Much has been written on how to share our faith in a natural, personal and effective way. If you don’t know where to start we’re happy to share our recommended reading list:
Five books on evangelism
and why you should read them.
Breaking the Huddle:
How Your Community Can Grow its Witness
by Donald Everts, Douglas Schaupp & Valerie Gordon
(Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2016)
This is a helpful resource for Christian leaders who seek to help their church move from being a huddled community to being a witnessing community; to being a church in which people becoming Christians is central and normative. The authors take a patient and process-oriented approach to witness as they explore common patterns of transformation and conversion seen among seekers and explorers today.
Unbinding the Gospel:
Real Life Evangelism
by Martha Grace Reese,
(St Louis MO: Chalice Press 2007.)
This is an excellent small group study resource for mainline churches wanting to discover the whys and hows of sharing their faith respectfully and authentically. Readers are challenged to consider a variety of people their churches (and they) might share their faith with. The author then discusses approaches to sharing the faith being used by a number of churches that are flourishing. A 40-day prayer journal included in this book highlights the importance of evangelism being grounded in a deep relationship with God.
Unapologetic:
Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense
by Francis Spufford,
(New York: Harper Collins, 2012.)
This book offers both a blistering description of how many non-Christians (the author once among them) view the Church, and the reasons, despite that, why he came to faith as an adult. He offers a deeply moving account of his own experience of mercy and redemption in language that people with absolutely no Christian background will find completely accessible. This is a beautifully written book.
Humble Apologetics:
Defending the Faith Today
by John G. Stackhouse,
(Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002.)
Written by an accomplished theologian, this book offers just what the title promises: reasons (humbly presented) to believe in the Christian faith today. The author explores key aspects of the contemporary context, defines the role of apologetics in Christian mission, and offers guidelines for making apologetics both beneficial and effective. For Stackhouse apologetics centers on presenting one’s faith authentically and helpfully to one’s neighbour. This scholarly but highly readable book will help Christians do just that.
Not God’s Type:
An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms.
by Holly Ordway,
(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014.)
This book tells the story of an academic’s journey from atheism to Christian faith. Along the way she compellingly addresses the questions that many thinking, questioning people have about Christianity. Eventually finding a spiritual home in the Roman Catholic Church, Ordway tells a story which will resonate with people exploring Christianity in any arm of the faith today.
