I have a lot of books on evangelism, a lot! Why you may ask, because I can. The book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism falls into the easy to read easy to understand category. Some books tend to take it too far, so the layman can’t really understand what they are talking about. Mark Dever, has kept it simple without taking any shortcuts. Just the facts, that seems to be what his idea was when writing this book and if it was he succeeded.
Mr Dever covers all the bases with this book from who should evangelize(everyone) to why. What stuck with me the most you ask? Alright you didn’t ask but I will tell you anyway. My favorite quote from this book would be
“We don’t fail in our evangelism if we faithfully tell the gospel to someone who is not converted; we fail only if we don’t faithfully tell the gospel at all.”
He also has a chapter called “Why don’t we evangelize” Which effectively destroys most of the reasons we tend to have to not share the gospel. Jesus made it simple for us too, in Matthew 28:18-20 He gave us the Great Commission. When you think about it it really isn’t that much to ask. He could have told us we had to jump through flaming hoops while dowsed in gasoline or cover ourselves in honey and lie on a fire ant hill, but He didn’t. He asked us to go and make disciples of all nations. And as usual I have gotten sidetracked. This is about Mark Dever‘s book and not my personal opinions on what we should all be doing.
Getting back on track. The Gospel and Personal Evangelism is a good read and very concise, he doesn’t go off track like I tend to do. This would be a useful read for all Christians and their pastors too.
I am giving this book five stars. If I could afford to I would get a copy for everyone in my church. I may approach the pastor with this idea and see if he could meet me halfway.
[rating:5]
The book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, was provided to me at no cost by Active Christian Media and Crossway Books for review purposes. To become a reviewer for ACM you may click here.
Great Review Jeff. I often wonder why people I know who never ever talk about God or Christ or the Bible are so quick to send those prayer chain emails. I think it’s kind of a cop out. Or maybe it’s better than not sharing The Message at all. I dunno, I’ll have to think about that. Part of me thinks the internet is so far removed from God and religion and another part of me thinks it’s the fastest, easiest way to spread information to the masses. Maybe I think it’s kind of “cheap” and I don’t mean monetarily. Food for thought. Does Mark address this in his book?