and complicated, use illustrations and anecdotes to keep the crowd interested, and to not speak at the very top of your voice so you don't wear yourself out too quickly. Spurgeon also recommended to never use tents when preaching due to their muffling effects, and to be careful of what is on the other side of walls you may be preaching in front of, since people behind the wall or living in spaces in buildings could harass preachers.
Trickle-down evangelism
Trickle-down evangelism is an approach to evangelism primarily concerned with converting high ranking members of a society, so that their influence can serve to help spread Christianity throughout the society in question. It was practiced especially often during the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
.
Trickle-down evangelism was practiced throughout China multiple times during the Middle Ages, with examples such as converted or sympathetic officials helping the Jesuits or other parts of the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
church spread, or the expedition of Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
resulting in the Mongol ruler of China Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...
inviting the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
to send "teachers of science and religion" to China.
Trickle-down evangelism was also applied often in European areas during ancient times, such as in the northern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
area, as the Catholic Church tried to send missionaries into the area.
Door to door preaching
Door to door preaching is an approach to evangelism where a Christian will go from household to household in a certain area to evangelize to residents, often in conjunction with passing out gospel tracts. Jesus often went into other people's homes during his own ministry, and according to The Encyclopedia of Protestantism, it is a very important approach to evangelism. One of the first modern large scale uses of door to door preaching was when the Oriental Mission Society attempted to visit the homes of an entire nation, by visiting 10.3 million homes in JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
through the years of 1912 to 1917. The international organization Every Home for Christ began door to door preaching in 1953 throughout many countries, and as of 2010, total home visits by their members became 1.3 billion. Many local parishes and churches worldwide use this approach to evangelism.
Groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
and Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
are famous in particular for spreading their beliefs by door to door evangelism at people's homes, often in pairs or small groups. Both group's main organizations use Door to Door preaching to a great extent. Full-time missionaries
Missionary (LDS Church)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints use this, and other techniques, to find people to teach.
Evangelizing through a sermon
Many churches regularly have a gospelGospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
message preached in a sermon. Often, this will include an altar call
Altar call
An altar call is a practice in some evangelical churches in which those who wish to make a new spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ are invited to come forward publicly. It is so named because the supplicants gather at the altar located at the front of the church building. In the Old Testament, an...
where people are invited to come forward and "accept Christ". The use of altar calls is somewhat controversial, while it is practiced by many evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
churches, some Calvinists object to it in the grounds it creates false conversions.
Lifestyle evangelism
Lifestyle evangelism is an approach to evangelism characterized by someone demonstrating their faith by their actions in the hope that people around them will be impressed with how God affects that person's life, and become a Christian. According to The Encyclopedia of Protestantism printed in 2004, approximately 100 million people use this approach to evangelism.Supporters of this approach to evangelism often cite Matthew 5:16 as a proof verse. Supporters also often point out that Jesus drew people to God by showing them kindness and performing good deeds, while detractors sometimes note that people may not realize one's good behavior is due to Christianity. Supporters claim this is more effective than direct evangelism because of the perception that it is harder to live 'righteously' than to preach a sermon.
Friendship evangelism
Similar to lifestyle evangelism, friendship evangelism is an approach to evangelism characterized by Christians developing relationships with people in order to show them kindness and talk to them about God eventually. Supporters sometimes say that JesusJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
related to those who took an interest in him as friends, or that it is more effective than other methods of evangelism which are seen as less personal.
This approach is also known as "loving someone into the kingdom."
Creative evangelism
This approach to evangelism is where the creative arts (such as musicMusic
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, visual art, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
) are used to present a gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
message. Examples include Wendy Alec's novel 'The Fall of Lucifer', Christian rock band Delirious?
Delirious?
Delirious? were an English Christian rock and worship band. For the majority of their career, the lineup featured Martin Smith on vocals and guitar, Stu G on guitar and backing vocals, Jon Thatcher on bass guitar, Tim Jupp on keys and piano, and Stew Smith on drums and percussion...
and Sebastian Bach
Sebastian Bach
Sebastian Bach is a Canadian heavy metal singer who achieved mainstream success as frontman of Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. Since his departure from Skid Row, he has had many television roles, acted within Broadway plays, and leads a successful solo career.-Early life:Bach was born Sebastian...
