Imagine an atheist sending you regular prayer requests. Or your coworker grabbing you by the arm and asking you to stay late at work to talk about God just a bit longer. When Jesus talked about the Good News, people ran to him.
We should expect the same response. Good News for a Change is about working together with Jesus to share the gospel in ways unique to each person’s situation.
You will enjoy evangelism because it is a fun, deeply personal, community and person-oriented way to connect with people. You’ll be energized and focused on helping people discover why Jesus is good news for them. AMAZON 5 STARS
I have to admit that the picture on the front of this book caught my eye. So did the subtitle: How to talk to anyone about Jesus. It was quirky and fun and I was hoping that the author's approach to so many of the so called "formula's" was different. They just don't work for me. Maybe it's time to put more fun in it, it doesn't have to be a drudgery.
And as I read the Introduction I began to see more clearly some of the problems with the formulas. I liked how he gave illustrations of how we approach people like high pressure salesmen and why it usually doesn't work with people. And we end up feeling like failures, taking all the pressure of "getting people saved" all on ourselves. God wasn't standing over us with harshness like an unkind manager. It's time to take the "sting" out of evangelism and co-operate WITH God. And spread the good news in multiple different personal ways.
He also showed different examples of things a lot of us might say. Like, "you are taking drugs, sleeping with your girlfriend and you need to get saved". He made a great point when he said, where is the good news in that for someone unsaved? That stuck with me and still does. Maybe it's time for a new approach and new way of looking at things. I've been hearing the phrase, "it's time to get out of the box", a lot lately from all different sources. And this felt like this book is another perfect example of that.
I can easily see what he means when he says that he didn't get nervous about telling good news but he does get excited. He might get nervous about "the gospel" but not about good news. So easy to understand that.
Something that I have been noticing more is that so many people do NOT believe that there is a Heaven or a Hell. So that it is almost a non-issue to most people. That makes it pretty much ineffective to most. Most people, especially the younger people want to know what is so good about Jesus NOW and what he can do NOW. Why do they need him now? There are serious moments in this book as well because people are searching for real answers to some tough problems. I'm glad that the author addressed that too.
At the end of each chapter there are a few Reflection Questions and some Exercises. I've already put at least one or two of the ideas in the Exercise section to use. This is going to take time because it is a process. Most likely I will be reading sections of this book over and over.
NavPress has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.
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