The Gospel and Personal Evangelism (Crossway, 2007) was written by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Dever’s clear agenda is to inspire his readers to evangelize more often and more faithfully, while promoting a culture of evangelism within our churches.
The book is divided into seven chapters which focus on particular aspects of evangelism. They are:
- Why don’t we evangelize?
- What is the Gospel?
- Who should evangelize?
- How should we evangelize?
- What isn’t evangelism?
- What should we do after we evangelize?
- Why should we evangelize?
In the first chapter he walks through five reasons why we don’t evangelize and then provides 8 solutions to them. Chapter two focuses on the question of, “What is the gospel?” by give four things it is not: is not simply that we are okay, is not simply that God is love, and not simply that Jesus wants to be your friend and is not simply that we should live rightly. In chapter three he rightly concludes that all Christians should evangelize those God has placed in their lives.
Chapter four deals with the balance of honesty, urgency and joy as we share the gospel. Five reflects on what evangelism is not: imposition, personal testimony, social action and public involvement, apologetics, and results based. In chapter six, Dever explains what to do after the message has been shared. The conclusion is devoted to why we should evangelize.
One of the most helpful points of this small book is how Dever clarifies what the Gospel is and what it isn’t. The Gospel is very clearly defined as:
The good news is that the one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn and trust in him. He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted. He now calls us to repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.(p. 43)
We are all called to share the Gospel. We as members of the local church have an important role to play. Dever’s book is thoroughly biblical and extremely practical. He warns us accurately while encouraging us to get going in this all important duty as believers. We are not “salesmen” hocking our goods; rather we are constrained by the love of Christ with the greatest message ever given. We are heralds and that is all we are, but oh, what a privilege.
The Gospel and Personal Salvation may very well do for this generation what J.I. Packer’s Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God did for the past generation, and that is to provide a theological and practical guide to evangelism from within the Reformed tradition. I strongly encourage you to get Dever’s book. It is a helpful and instructive challenge in becoming more intentional in evangelism and to be more aware of the non-Christians we meet day to day.
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