The Complete Evangelism Guidebook: Expert Advice on Reaching Others for Christ

The Complete Evangelism Guidebook is a great resource for Christians who would like to be more involved in personal evangelism. The book is divided into two parts. Part one, the first hundred pages, serves to build confidence in the reader by explaining some of the fundamentals of evangelism. The second part, over 250 pages and fifty-three chapters, gives practical advice on how to reach out to different kinds of people with the gospel. In all, over sixty people have contributed their ideas and experiences in evangelism which makes The Complete Evangelism Guidebook a helpful book to read and have on your bookshelf. Most chapters are four to six pages in length and are fairly easy to read, making this book helpful to both new and mature Christians. The first seventeen chapters, which make up part one, lay down the fundamentals of evangelism. Some of the chapter titles include: "What Faith Is," "What Faith Isn't," "Extraordinary Lifestyle," "Everyday Illustrations," and "When You Don't Have the Answers." Each chapter is written by a different author. On the positive side, this exposes the reader to many different ideas about evangelism. On the negative side, with over sixty people contributing to this work, no one is going to agree with everything that is written and there is quite a bit of repetition. The second part is divided into seven sections; each section has independently-written chapters devoted to reaching out to a specific kind of person or people group: by relationship, age, vocation, religion, race, life situation, and gender or sexual orientation. Under the section on religion, advice is given on how to share the gospel with agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, those involved in the occult, and others. Under the section on life situation, chapters recommend ways of ministering the gospel to abuse victims, addicts, convicts, the homeless, the disabled, the affluent, the poor, the unemployed and outcasts. These short topical chapters are very helpful because they stimulate thought and give advice on how to start sharing the gospel with many different kinds of people. There are a small number of questionable statements found in this book. One of these is, "A community that has been prayed for has a much higher response to a gospel presentation than a community that has not been the subject of prayer. When effective Christian prayer is absent, the heavens are closed and demonic/worldly influences are dominant. But when Christians start praying, the demonic influences can become so weak that a vacuum actually develops and the kingdom of God can be manifested with greater effectiveness" (p. 55). This statement seems to line up with recent ideas about spiritual warfare that do not have a biblical basis. The vast majority of the information found in this book, however, is both helpful and biblically minded. "Christians should care for people more, longer, and better than anyone else on the planet" (p. 15). "Feelings

This evangelism guidebook will give you expert advice on reaching anyone with the gospel--from your next door neighbor to your coworker, from the Muslim to the Agnostic, from the Asian to the Hispanic--just about anyone you'll ever meet. The chapters are written from some of the best known names in evangelism and church leadership today--Luis Palau, Rick Warren, Mike Silva, Josh McDowell, Tom Phillips, and dozens of others who are experts in their fields. You can look up types of people by relationship group, age group, vocation, religion, race, life situation, and gender/sexual orientation. Basically, if you've got a non-Christian in mind, this book can tell you specifically how to relate to that person. It's a must-read and a must-own for every Christian household!