When you think of evangelism, what comes to mind? Probably these five traditional methods:
Door Knocking - a sort of spiritual "cold call" at someone's home
Personal Work - one-on-one conversations with family, friends, coworkers, and other people we encounter in out daily lives
Street Preaching - open-air preaching on street corners and near large events (sports, concerts, festivals, etc)
Sign Holding - holding up signs with gospel messages and Scripture verses near events or along busy roadways
Tract Distribution - small pamphlets or cards that can be handed to someone while doing any of the previously listed methods of evangelism, or left with the tip at a restaurant, mailed out, etc.
I would guess that these are the most frequently used methods - perhaps even the core methods - of evangelism, but people have come up with all sorts of creative variations of these five in their efforts to reach the lost. I love creative new ways of sharing the gospel. In fact, I'm working on a future post that details methods of evangelism and resources similar to the posts I wrote about Why the KJV? and Resources for Bible Study. Not only does in increase the variety of people that can be reached, but it sometimes it also increases the frequency with which we can share the gospel.
I hope to whet your appetite for that future post by passing along something new that has put a creative spin on a tried-and-true evangelism tool. You may have seen one variation or another of the "Am I Going to Heaven" tracts. They are typically set up in a quiz style, asking providing readers with a list and asking him or her to check everything required for getting to heaven. The tract then opens up to reveal an "answer key" that explains why the only correct answer was placing faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. They're good tracts.
So what's the problem? People are in a hurry these days, usually for no good reason. And the internet and social media have trained many of us to prefer videos over good ol' fashioned reading. So what can we do? That is a problem that Pastor Jesse Martinez of Calvary Community Church is trying to address. The church took the content of a "I Am Going to Heaven" tract and made it into an interactive Youtube video. In the video, Pastor Martinez poses the question, and four options appear in the corners of the screen. The viewer can then click the option for what he or she thinks is necessary to get to heaven. That then takes them to a new video that explains why the answer was incorrect (or correct in the case of the bottom right option) and then gives a clear and concise gospel presentation. Check it out here:
Maybe you love it and you already know people you want to send it to. Or maybe you want to post it on your social media page(s). Or maybe it has sparked a creative idea in you to create something similar, or to take some other method of evangelism and transfer it to a new format. Or maybe it simply reaffirms your love for using one of the tried-and-true methods without any creative spins on it. Whatever the case may be, let this be an encouragement to keep sharing the gospel in any and every way you can. The days are few and the lost are many...
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