's musical composition "Matthäuspassion
Matthäuspassion
The St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, , is a musical composition from the Passions written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander . It sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew to music, with interspersed chorales and arias...
" (Saint Matthew Passion). However, some ministries refer to this kind of evangelism as simply the practice of finding creative ways to evangelize.
One of the most famous examples of creative evangelism is George Handel's oratio, "Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
", written in 1741. It is the most performed major choral work in history, has been tied to the revival of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and to influencing famous evangelist John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
's theology concerning Eternal security, and in modern times, has around four million viewers per year.
Campus Crusade for Christ
Campus Crusade for Christ
Campus Crusade for Christ is an interdenominational Christian organization that promotes evangelism and discipleship in more than 190 countries...
, an evangelical Christian association with branches in a multitude of countries, owns the distribution rights for a movie called "Jesus Film", a presentation of the life of Jesus Christ. This movie, which has been translated into 80 languages, has been viewed by about 850 million people.
The Presbyterian Church (USA)
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Presbyterian Church , or PC, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. Part of the Reformed tradition, it is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S...
Diocese of Hyderbad in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
uses this approach to evangelism among tribal groups in areas of Pakistan which have a high population of Sindhis.
Using Gospel tracts
A gospel tract in the Christian sense is a leaflet with a gospelGospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
message. It is typically a short presentation of the Gospel lasting only a few pages, and is typically printed on small pieces of paper. Estimated numbers of tracts distributed in the year 2000 amount to around 5 billion. It is often used in conjunction with street preaching or door to door preaching. As an approach to evangelism, many modern evangelists attest to the usefulness of gospel tracts to spread the gospel.
Televangelism
TelevangelismTelevangelism
Televangelism is the use of television to communicate the Christian faith. The word is a portmanteau of television and evangelism and was coined by Time magazine. A “televangelist” is a Christian minister who devotes a large portion of his ministry to television broadcasting...
is an approach to evangelism characterized by an evangelistic message presented through the medium of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, often through a charismatic sermon. Large Christian television networks such as the Catholic broadcasting channel EWTN or the Protestant televangelism channel Trinity Broadcasting Network
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
feature many televangelist preachers.
Televangelism was started in the United States and Canada in the mid-20th century, as a primarily evangelical Protestant approach to evangelism. It made Christian viewpoints much more visible in the world at the time than they were before.
Radio evangelism
Radio evangelism is an approach to evangelism which began around 1921, and has reached more people per hour than any other kind of evangelism, according to The Encyclopedia of Protestantism. It is the usage of radio broadcasts to evangelize to listeners, sometimes worldwide in one broadcast.Maria Miranda, the most listened to radio evangelist from Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
in 1990, was heard by over 100 million people per day through 537 radio stations in 22 countries during that time. in Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, a country in which 97 percent of the country is listed as Muslim, 10 percent of the population listens to Christian radio. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 2.3 million members, it is both the eighth largest Protestant denomination and the second-largest Lutheran body in the U.S. after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Synod...
has had a radio station on KFUO
KFUO (AM)
KFUO is the longest continually operating AM radio station in the United States. Owned and operated by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod , KFUO-AM boasts an array of audio resources from worship services to inspirational music to in-depth study of God's Word through programs including "The Bible...
called "The Lutheran Hour
The Lutheran Hour
The Lutheran Hour is a U.S. religious radio program that proclaims the message of Jesus Christ on nearly 800 stations throughout North American, as well as by weekly audiences on the American Forces Network and XM Satellite Radio FamilyTalk 170...
" since 1925, had 5 million listeners by 1931,
and broadcast in over 31 languages with 40 million listeners in 1987. The first missionary specific radio station, HCJB
HCJB
HCJB, "The Voice of the Andes", was the first radio station with daily programming in the South American country of Ecuador and the first Christian missionary radio station in the world. The station was founded in 1931 by Clarence W. Jones, Reuben Larson, and D. Stuart Clark.- History :Radio...
, went on the air in Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
on December 25, in 1931.
