[dillon burroughs] on using tracts in evangelism

Why don’t more people hand out tracts these days? After all, aren’t they the perfect little Gospel message in a short, easy to read, interesting format? Especially in our sound-bite culture, these straight-to-the-point presentations should have a big impact… right?

So then why to they end up in the trash can more than they do in people’s hearts?

In this portion of our conversation with Dillon, he shares why he believes tracts have lost their effectiveness. But more importantly he shares his thoughts on what you can do instead in order to be a more effective ambassador for Christ. And what he shares is probably some of the best evangelism advice that I have heard in a long time…

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Check out the rest of this conversation in the christian evangelism 101 series.

[dillon burroughs] on evangelizing to other faiths

What do you do when you encounter someone of another faith when sharing yours? Many people think they need to know everything there is about the other faith in order to refute it . But rarely does someone change their faith system because someone who knows a lot about it told them all of the reasons that they were wrong.

In this portion of our conversation with Dillon, we discuss a couple of ways that Christians can be effective when evangelizing those from other faith systems:

1. Listen to them and ask questions about what they believe. This approach doesn’t require you to know anything about the other person’s faith when you approach conversation with them. As we discussed in the previous portion of this series (on the value of listening in evangelism), listening first shows the other person that you are interested in them.
2. Share the Bible. Often people of other faiths come to faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior after reading the Bible (particularly the Gospels). It’s always a good idea to have some New Testaments handy to give away when in situations like this.

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Check out the rest of this conversation in the christian evangelism 101 series.

[dillon burroughs] on the value of listening in evangelism

What’s one of the most effective tools that should be in your evangelism toolkit? Many people often think that it’s about knowing the five (or other number) steps in a special method, or being able to make a convincing apologetic argument.

But one of the most effective things that one can do when evangelizing is to just shut up and listen to the person that you are with. It’s when we show an interest in things that are important to them by listening to what they have to say (without our commentary), we then build a trust and a connection that may give us the opportunity to share aspects of our faith.

In this segment of our conversation Dillon shares an experience from the research that he did for one of his books in which listening opened the door for him to share his faith…

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Check out the rest of this conversation in the christian evangelism 101 series.

perfect love, imperfect fear

Remember that time when you were a kid? You know… that time that you and some other kids (friends, siblings, whatever…) were horsing around and something broke. It wasn’t even your fault, but when dad came to see what happened you just knew that you were in trouble.

Oh boy, was your dad mad!

His nose flared and the veins popped out in his forehead. Instantly everyone was afraid of the wrath that was to come.

You, and everyone else just froze.

Since nobody wanted to own up to the horseplay that resulted in the [whatever it was] that got broken, everyone was going to be punished. Nobody wanted to take the punishment so each one of you pointed your finger at somebody else. Maybe it was you that ‘fell’ into it, but it was your brother that pushed you. Everyone had an excuse as to why it wasn’t them that should get punished.

So everyone was sent to their room to wait for the final judgement. Remember that feeling?

Sitting there alone.

Shivering.

Waiting.

Every second feels like an hour. Things start running through your head, and the fear overtakes you. The waiting is somehow worse than whatever the punishment could end up being.

Then dad steps into the room where you’re waiting. He says things like, “this hurts me more than it hurts you.”

What?

You think, “How can it possibly hurt him more than it hurts me?”

You forget that the thing that broke was a priceless [to him] heirloom that has been passed down in his family for generations. It was something that connected him to the very essence of who he is. And now you must pay for the damage that has been done.

At that moment it’s hard for you to understand what your dad is feeling. You are devastated because of what you are about to loose, but he has to deal with something that he just lost AND having to punish you for loosing it. Still it is hard for you to look past what’s about to happen to you, especially considering that you don’t think that you were to blame.

Then it happened…

Just before you are about to receive your punishment, your brother walks into the room. He’s crying. He tells your dad that you didn’t do anything wrong. He takes responsibility for the whole thing. He steps in and takes your punishment.

Remember how you felt?

The fear was gone.

Instantly.

The Apostle John talks about this same feeling when he speaks about the Lord:

There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].

                                                                                                                     – 1 John 4:18 (Amplified)

I’ve always looked at this verse without fully understanding how to apply this idea that “love casts out all fear”. I guess that I always tried to figure out how I should love others, but still struggled to make the connection with how exactly it was supposed to cast out fear. But John wasn’t talking about us.

He was talking about Jesus.

Remember that sin that you have in your life? Jesus stepped in and took our punishment. He didn’t want us to have to pay for it. He stepped in because of His [perfect] love for us.

When Jesus showed His love for us by stepping in like He did, we no longer have a reason to be afraid of the judgement to come.

Perfect love shreds our imperfect [and immature] fear.

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Note: The idea for this post came out of one was developed in an exercise in the Spring 2010 Homiletics class I’m teaching at Sarasota Bible College. The idea was a group effort, so I cannot take full credit for developing it. Special thanks to Anita Gerbig and Todd and Jeri Schliecher for brainstorming this with me!

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