Review of Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles
I've been a student of evangelism for years. I've taken multiple college and seminary courses. I've been trained in church based programs. The motivation and theological reasons to do evangelism are often addressed. Sometimes these are the only issues of evangelism addressed because we are more comfortable with theological reflection than meeting people. At other times the techniques of evangelism get addressed. As one explores techniques, it is often the same as general persuasive communication used in business decisions, sales, policy debates, and public speaking...but watered down to one sales pitch which addresses one dimension. Often one sales pitch takes into account all the great public speaking techniques, but the techniques are usually not taught explicitly. These techniques of persuasive speech are incorporated into the structure of the canned presentation, but not taught explicitly. This would be indicative of training, not education. It is my observation that th...