Evangelism Vision Paper
John McKeever
201620 Spring 2016 EVAN 525-D07 LUO
Instructor: Dr. Fernando Abellaa
May 12, 2016
First of all, I never really thought that being silent was a sin until I was introduced to that in this
very class. To not be purposeful in sharing the word of God, your testimony, someone elses
testimony, your time and fellowship, and ultimately you love of God for them through Him is a
sin. This truth hit me right upside the head and it made me really start to think about how I was
spending my time and conversations at work, at home, at the grocery store, and even at church. It
was interesting to think that even though someone is going to church on a regular basis and
appear to be saved, they could in fact be hiding in plain sight. I know about this because I did it
for years as a kid and an adult.
I discovered that, even though I thought I wasn’t, my number one fear of evangelism was being
rejected. I learned that it is not a waste of your time to witness to someone and not have them
accept Christ into the life that day. Knowing now and having a picture that we are in fact
planting seeds that will come to bear fruit in the season that God has determined, not in our
timing. Learning to take the backlash that you could receive for sharing the Word as a blessing
and counting it as joy is something that I am having to work on. Getting over the fear that I
don’t know enough or that I don’t know the right way to do it has been a hurdle as well.
Learning a great line of questioning and conversation starters in the fantastic book “Share Jesus
Without Fear”. The book states that you can start conversations using conversation joggers that
assist in getting the other person talking. You ask them a question like “what is your favorite
sport” and then as it moves forward you can finish the statement with “do you have any spiritual
beliefs?
Then the five questions approach kicks in once you get past the do you have any spiritual beliefs
question.
1. What is your understanding of who Jesus Christ is?
2. Do you think there is a heaven or a hell?
3. If you were to die today where would you go?
4. Why would God let you into heaven?
5. If what you were believing weren’t true; would you want ot know?
After each answer that an individual would give you would just say hmmmmm listening to their
response. By doing this there is no opportunity for someone to feel challenged or defensive.
These questions act as a funnel and you can ask them in any order.
Passing the baton to my kids and preparing them for the way that they should go is probably one
of the most important lessons that I could have learned in this class. I was talking to someone a
while back and I was explaining to them how excited I was to see my older daughter growing in
her walk with Christ since we had gotten a new youth and young adults pastor at our church. My
friend the said something to me that really made me scratch my head. He said “why is the growth
that someone else is spurning in your daughter exciting when you could be excited about the
growth she is experiencing from what you are doing in your home”? At first I was a bit taken
back about what he said and thought to myself that I was sharing something positive and he spun
it around on me. The bottom line is that he is correct and that I as a parent have to take personal
responsibility of raising and helping guide my kids spiritually. The Family to Family book we
read really solidified a lot of the ideas I had surrounding the subject.
All in all, I learned that there is a lot of ways to evangelize and there are a lot of different
platforms that it can be done from. There is also a family aspect to evangelism that I really hadn’t
considered before along with a way to plan events that can bring entire families to the Lord.
My vision.
During and earlier writing assignment I had discussed an idea that the Lord had placed on my
heart. I am planning to use my education in auto mechanics to help people out in the
neighborhood, friends, co-workers, as well as friends of others from the church. I would be able
to help them out in many different ways from auto repair to auto detail but most importantly put
into place a lot of what I have learned in this class and from other ministry experience. Through
doing things like this it gives me the opportunity to have a conversation with someone that may
have not had to sit and talk to me otherwise.
I am going to have to manage my time so much better in order to implement my “car help” plan
along with all of my church and family activities and responsibilities. Things are going to have to
be on much tighter schedule.
When it comes to how all of this is going to affect my family I feel that it is just another great
opportunity to grow closer together as I support them and they support me in all that I am trying
to do. As discussed earlier it is important to try and make evangelism a family affair because it
keeps everyone in a Christ centered frame of mind all of the time. My kids love helping with the
automotive stuff and they love coming to church no matter what the reason is and my Wife is my
partner in all that I do as I am with her. As my family grows together and my kids get to the age
of leaving to be on their own it excites me to know that they will be able to carry on what they
have learned through the Christ centered home that my wife and I raised them in.
My goal for my community is for my neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers to know of our
family for how we are there for them. I want to continue to be a light in the darkness and have
my family aligned with me in achieving this goal. The “car help” idea is just a starting point
because I write this it is clear to me that there are other things that are going to develop through
this ministry.
Being willing to be more giving of your time in relation to His ministry and evangelism is a
challenge that has to be carried out. I want to take the necessary steps to make this all happen and
begin to grow whatever it is that God has in store for me and my family.
I think the key for me to being more vocal is to first be listening and try to hear when the Lord is
pointing me in a particular direction. I have been in a room with someone and have been busy
attending to my own agenda which has caused me to totally miss what God was prompting me to
do. God had asked me to talk to a girl and pray for her because she had just found out she had
cancer and I didn’t listen. Now the funny thing is that he called on someone else to do the same
thing but the other person took action and told me about what a wonderful experience it was.
This was a defining moment for me in the area of listening and being ready to act. Immediate
obedience is what I have to implement immediately. I have to stop thinking about if it is the right
time or if it is appropriate in the work place because the bottom line is that God is asking me to
do something and it has to be done for me to be in line with His will for my life.
I am not clear as to what God has planned for me from a ministry standpoint in the long term. It
may be a bunch of short term assignments that are preparing me for something that is going to
change the world to be a better, more Christ like place. The key is that I am open to all of it and
simply and doing everything that I can to prepare myself for what He has in store for me.
My immediate plan is obedience without hesitation and not allowing my own agenda to get in
the way of what God has for my life. It had been spoken over me that I was to be a pulpit
minister and this word was spoken over me for the majority of my teenage and young adult life
by more than two sources not known by one another. I feel that this is the way that God would
have me go and as I said before I am doing all that I can to prepare myself for that calling.
In order to learn how to be a true servant to others I feel it is important to learn how to give
without expecting anything in return. That may seem like such a simple thing but coming from a
man who has worked ruthlessly in the business field for most of his life it is a hard concept to
grasp because there was always a price for everything.
With my “car help” service I feel this is going to give me the opportunity to learn how to serve
others and break some of the monetary bondage I have on my life. I need to prepare my family
for a life in ministry as well because I have not lived the life of a man of God for the entire time
my children have been on the earth and they know what I stand for now and the expectations of
the house but I feel it is a little different living under the scope of a preacher’s kid like I did
growing up.
Let me answer the question about my immediate plans for daily implementation of evangelism
into my life. I think evangelism in the end is a way of life, it isn’t something that you just do. I
feel that in order to implement this into every aspect of your life it is important to wake up
thinking about it and continue to look for opportunities throughout the day as well. Everything
that you wake up in the morning to accomplish should be done with a specific end result in mind
and if your goal is to be as Christ like as possible and share with as many people as you can you
should be able to please God if your motives are pure. As long as you can steer away from
having thoughts of how fantastic you are because you were able to witness to five people at work
today, you are going to be in good shape. Knowing that we do all that we do for the glory of God
is an essential point to path of a daily evangelistic life in your home, ministry, and or office.
