Book Review. Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles

Through the years I have read many books on evangelism. Most of them are very good. They have good tips on sharing your faith, getting out of your comfort zone, and facing your fears in sharing the gospel in a dark world. I have my favorites for sure; but this one — Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles, was a real treasure.

With just over 120 pages of text, this tiny hardcover book packs a wallop when it comes to evangelism and sharing your faith. Inside it, it covers what the gospel is, and even expands on it through a gospel explanation and scripture references in the appendix. It’s written for the lay person as well as the seasoned evangelist. I’ve shared the gospel for over twenty years and I learned quite a bit through this little book.

But the purpose of the book, from the standpoint of church leadership, is how to grow a solid, biblical, healthy evangelistic church that goes out and shares their faith. Of course, it is because this is part of the 9Marks Building Healthy Churches series. I can honestly say I couldn’t put the book down, and through rereading sections I probably read it three times. There are three things that he talks about that is imperative to have a healthy evangelistic church: a culture of evangelism, connecting church to that culture, and making evangelism a part of our daily disciplined life.

What does a culture of evangelism look like?

We may hear the word “culture” used in the places of business where we are employed. This is comprised of work ethic, lifestyle, and teamwork. It involves shared ideas and a shared understanding of how to act. In this book, there are eleven marks of a healthy church that displays a culture of evangelism. Though I want to dive into each one, for the sake of the author I will only list them out.

1. A culture motivated by love for Jesus and His gospel.
2. A culture that is confident in the gospel.
3. A culture that understands the danger of entertainment.
4. A culture that sees people clearly.
5. A culture that pulls together as one.
6. A culture in which people teach one another.
7. A culture that models evangelism.
8. A culture in which people who share their faith are celebrated.
9. A culture that knows how to affirm and celebrate new life through baptism of new believers.
10. A culture doing ministry that feels risky and dangerous.
11. A culture that understands that church is the chosen best method of evangelism.

I have to admit, seeing these listed out without needing to flip pages makes me tear up. As an evangelist, I yearn to be in a church like this; and quite frankly, I don’t know if we hit any of these points. And this is coming from a person in leadership.

But he is missing one critical aspect of this list, which should be the very first thing: A culture propelled by the Holy Spirit through prayer. It starts with prayer. If you are not a praying church, or taking prayer seriously, then you failed before you even started. Prayer is where it starts. Stiles talks about prayer and the importance of it, but I just felt it should be #1 on this particular list.

Connecting people to that culture.

How do you motivate the unmotivated? First, let’s look at some of the synonyms of unmotivated: apathetic, lazy, unfocused, directionless, dispirited, disinterested, aimless, unenthused, unskilled, disorganized, unambitious, unprepared, dissatisfied, and demoralized are just a few.

Would you agree that it is because of some things on the list that it results in others? Maybe because people are unprepared, disorganized, aimless, and unfocused, that they become dissatisfied, dispirited and demoralized? May I be as bold to say that the latter are what most pastors feel on a daily basis as they stare back at themselves in the mirror and ask, “What are we doing this for?” Maybe evangelism is the key to feeling life and some excitement again; yet it is the one thing that is neglected in almost every church.

It starts with us as individuals.

In order for me to motivate anyone to share the gospel, I must do it myself with purpose and consistency. If I don’t, I become a hypocrite and unskilled myself. I need to hone my skills and that means going out and practicing sharing the gospel to strangers on the street. Why do I say practice? Because suiting up and showing up for the big game is to share the gospel to people you know and see on a regular basis: family, friends, and coworkers. Trust me, sharing the gospel to strangers is way easier, and a lot less intimidating.

Sharing the gospel is not only for the person we are witnessing to, but as you just read in the previous section, it helps me as well. We don’t do it for personal gain, but in some ways…we receive it don’t we?

He ends by reminding us not to lose heart.

We are ambassadors of the King of kings, and Lord of lords. We carry amazing good news to those who desperately need it, for every human’s default state is in a place of eternal torment called hell. They have the sickness; we have the cure.

But the constant rejection, laughing, mocking, and so forth we receive builds up and weighs us down. Sometimes we feel as if our attempts to share the gospel are useless and don’t amount to anything. The Apostle Paul said:

“Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.”

2 Corinthians 4:1 NKJV

Did you catch that? As we saw earlier, we lose heart when we don’t evangelize, and now we lose heart when we do. But do we? Not a chance. Jesus said that He would give us rest and that His yoke is easy and burden, light (Matthew 11:28-30).

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:11-12 NKJV

We are blessed when we stand up for Christ and His Word for His name. We should rejoice and be overwhelmingly glad for the rewards we will have in the life to come. Not only that, but we are not alone; we are not the first; and we won’t be the last.

Peter goes on to say in 1Peter 3:14, “Even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But what are we to do? “Sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you…”(1 Peter 3:15). Persecution and trials are not strange things that happen to us when we share our faith. We shouldn’t be surprised at all, but have joy when we do (1 Peter 4:12-19). We partake in sufferings of Christ.

Do you know why Christians are scared to share their faith? Because when they came to Christ and someone led them in a prayer, they didn’t tell them about the persecution and tribulation they will face. The person leading them didn’t tell them that it was normal. Why? More than likely it’s not normal to them either. Remember #10: A culture doing ministry that feels risky and dangerous.

We are ambassadors… act like it.

J. Mack Stiles reminds us that we are Ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). We share His heart and mind while accomplishing His will despite how we feel about it. We are to lay down our lives for His will and submit to His authority because we represent Christ. We must be tactful in our approach, bold with our witness, clear in our message, and trust in Christ for the outcome while not losing heart because we are serving King Jesus!

I am looking forward to reading more of these 9Marks of Building Healthy Churches Series. Since I have in my possession #8: Biblical Discipleship by Mark Dever, creator of the series and ministry, that will be next on the list. I implore all Pastors and Church Leadership to read these simple yet profound books and pray to pick up where they left off and share their faith. This was not only inspiring to me, but practical and full of tasks to implement in our churches to make them stronger.

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