Monday, August 25, 2008

100% Natural Evangelism

We just finished viewing the video series 100% Natural Evangelism by Terry Rush. I was disappointed. It was too short. Only four sessions. Personally, I think Terry should have made this series at least 2 or 3 times as long.

I will say this is hardly vintage Rush. He's calm instead of overly animated. But it's also very, very good.

The four sessions take you through Terry's own personal journey in learning how to talk to people about Jesus. It's open, honest, and revealing. I related to the vignettes about feeling inadequate and scared to death as a novice preacher. I knew exactly what he was talking about when he shared about schools bringing in the experts to talk about how to do personal evangelism, only to produce more fear and guilt because you just couldn't do it like them. I think talking about failure was terrific. The truth is there is a lot of failure, even among those who are excellent at personal evangelism.

Terry's series is a great encouragement, and I would heartily endorse the videos to others. Do not think, however, that he is going to throw a method at you, or that he's going to hand you a program to follow. You'll be very disappointed. This is a series about learning how to love people, how to trust that God is working in you and through you, and how to see your job as sowing seed, not forcing the results. You won't learn verses to teach others, you won't learn an outline to follow, or the standard personal evangelism content. You will learn that you can let the Spirit of God work in you to produce fruit, and in the fruit is the potential of new life in Christ.

I suspect that a great many who view the series will miss the point. This is not a fault in the series or the presentations. It's a fault in people who will watch the videos and just not understand. I'm of the opinion, that some may need to see these videos more than once.

If you need help knowing exactly what to teach, let me encourage you to check out my little "Real Bible Study 4 Kids." Yes, it was written to help parents teach the gospel to their children. But I believe it would be of great help to anyone. Adults can certainly adapt it to their own use, and teens would find it extremely helpful. And, if you're looking to learn what to teach another person, it would provide you with a lot of guidance.

Terry Rush's, 100% Natural Evangelism, will serve to encourage and motivate a lot of Christians to reach out to people. That's really our job. Sow some seed. God will give the increase.

2 comments:

  1. Bill,

    Thanks for the ringing endorsement! Denver and St.Paul need you in their camps to promote their venues as well!

    Keep on encouraging the church about the world of God!
    Terry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Terry, you're welcome! And thanks to you for such a valuable piece of work. See you in Tulsa! Save a baseball card for my wife!

    ReplyDelete