The last two weeks we have critiqued two tracts. A critique is rather easy to do, but setting out something positive is a different thing altogether. So this week, in an effort to speak about good tracts, we will deal with the nature of evangelism first. A tract that is used evangelistically should, after all, be in line with true evangelism.
WHAT IS EVANGELISM?
Here is a very important question and it is not asked often enough. The way it is answered to some degree determines the way evangelism is done. For example, if we think of evangelism as going to a number of doors and unloading a message on the people before the door is shut, then we must have a canned message that can be fired quickly. If we think of evangelism as a messenger focused practice, then we will be concerned about the “me” in the practice of disseminating information. If we think of evangelism from a human-centered viewpoint, then we focus on the person being “reached.” If we think of evangelism as something that is done primarily to aid in the growth of a church, then pressing the people to a decision and to attend church quickly is the focus. Without doing an exhaustive survey of this, I hope that the point is clear. Evangelism must be done in a way that brings the truth of God to the people and deals with them as a sinner in need of the Gospel. The claims of God must be pressed home to them so that they see the need of the Gospel that is proclaimed to them. Evangelism is essentially dealing with a person in a way where biblical truths are pressed home to the person.
EVANGELISM MUST BE GOD-CENTERED
I would propose that evangelism should be done from a God-centered approach. The primary motive in evangelism should be out of love for the glory of God (I Cor 10:31). With this motive in mind, we will not water down the message of the Gospel since our chief desire is to see God glorified. It is also the case that we cannot love our neighbor without loving God so this also helps us to see that to love our neighbor we must tell them the truth about God. The Gospel is really all about the glory of God in its many facets and so we cannot truly preach the Gospel unless we are setting out the glory of God. We cannot love the Gospel unless we love the glory of God that we are to be speaking about.
EVANGELISM MUST DEAL WITH PEOPLE HONESTLY
A true messenger of God will talk honestly to a person about his or her sin. One can proclaim some of the Bible without the biblical background and make the person think that God is centered on nothing but human beings, but that is to use the sin of self-centeredness in the human being as something good rather than something to repent of. If we are going to evangelize in truthfulness and honesty, we must deal with souls as they are. They need to know about their sin and how they are at enmity with Him (Rom 5:10; 8:7; Col 1:21). They need to see what sin is in order to count the cost and to have a true repentance. They need to see their helplessness before God in order that they may go to Him in utter humility crying out for grace to turn them. If a person comes to God on his own strength, that is not really coming to God. Jesus said that no one had the ability of himself to come to God (John 6:44). So if a person comes to God on his own at our encouragement, we have misled him.
EVANGELISM MUST PROCLAIM CHRIST
Evangelism must be about Christ in His works and offices. There is no Gospel apart from the perfect life of Christ, the cross as the perfect sacrifice that propitiates God, a perfect righteousness given as a free gift, and a resurrection that declares who Christ is and that His sacrifice was accepted by God. The resurrection of Christ is a guarantee of the coming judgment of all (Acts 17:30ff). We are to proclaim Christ as eternal life Himself (I John 5:20) and as the embodiment of the glory of God which is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). We are to proclaim Christ as the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Christ must be proclaimed as Prophet, Priest, and King. We must proclaim Christ as the way of reconciliation to the Father and that He is the Intercessor for the brethren. Christ must be proclaimed as the way for the guilt of sin to be punished but also as the way for the power of sin to be defeated. What a glorious Gospel that is, though in a short form.
EVANGELISM MUST DEAL WITH PEOPLE PERSONALLY
Now if evangelism involves all of the above things, we should think of evangelism as something that is done in many ways. Evangelism should include coming to church and hearing the Gospel preached. It should include personal teaching and appeals from individuals. It should not be seen as distinct from discipleship. But the point I am trying to make is that evangelism should be thought of as personal when it is practiced by individuals in the church. Individuals should bring people to church as part of evangelism, though not the whole. So when we begin to evangelize people, we should not think of this as a one time message and then it is over. We must deal with people personally. The Gospel is a supernatural message and the natural man cannot accept the things of God (I Cor 2:14). So we must be prepared to deal with rejection and ridicule in evangelism, but if we are dealing with people on a personal basis, they will see some real concern (if we have it) and not be so quick to call names and persecute.
When dealing with people on a personal basis, we are to deal with them about their sin and the Gospel in general conversation and with Bible studies. We are, after all, dealing with people who have spent their whole lives building upon an unregenerate nature and suppressing the truth by bad arguments and reasons. While indeed God can and may overcome their resistance quickly, He may use the means of His people over a period of time. So I am trying to stress the need to deal with people as individuals that God has made. He has made people differently and has brought us as individuals to them at His sovereign appointment. We are to deal with them as individuals because God made them and us that way. Therefore, we can try to define evangelism (loosely) as a way of bringing the Gospel of our glorious God to people that are at enmity with Him and in a personal way as ambassadors bring them the message of His demand for them to repent and love Him rather than themselves. But how does this fit with tracts? It can work very well.
TRACTS AND EVANGELISM
Tracts are a wonderful way to enhance or enable us to start practicing evangelism. But remember, with tracts the goal is to personally deal with individuals. While it is true that we can plant seeds with tracts and never deal with people, that is not really evangelism. That is planting seeds and while it is a good thing, it is not really evangelism. So a tract that is planting seeds may not be the best tract for dealing with people personally. A tract that is simply planting seeds should be a good tract that is sound theologically and deals with the nature of God, sin, and the Gospel itself. It is far better to deal with people personally, but having good tracts to hand out is better than doing nothing. The least we can do is to plant seeds, and if we do that we want to use good tracts.
Another method that I have seen that is beneficial is for people write their own tracts that include their personal testimony. Some have written out their own testimony in tract form with something of a Gospel presentation to go along with it. It would be good to have someone who is astute with the Gospel check the tract, but people will more easily take a tract if it is personal. One can also write their own testimony and then hand out other tracts that deal plainly with the Gospel. I wrote a tract several years ago because I was so frustrated in trying to find a tract that dealt with the character of God. I would tell people that I had written this and ask them to read it. I handed out hundreds of those and never had one rejection as far as people taking it. It is hard for people to reject a person who is handing them something that he or she has written. Whether they read it or not is another thing, but I think it is more likely that they will read something from someone they have met.
Since evangelism is tied in with the process of discipleship, we must realize the limitations of tracts. A tract is great to start with, but people must get into the Bible fairly quickly. While church may be knocked by some, if we want people to hear the Gospel in a fuller way, they need to hear biblical preaching. Even if people are converted, they still need to hear the Gospel and to hear it in a deeper and deeper way as time goes by. They never outgrow the Gospel. For the best tracts that I have seen, go here: http://www.intoutreach.org.
God Loves... Himself 
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