The Gospel & Personal Evangelism

Title: The Gospel & Personal Evangelism
Author: Mark Dever
Publisher: Crossway, 2007
Pages: 119
Begun: March 10, 2009
Completed: March 11, 2009

In times past in reading books on witnessing and evangelism, I internally cringed at the plethora of "easy-believism" theology and at the "user manual" approach to soul-winning. This book, however, was refreshing for its emphasis on the Gospel, God's sovereignty, and God's glory. Having read Dever before, I like his deliberateness and the way he plainly articulates the Gospel. Consider some of his statements on how a true understanding of the Gospel compels us to herald it to others:

"We should stop blaming God. We should stop excusing ourselves from evangelism on the basis that God is sovereign. We should not conclude from his omnipotence that our obedience is therefore pointless. We should instead read from the Word that God will call a great number to himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation, which will encourage us in evangelism....Again, if you will realize that conversion always accompanies proclaiming the gospel and the Spirit's work, then you will stop trying to do the Spirit's work, and you will give yourself to proclaiming the gospel." (28)

"When we don't sufficiently consider what God has done for us in Christ--the high cost of it, what it means, and what Christ's significance is--we lose the heart to evangelize. Our hearts grow cold, our minds grow smaller (more taken up with passing concerns), and our lips fall silent. Consider that God has loved us as he has. Consider that God is glorified by our telling others of this amazing love of his....If we would be more faithful in evangelism, we should fuel the flame of love toward God within us, and the flame of gratitude and of hope. A fire so enflamed by God will have no trouble igniting our tongue." (29)

The book is in seven fairly brief chapters. In my opinion, the Second Chapter is the best, entitled, "What is the Gospel?" I would read the book again just for this chapter. The Appendix, A Word to Pastors, is also very good. Dever exhorts the pastor to cultivate a Gospel-culture within the church:

"It is our task as pastors to lead all believers in accepting, embracing, and using the opportunities that God richly gives them. In all of this, we should work not so much merely to implement programs as to create a culture in our church. We want our congregations to be marked by a culture of evangelism." (118)

I highly recommend this book. It doesn't take long to read, and Dever is easy to follow. You will find it, as I found, provocative and stimulating.