Paul’s Pattern and Practice of Evangelism
17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
Acts 17:1–4 ESV (read more)
There was a trend in the 70s and 80s to setup a method of evangelism where anybody could follow a few steps to share the Gospel. There was a reaction to this with Generation X that didn’t like the formula approach and wanted things to be more open and less formulaic and structured. Currently, churches teach a mixture of all of these.
Look at what it says Paul did from city to city. “As was his custom” Paul didn’t have a formula, per se, but he did have a pattern. He didn’t re-create the wheel at every town he entered. It was a pretty smart habit, really, and it usually served as a good starting block.
Paul’s Pattern for Evangelism
Go to the synagogue, where there are already people sincerely seeking God.
Talk about what they already know and believe, and build on that.
Not condemning or correcting unless it was absolutely necessary after everything else.
Notice that Paul went there for three sabbaths. That’s easy to read over too fast. For three weeks he went to the synagogue! He had to do something in town for those other 18 days! We don’t have any description of what he did, but from other places we can suspect that he worked his job as a tent salesman and met people. It was a slow work of expanding the Gospel into Thessalonica, and we’ve just read two books on how it turned out.
Are there patterns or customs that you’ve learned to use when it comes to preaching the Gospel?
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