During Sunday’s Gospel Conversations class, I quoted a bit from a great book I read over the summer: Questioning Evangelism. The title does not mean the author questions the value of evangelism — rather, he advocates evangelism that is characterized by asking lots of questions. If you want a smart, fresh take on evangelism, I highly recommend this book. (Also see the review at 9Marks.)

Here’s the quote I read during our class, which focused on the gravity of sin and the fact that we can’t really understand the Gospel

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Note: what follows is not the approach we’re teaching in the Gospel Conversations class, but it’s good for a chuckle from the Jollyblogger:

The truth of the gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine… Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others and beat it into their heads continually. — Martin Luther

Just for fun… any captions you’d add to this picture?

“Have you ever heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?”

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For everyone in the Gospel Conversations Connections class, please read and/or listen to Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in time for our next class (October 5).

Download the Text

Download the Audio (Preached by Mark Dever)

You don’t have to become a Jonathan Edwards scholar—just pay attention to the way Edwards’ presentation of the Gospel is driven by a deep appreciation for the horror of sin.

Next time, having covered the bad news, we’ll get to the good news as we talk about the unique and central role played by Jesus Christ.

 

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[via JT]

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Homework for this week’s Gospel Conversations class is to listen to a message from Sovereign Grace Ministries called “Conversational Apologetics.” Besides being made available free of charge, it’s lively, funny, easy to listen to, and worth taking in more than once.

(It seems to me it could just as easily have been called “Conversational Evangelism” — this is one of those times when the line between evangelism and apologetics is so blurry it’s not worth trying to pick it apart.)

The message was delivered by Michael Ramsden, the European director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

Click

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I was tickled to see this in the blogs this morning (emphasis mine):

Even if we acknowledge that there will be ‘gospel’ things happening all over the place in church, it is also important to say that evangelism is not the purpose of Christian assemblies. It is certainly not their focus. In the New Testament, churches are characteristically the fruit of evangelism, not its agent. Evangelism usually takes place outside the assembly—in the marketplace, the synagogue, the prison, and in daily gospel conversation.

This reminds me of something my pastor when I was in college said: “The early church didn’t explode throughout the ancient world because of the professional gurus, but because of the guys in the trades

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In today’s introductory “Gospel Conversations” class, I outline our approach.

What is the Gospel?
How do I explain it to others?
How do I answer their challenges, objections, and questions?

Next week, we’ll dig into the first question by getting a clear picture of the nature of God and the nature of man. This will set the stage for a discussion of sin and the Fall, and from there, the nature of Christ and His unique role as reconciler.
Gospel Conversations: The Home Game
If you’d like to play along at home, you can do the homework assignment I handed out yesterday. (I’m looking into what it will take to get the audio online as there have been numerous requests.) First, answer for yourself whether you agree or …

 

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Now where did my clothes go…?

Dustin Wax at the Stepcase Lifehack blog writes that his partner is going around asking people this question to fulfill an assignment for her psychology class:

I think there’s a resistance to answering a question like this honestly. Sure, being put on the spot and asked one of the most profound questions humanity has managed to come up with is probably not exactly conducive to thoughtful responses, either, but I doubt she’d get much better responses if she gave them a week to think

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I found myself another Batman-inspired conversation yesterday… it was about this quote from Batman Begins:

It’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.

Agree or disagree? How does this question relate to the Gospel?

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