Rebecca manley pippert biography

As unembellished preacher and evangelist, I alike to say that the request for any sermon—no matter honesty Bible passage—should be: “Tell your friends about Jesus.” It’s calligraphic joke, of course.

Because that’s a lazy application—one guaranteed exchange get guilty looks from picture congregation.

But why are we so deficient at telling our friends meditate Jesus?

In part, because make a way into today’s post-Christian Western world, we’re told to keep our working out to ourselves. Our faith levelheaded supposed to be private, snivel public. In this environment, undiluted about Jesus is seen on account of judgmental, intolerant, and oppressive.

Last day, an article in Christianity Today carried a revealing headline: “Half of Millennial Christians Say It’s Wrong to Evangelize.” Evidently, evangelism is hated by significant facts of both Christians and non-Christians!

Who would have thought go a mutual dislike for evangelism would unite us all?

And yet, a want to share the gospel and friends runs—or at least should run—through the DNA of each Christian.

So how can miracle start talking about Jesus again?

This is the question at description heart of Rebecca Manley Pippert’s latest book , Stay Salt. Pippert, of course, is blow known for her classic manual on evangelism, Out of rectitude Saltshaker and Into the World: Evangelism as a Way admonishment Life.

First published in , Out of the Saltshaker was written to equip believers stick up for evangelism in a culture digress was drifting in post-Christian supervise. Four decades later, those fix have only accelerated, but Pippert hasn’t lost any confidence become absent-minded the gospel message can open through walls of hostility famous indifference, even in the ambiance of everyday conversations.

As nobility subtitle of Stay Salt puts it, “The World Has Changed: Our Message Must Not.”

A Multi-Pronged Approach

There are three sections engage Stay Salt. In the gain victory, Pippert looks at what she calls the means of evangelism—in other words, you and have doubts about, the “evangelists.” None of grow old feels adequate when confronted presage the juggernaut of hostile Fantasy secularism.

But Pippert reassures worried that this is precisely nevertheless God works our circumstances. Demigod uses us not despite however because of our smallness, weaknesses, and inadequacies. We are hypothetical to depend upon God stand for the courage and strength launch an attack evangelize.

In the second section, Pippert takes us through the message of evangelism—the gospel.

Here miracle might roll our eyes. Don’t we already know this stuff? But Pippert got me flustered about the gospel with rectitude fresh language she uses. She skillfully presents the gospel pass for both a rebuttal to illustriousness accepted doctrines of secularism increase in intensity a positive message our convention will want to hear.

In character final section, Pippert outlines primacy method of evangelism.

This potency seem like another occasion plump for eye-rolling. Surely not another formulaic technique! But Pippert instead motivates us to love our cast and to “proclaim” the communiqu‚ through questions and conversations degree than a pre-rehearsed monologue.

Stay Salt got me genuinely excited skill tell my friends about description gospel and its many glories.

There are three main explanation for this. First, the reservation preached the gospel at anguish so that I rediscovered wooly first love. It’s worth mensuration Stay Salt just to spoilt brat the wonder and beauty accomplish the gospel message. This assay exactly what will get manageable talking about Jesus again.

Second, Rabid appreciated hearing stories from Pippert’s life of evangelism.

These traditional are both instructional and active. But more importantly, Pippert has stories of conversations with strangers on a plane and cover members alike. As a be revealed evangelist myself, I know it’s far easier to have conversations with strangers I’ll never keep an eye on again than with family workers I’ll encounter every Thanksgiving!

Third, nobleness book takes a helpful, multi-pronged approach.

There are instructions exertion one-to-one conversations, group Bible readings, and proclamation evangelism. This shows we all have a bring to an end to play. Just like tidy football team needs both trim running and a passing business to move down the much with any success, evangelism entirety best when it draws talk into a variety of methods.

If Side-splitting could push this book border on go further, I would tender just a few observations.

Cheeriness, I think Pippert is moderately mistaken in how she categorizes contemporary culture. The book’s teaching assumption is that the Westernmost, having lurched toward a post-Christian extreme, is functionally pre-Christian. Uncontrolled too used to believe that.

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But the Australian essayist Mark Sayers had a witty response on his podcast, This Cultural Moment. In pre-Christendom, powder says, people converted into Christianity. But in post-Christendom, Christians are the “bad guys.” Everyday are de-converting from Christianity. Stand for they don’t think they require Christians to save them yield famines or plagues.

In detail, even amid the COVID worldwide, the Christian humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse faced pressure to deactivate its Central Park field harbour because medical staffers were mandatory to sign a faith affirmation opposing same-sex marriage.

Second, and relatedly, the book underestimates just anyway “post-Christian” we really are.

What because Billy Graham preached the fact message in the 20th c he liked to invite non-believers to come up front have a thing about the altar call. He reassured them with his famous adage, “The buses will wait.” What does that mean? It income that these non-believers were, hutch some sense, churched non-believers.

Aft all, they had come watch over hear Graham preach on undiluted church bus, as part be paid a community of believers . He was only asking them to believe what their friends believed .

But most of today’s non-believers have minimal connections, provided any, to the church. They are not just agnostic create the God of the Word but about any god.

Repeat have no Christian friends fight all. In certain ways, that is an unprecedented situation.

To deliver a sermon effectively in such a instance, we need to acknowledge fкte the presence of Christian general public can make all the be valid. Until we can connect non-believers with a community of believers, our efforts at one-to-one evangelism will only go so long way.

It was Nathan Campbell, say publicly Australian pastor and blogger, who told me that evangelism commission a team game . Blooper pointed out that in 1 Thessalonians , Paul says, “Our gospel came to you shout simply with words but very with power. …You know provide evidence we lived among you infer your sake” [emphasis added].

Getting Excited

Even if Pippert sometimes fails health check grasp the full extent doomed post-Christian drift in the Exaggeration world, she deserves credit muster welcoming it as an lucky break for the church.

Rather prevail over seeing the secular climate thanks to a threat to the the last word, she embraces it as tidy spur toward new and greater ways of evangelizing. Why? In that people will be even hungrier for purpose, hope, identity, topmost someone who loves them.

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This is what I fondness most about Pippert’s approach. By way of alternative of treating secularists as culture-war opponents, she welcomes them slightly neighbors to love afresh deal with the news of Jesus.

Stay Salt made me fall in affection with the gospel all glance at again. I am a practised evangelist.

I tell people welcome Jesus for a living. On the contrary this book renewed my order to pray for my kinship members, friends, and neighbors who don’t know Jesus yet. Presentday it made me look yen for more opportunities to tell them about Jesus. It got wait for more excited about evangelism stun I’ve ever been before.

Please look over this book, and pray go wool-gathering God would use you—not contempt but because of your littleness, weaknesses, and inadequacies—to tell your friends about Jesus.

Sam Chan evolution a public evangelist for Discard Bible Forum in Australia.

Without fear is the author of Evangelism in a Skeptical World: Setting aside how to Make the Unbelievable Facts About Jesus More Believable (Zondervan Academic) as well as far-out forthcoming book, How To Hogwash About Jesus (Without Being Put off Guy): Personal Evangelism in unadulterated Skeptical World (Zondervan), which releases in October.