Evangelism. The very word makes palms sweat and images spin: buttonholing in a city park, knocking on neighborhood doors, being conscripted into evangelistic campaigns, to say nothing of that annoying religious neighbor or coworker. We have met the evangelists—and they are not us. If evangelism is the welcome door to faith, why does it grate open on rusting hinges?Mark Teasdale has met these challenges and more. They come in the shape of students in his evangelism class. In Evangelism for Non-Evangelists he sympathizes with the perceptions and discomfort we bring to evangelism. But he also opens up a nonthreatening space for us to weigh what we believe the evangel of evangelism—the good news!—to be. Andhe helps us navigate our way toward expressing the gospel in a manner true to what we believe, authentic to who we are, and attractive and even compelling to others. For pastors, seminarians, church leaders, and lay people, here is a refreshing, practical, and companionable look at evangelism. It might even chart a course toward your own authentic evangelism.



Mark R. Teasdale (PhD, Southern Methodist University) is president of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He previously served as E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Teasdale is ordained in the United Methodist Church; has served as director of the doctor of ministry, master of divinity, and Missional Church Center at Garrett; consults with churches locally, nationally, and internationally; and volunteers on community boards and commissions in his neighborhood. He is the author of Evangelism for Non-Evangelists, Participating in Abundant Life, Go: Becoming a Great Commission Congregation, and Methodist Evangelism, American Salvation.



Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Evangelists Are Taught, Not Born

2. Finding a Better Starting Point

3. Looking Inward to Look Outward

4. Putting the Good News in Context

5. Fashioning New Wineskins for the Old, Old Story

6. Evangelizing Yourself, Evangelizing the World

Appendix: What I Wish I Knew When I Started Seminary

Postscript: How to Use this Book

Subject Index