EM324 - D2351/3351 EVANGELISM IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY - Subject Outline

SUBJECT AIMS

Principles of Evangelism is a study of the theological and practical principles of communicating Christian faith to non-believers. Through this CD we will aim to do the following things:

1. Provide opportunities for you to examine theological issues relating to evangelism
2. Enable you to reflect upon the interaction of the various aspects of Christian outreach
3. Develop your skills in the practice and evaluation of evangelism.

As this subject is being offered as a subject for accreditation with the Australian College of Theology (ACT) the following outline of this subject is taken from the The Australian College of Theology Undergraduate Manual 2003.

Aim

a. To provide opportunity for candidates to examine theological issues relating to evangelism

b. To enable candidates to reflect upon the interaction of the various aspects of Christian mission

c. To develop candidates' skills in the practice and evaluation of evangelism.

SUBJECT CONTENT

Section A: Biblical and Theological Perspectives

1. an examination of evangelistic proclamation in Acts and the other New Testament texts, with attention to what constitutes the gospel message and varied approaches according to audience;
2. Divine sovereignty and human response, faith, conversion and baptism.
3. Motivations for evangelism; the relation of proclamation to meeting human need.
4. Proclamation, witness and presence; the place of evangelism in Christian education and worship
5. Hindrances to evangelism, including brief consideration of common objections to the gospel.

Section B: Principles of Evangelism

1. The role of the evangelist: the vocation to be an evangelist; lifestyle and message; the role(s) of the congregation in the evangelist's ministry.
2. Communicating faith: person to person; through relationships; small groups; life networks; earning the right to speak; mass evangelism.
3. Evangelism of various groups; for example youth, nominal church members, ethnic groups, secular humanists, factory works.
4. Appropriate evangelistic methods for different situations and contexts (including dialogue meetings, evangelistic church services, distinctive approaches for women and men); examination of two methods of personal evangelism.

Section C: Field Work

1. Personal involvement (with supervision) in not less than 20 hours in specifically evangelistic programmes, including at least 5 hours of direct evangelism by the candidate. These hours exclude preparation and writing-up time. The evangelism is to be done in semester NOT evangelism done prior to the course nor planned after the semester. It is to include at least 5 hours of direct evangelism by the student. This work could include both inter-personal and small group contexts, using the methods studied in topic 9. This work could include people known to the candidate as evangelist, and those unknown. Large group and media settings may also be used.

Outline of the material on this CD

The notes are broken into thirteen lessons. Each lesson should take a week to complete, including the extra reading and activities. The lessons are divided into eight topics. We spend a few weeks on some topics and only one week on others. The topics are as follows:

Section 1 - The Gospel

Section 2 - Evangelistic Models

Section 3 - The Context for Evangelism

Section 4 - Intro to Apologetics

Section 5 - The Nature of Conversion

Section 6 - Principles of Follow-Up

Section 7 - Church-based Evangelism

Section 8 - Postmodernity

[top of page]

[top of page]