David May: Bill Hybels' Book Just Walk Across the Room
by Keith Brenton
05/10/2008 - I was wondering all the same things you asked about evangelism until I read Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels. This book changed my entire perspective on evangelism, and I've been wondering how to do it for about 40 years. I can say more about it, if you want.
My perspective of the church's approach to evangelism is that we have trained individuals to go teach, but have given almost no support to do so. While we have organized our churches around the worship service and around training ("equipping the saints"), we have not organized very well to help those in need (Matthew 25:31-46) or to spread the good news (Mark 16:15-16). I think most members, like me, have struggled with our responsibilities in those two latter areas. Some of us have found ways to be supportive of others who are carrying out these missions through para-church organizations or through churhces other than our home church. But we have not engaged directly in either task.
What Hybels does in his book is very freeing in that regard with respect to sharing good news. First, he suggests that everyone is somewhere on a believer's continuum (my words, not his) ranging from -10 to +10. When a person crosses from a -1 to a +1 is when they become a believer. In the context as we understand it, that would be when they are baptised, though he does not express it in those terms. Hybels goes on to say that at any given point, in any given encounter, our job may not be to take the person from -1 to +1. In fact that may not ever be our assignment. He suggests that the Spirit is in charge of the process and that we are all assigned roles at different times. Today in the convenience store we may be called on to take a mom from a -4 to a -3. This evening in a community meeting we may be assigned the task of taking an activist from a +7 to a +8.
It seems simple, but what it did for me was to free me to do what I can without feeling guilty that I am not baptising the mom or convincing the activist of some error in doctrine. While those things may be the Spirit's goals overall, they are not my assignment in this particular encounter. Being freed in that way was very encouraging and I have done much more "evangelising" since reading the book. In fact right after finishing the book I went out and joined the Civil Air Patrol as a way of meeting people outside the church.
Needless to say, I strongly recommend the book. I have bought several copies and given them to friends.
Hope this helps,
David May, Author
A Call to Arms! Out of the Pews and Into the Streets
My perspective of the church's approach to evangelism is that we have trained individuals to go teach, but have given almost no support to do so. While we have organized our churches around the worship service and around training ("equipping the saints"), we have not organized very well to help those in need (Matthew 25:31-46) or to spread the good news (Mark 16:15-16). I think most members, like me, have struggled with our responsibilities in those two latter areas. Some of us have found ways to be supportive of others who are carrying out these missions through para-church organizations or through churhces other than our home church. But we have not engaged directly in either task.What Hybels does in his book is very freeing in that regard with respect to sharing good news. First, he suggests that everyone is somewhere on a believer's continuum (my words, not his) ranging from -10 to +10. When a person crosses from a -1 to a +1 is when they become a believer. In the context as we understand it, that would be when they are baptised, though he does not express it in those terms. Hybels goes on to say that at any given point, in any given encounter, our job may not be to take the person from -1 to +1. In fact that may not ever be our assignment. He suggests that the Spirit is in charge of the process and that we are all assigned roles at different times. Today in the convenience store we may be called on to take a mom from a -4 to a -3. This evening in a community meeting we may be assigned the task of taking an activist from a +7 to a +8.
It seems simple, but what it did for me was to free me to do what I can without feeling guilty that I am not baptising the mom or convincing the activist of some error in doctrine. While those things may be the Spirit's goals overall, they are not my assignment in this particular encounter. Being freed in that way was very encouraging and I have done much more "evangelising" since reading the book. In fact right after finishing the book I went out and joined the Civil Air Patrol as a way of meeting people outside the church.
Needless to say, I strongly recommend the book. I have bought several copies and given them to friends.
Hope this helps,
David May, Author
A Call to Arms! Out of the Pews and Into the Streets
posted at 8:54 AM
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