J. MacK Stiles

This is one of the better books I've read on evangelism. It's short and biblically accurate.

I appreciated some of the things Stiles pointed out that still trip up so many in the Church: Church services are to revolve around the worship of God and not cater to the desires of unbelievers; there is no evangelism without words; evangelistic efforts aren't measured, biblically, by the number of conversions seen; individuals are responsible for sharing their faith - evangelism should not be relegated to programs for "the church" to carry out; no heart is too hard for the Holy Spirit; salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit alone; we should never assume that the people in our churches are Christians; sharing our faith changes us.

There were a couple things that made this less than a 5-star read for me:

Stiles says at one point, "There is nothing so discouraging as feeling that a church is more interested in manning the nursery than sharing the faith." (p 57)

While the gospel is more important than any particular ministry within or outside of the church, this comment makes it sound like caring for babies and children is unimportant and overlooks the fact that even these young kids can be taught the gospel.

Chapter 5 begins with an anecdote that mentions sex and Stiles' marriage, and this completely took me out of the "flow" of the book. All of the other personal stories in the book were directly related to evangelism, and this one stuck out like a sore thumb.

This was a short book, but I still feel like cutting some of the more tangential bits, maybe 20 pages or so, would have made this a lot better.… (mehr)

Evangelism is more than a program.

Every few years, churches jump into the latest evangelistic fad. Leaders administrate the new program, and members go on a raid. But picture a church where evangelism is simply part of the culture. Leaders share their faith consistently and openly. Members follow, encouraging one another to make evangelism an ongoing way of life.

Such is the way of evangelism presented by this brief and compelling book. No program here. Instead, it just might give your church a new way to live and share the gospel together.… (mehr)