Internet evangelism
Internet evangelism is a form of evangelismEvangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
where the gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
is presented on the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. This may include a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
defending the accuracy of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, someone discussing their faith in a chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
, evangelical messages or advertisements on the home pages of Christian organizations, or other methods of using the internet to spread Christianity.
In the United States, the Internet Evangelism Coalition, set up by the Billy Graham Center
Billy Graham Center
The Billy Graham Center was founded and opened in 1981 on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Named after Billy Graham, the center is the primary location for many of Wheaton College's bible and theology classes, as well as the graduate school's main headquarters, and host to...
in 1999, initiated Internet Evangelism Day on the last Sunday of April every year.
Phone evangelism, aka "phone fishing"
This approach to evangelism involves using phones to contact people in order to spread the gospel to them. This sometimes takes the form of random phone calls, or is done after someone contacts the evangelist to recommend people to whom a person may want the evangelist to evangelize. Way of the Master radio hosts Kirk CameronKirk Cameron
Kirk Thomas Cameron is an American actor best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains , as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor...
, Ray Comfort
Ray Comfort
Ray Comfort is a New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist. Comfort started Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master in Bellflower, California and has written a number of books.-Early life and career:...
, and Todd Friel, who practice this form of evangelism on their radio show, refer to it as 'phone fishing'.
The huge growth in cell phones and other mobile devices is opening up the way for new and creative
methods of mobile evangelism.
Personal evangelism
Sometimes referred to as "one to one" or "personal work", this approach to evangelism is when one Christian evangelizes to, typically, one non-Christian, or only a few non-Christians, in a private manner. A 1982 Gallup Poll revealed that 51 percent of all Americans had tried to convince someone to become a Christian during their life.Creation evangelism
Not to be confused with creative evangelism, creation evangelism is the use of creationist philosophical and theological arguments to prove the literal interpretation of Genesis and thus the reliability of the Bible and the truth of the Christian gospel to people so that they may become convinced that Christianity is true. This approach to evangelism is often used by missions organizations in parts of the world that have tribal cultures who have not been exposed to Christianity before, since their relatively unsophisticated world view renders them susceptible to this form of argument.Prophetic evangelism
A method employed mainly by charismatic Christians. This is where (as its practitioners believe) God speaks through a Christian to a non-believer to say something that will prompt that person to seek God. On most occasions it is something that the speaker could not have known naturally; for example, someone who is having a secret affair may be told that God knows they are doing wrong and wants them to change their ways.However, some critics of this approach note that other religions appear to use a similar method to spread their faith.
Treasure hunts
So called treasure hunts are a type of prophetic evangelism. In a small groups Christians take time to pray and listen to revelationRevelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
by the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
about people God wants them to go to. There is a close correlation to personal evangelism. This type of evangelism may be referred to as a game of searching God's treasures which are people. The revelation that the group of people may get is often in the context of places, clothing, hairstyle or situations.
After receiving the revelations they go out and be on the lookout for the people they got the revelation on. In some occasions they are able to speak God's love and the Gospel into somebody's life. In other occasions they pray for them for healing or anything else.
The main focus in this type of evangelism is to let people know that they are valuable for God and that God send them on a search for His treasure. Through this message the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached.
Using the EvangeCube
The EvangeCube is a puzzle like pictorial teaching aid of eight interlocking blocks used tell the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ:- Mankind's separation from God
- The death of Jesus on the cross for mankind's sin
- Jesus body sealed in a guarded tomb
- Jesus' resurrection
- The way to God open through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross
- The choice to receive God's gift of forgiveness and eternal life
The seventh face illustrates five practices for the new believer to follow: love for God and others, prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship and sharing the gospel of Christ with others.
The idea of EvangeCube was born in 1998 after creators Nathan Sheets and Jim Wyatt returned from a short-term mission trip to Haiti and encountered a marketing promotion using a cube in their mail. The cube's illustrations were completed with the help of two artist: a comic-book illustrator and stained-glass designer.
The cube has been readily received by the Christians around the world with more than 3 million distributed since January 2000.
External links
- The Reformed Evangelist A website which discusses Calvinistic approaches to evangelism.
- History of Evangelism and Mass Media