A New and Ancient Evangelism: Rediscovering the Ways God Calls and Sends

by Judith Paulsen

Evangelism has a bad reputation. It's been loaded with sales tactics, market analysis, and high-pressure psychology, an approach that often flattens other cultures and dishonors those we want to reach. Evangelizers are encouraged to believe that everything depends on their understanding of the gospel and their powers of persuasion. No wonder so few people want to get involved in sharing the faith.

This book recovers the ancient tradition of the church's evangelism, rooted in the conversion stories of the Bible, to offer a truly biblical understanding of evangelism. Drawing on 25 years of experience teaching evangelism to laypeople and ministry students, Judith Paulsen shows that God uses ordinary people of faith within their everyday spheres of influence to draw people to himself. She helps readers share the Good News in a way that is authentic, respectful, and ideally suited to the cultural dynamics of today's world. Above all, she places the real work of evangelism where it with the God who is still at work calling people to himself. The book includes discussion questions, a Scripture index, and a bibliography.

Genres: Evangelism

224 pages, Paperback

Published June 25, 2024

Reviews

[Ethan]

How can we encourage Christians today to well reflect Jesus and proclaim Him well in evangelism?

In A New and Ancient Evangelism: Rediscovering the Ways God Calls and Sends (galley received as part of early review program), Judith Paulsen draws on Old and New Testament narratives of conversion to give Christians some ideas of how God can work through them in proclaiming Jesus to others.

The author sets forth a Biblical narrative - many of the conversion stories from Acts, some of Jesus’ encounters in the Gospels, but also the healing of Naaman from 2 Kings - and will then point out aspects of those stories and how they can encourage and equip Christians today to well reflect Jesus to others.

To this end the book has a lot of good wisdom for Christians to consider. Many of the premises come directly from the text; others flow more from the wisdom of experience a bit downstream from the text. It is not as if the latter is inappropriate but it is not exactly “ancient.”

If you’re looking for some encouragement about evangelism, this book can be a good resource for you.

[James Bond]

Loved her take of talking about evangelism through conversions in the Bible. It's not technical so it's easier to read. Her primary phrase that I will hold on to is that God is primary initiator and evangelist before we are. That can be helpful to know that we are partnering with Holy Spirit for the work in this persons life. I also appreciated that she grounded the whole book in biblical accounts. It's not just theory (which is the only downside). A fresh read on evangelism from a biblical conversion perspective. It's not a how to book, but a study of conversions and themes from that conversion we can take.

[Caleb Otto]

Helpful book on evangelism! The emphasis is on God going before us making the way for evangelism to happen. Read this book and be encouraged to share your faith!