George Barna reviews Evangelism without Additives by Jim Henderson (Water Brook Press, 152 pages, about $12 in paperback) and gives some very appealing reasons for reading the book.In spite of the Great Commission, spreading the gospel is one of the areas in which Christians have the lowest self-esteem – and, tellingly, the least interest in self-improvement.
No wonder Christian publishers typically regard books on evangelism with the same enthusiasm that Americans possess for cricket. You can’t take people where they don’t want to go, and most people have lived the evangelism guilt trip long enough that they would rather avoid the topic altogether...
The essence of his perspective is that we have made evangelism a program rather than a natural point of connection with people. Jim’s solution is for us to engage in “ordinary attempts” or OAs. An OA is simply what it sounds like: something simple and not necessarily complete, but which puts another plank in the bridge between the “lost” person and Christ...
Let’s be clear about this: this book is not Evangelism Escapism 101. It recognizes that enabling someone to embrace Christ as their savior is the most significant decision the person will ever make. But the book also releases us from the debilitating pressures and restrictions that our programs and procedures have placed us under. This is an affirming, refreshing and motivating book.
In our country, we love to keep score. In evangelism, the only score we keep is “who gets the kill.” We tend to disregard the Lord’s teaching that some plant, some nurture and some harvest. We are a nation of harvester zealots. But Jim reminds us that God uses all of our efforts to achieve His ends. And, like Jesus, we are effective when our efforts are built on love for God and others, a desire to bless people, a willingness to go to them, and the importance of establishing a meaningful connection with them.
Ordinary Attempts acknowledge that evangelism is a process, and that any one of us may play a small part in the process through a countless variety of creative and natural points of connection. And because God calls on us to be obedient rather than successful, our responsibility is to be Christ with others through the questions, encouragement, spiritual conversations, service, attention, covert prayers, overt prayers, listening, or other simple approaches we offer to them...