EVANGELISM – THEOLOGY and PRACTICE
The following ministry resources, while they discuss the practice of evangelism, also include substantive observations on the theology of evangelism. They differ from books listed in Guides to the Practice of Evangelism that are more pragmatic and do not articulate a theology.
The ministry resources are divided according to five theological orientations.
- Theology and Practice of Evangelism – Missionally Responsive/Evangelical
- Theology and Practice of Evangelism – Reformed
- Theology and Practice of Evangelism – Missional/Missio Dei
- Theology and Practice of Evangelism – Emergent
- Theology and Practice of Evangelism – Evaluating Emergent
- Related Ministry Resources
Theology and Practice of Evangelism — Missionally Responsive/Evangelical (see definition)
First reads:
- Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission – Brings conservative Reformed and Southern Baptist perspectives to the subject of mission, offering definitions of terms such as missional, missio Dei, social justice, and shalom.
- Andreas Koestenberger and Peter T. O’brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (New Studies in Biblical Theology, Volume 11) – A very substantive theology of mission/evangelism written from a conservative evangelical viewpoint. The best from this perspective.
- Alvin Reid and Thom Rainer, Evangelism Handbook: Biblical, Spiritual, Intentional, Missional — Calls for a theological renewal over against the consumer culture that will lead to evangelism in all its dimensions.
Other helpful volumes:
- Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church, Revised Edition — This is a historical and theological look into how the early church impacted the surrounding culture. A recognized classic.
- Thomas P. Johnston, Charts for a Theology of Evangelism – Designed to be a “ready-reference” overview of how one’s theology affects the praxis of evangelism.
- J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God — A classic on the subject of the relationship between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility, and the relationship between these two doctrines and evangelism.
- Richard Peace, Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve — An interesting biblical investigation of encounter evangelism (as experienced by Paul) and process evangelism (as experienced by the Twelve).
- John Piper and David Mathis, Finish the Mission: Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged – A strong evangelical affirmation of the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20, calling people to bold, global, missional engagement, regardless of the cost. Presenters include Louis Giglio, Ed Stetzer, and John Piper.
Theology and Practice of Evangelism — Reformed (see definition)
- Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission – As described above, intregrates Reformed and Southern Baptist perspectives to the subject of mission, offering definitions of terms such as missional, missio Dei, social justice, and shalom.
- Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission: Recovering God’s Strategy for Making Disciples — Calls the church away from mission creep, centering our discipleship and our churches on the very specific sources, goals, strategies, and methods that Christ mandated for this time between his two comings. A Reformed critique of incarnational models of ministry as well the spirituality of Richard Foster and Dallas Willard.
Theology and Practice of Evangelism — Missional/Missio Dei (see definition)
First read:
- Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Evangelism – Part the Ancient-Future series. Presents evangelism as four distinct stages and suggests three accompanying rites of passage that can be easily adapted to any church tradition. Harkens back to the classical period of ancient Christianity. The series also includes Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, and Ancient-Future Worship.
Other helpful volumes:
- William J. Abraham, The Logic of Evangelism — A classic theology of evangelism that is respected among all traditions. Defines evangelism as the “primary initiation into the Kingdom of God for the first time.” Traces the significance of this definition as it relates to conversion, baptism, morality, the creed, gifts of the Spirit, the classic spiritual disciplines, and other congregational practices.
- Frances Adeney, Graceful Evangelism: Christian Witness in a Complex World. — A balanced look at the nature and practice of evangelism. Especially good at historical and current overviews of evangelistic practice.
- Walter Brueggemann, Biblical Perspectives on Evangelism: Living in a Three-Storied Universe — Interesting perspective that removes the dichotomy between evangelism and social action, challenges both liberal and conservative limitations, and distinguishes between evangelism and church growth.
- Darrell L. Guder, The Continuing Conversion of the Church — A thorough explanation of the broadened understanding of the nature of mission as missio Dei (mission of God).
Theology and Practice of Evangelism — Emergent (see definition) – Several of these volumes are hard to categorize, but are listed as Emergent because of their more overt identificaiton with the postmodern ethos.
First read:
- Brad J. Kallenberg, Live to Tell: Evangelism in a Postmodern Age – Describes the philosophical underpinnings of the postmodern climate and the implications this has for evangelism.
Other helpful volumes:
- Brian McLaren, More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix – McLaren is perhaps the chief exemplar of emergent authors on the subject of evangelism.
- Paul Wesley Chilcote and Lacye C. Warner, The Study of Evangelism: Exploring a Missional Practice of the Church – It is difficult to categorize this text. Chilcote and Warner provide a strongly academic development of the philosophical and theological underpinnings of postmodern Christian evangelism in a way that resonateswith both Missional and Emergent perspectives.
- Bryan Stone, Evangelism After Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness — Makes several contributions, such as tracing the “subversion” of biblical evangelism through Constantine and modernity, and then suggests postmodern corrections.
- Scott Jones, The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor – Stresses that evangelism modeled after God’s love in Jesus Christ will be incarnational, holistic, and contextual.
- Rick Richardson, Reimagining Evangelism: Inviting Friends on a Spiritual Journey, Annotated Edition – Builds on an earlier volume, Evangelism Outside the Box: New Ways to Help People Experience the Good News – Describes a conversion evangelism that is a relational, conversational, community-based, holistic, and non-propositional exchange of stories between people as they traverse their faith journeys.
Theology and Practice of Evangelism — Evaluating-Emergent (see definition)
First read:
- R. Scott Smith, Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church – A fair and thorough description and critique of the reflections of postmodernism that are found in the emergent church.
Other helpful volumes:
- William Henard and Adam Greenway, Evangelicals Engaging Emergent: A Discussion of the Emergent Church Movement — A balanced critical review of the emergent movement.
- Elmer Towns and Ed Stetzer, Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church — Proposes several safeguards to keep the current discussions surrounding missional/emergent and even contemporary evangelical church growth models from drifting into biblically unsound territory.
- D. A. Carson, Editor, Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns – Not a polemic against emergent as Carson’s previous volume, Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church, but still focuses more on the peril than the promise of postmodernism.
- Elmer J. Thiessen, The Ethics of Evangelism: A Philosophical Defense of Proselytizing and Persuasion – While not expressly evaluating-emergent, it makes a counter-point against the idea often found in some emergent circles that evangelism which emphasizes Christianity’s exclusive truth claims is “proselytizing.”
Related Ministry Resources
See Other Ministry Resources on Evangelism:
See related Ministry Resource Guides:
- Church Leadership, Church Health and Renewal
- Missional PERSPECTIVES for Christian Ministry, Intro
- Missional RESOURCES for Christian Ministry, Intro
- Social Ministry-Social Justice, Intro
See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Christian Ministry: