Robert Coleman is Distinguished
Professor of Evangelism at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, having
previously served as Mission Associate of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association. A graduate of Southwesterm University, Asbury Theological Seminary
and Princeton Theological Seminary, he received a Ph.D. from the University of
Iowa.
Coleman
begins by saying that all evangelistic methods should be evaluated by their
efficacy: "It it worth doing? And does it get the job done?" As far as the
method's origin, he states that Jesus' is the only biblical model for
evangelism; all other successful evangelistic efforts in the New Testament are
duplications of His. First, he was careful to select a few men to form an inner
circle--He did this even before developing a public ministry. These men,
however, had to be willing to learn, and were not initially very impressive;
these He could form into leaders for His kingdom. Second, He taught by
association--by just having them "hang around"
Him, learning His methods by observation as He ministered to them and the
masses. Third, He consecrated them by requiring
total obedience and complete surrender to His sovereignty and turning
loose of the world, being willing to pay a heavy price. Fourth, He imparted
to them the Holy Spirit, who
would teach and comfort them in His absence and who now alone enables us to
carry on the redemptive mission of evangelism. This was only possible to those
He sanctified. Fifth, the disciples learned from Jesus as He
demonstrated evangelism, facilely using
Scripture and teaching naturally and constantly. Sixth, He delegated
tasks to them, letting them learn
while in training and receive correction and instruction after exercises in
ministry. Seventh, He supervised there ministry exercises and brought
them together to
"compare notes." Last, He ordered them to reproduce,
teaching others the things He had
taught them by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This
book addresses evangelism in a way that I had never considered it before. These
days evangelism is expressed merely as the conversion of the sinner, rather
than the biblically complete process of development and reproduction. Coleman,
in this respect, succeeds; he uses no Scripture in ways the typical evangelical
would find incorrect, but coherently distills the passages relative to
evangelism into a process that many are not using. He makes the interesting
point that, by when compared to modern methods, Jesus' method does not seem to
have the same promise of effectiveness as modern methods, but that in the
process of geometric application, beginning with a few willing who would go out
and duplicate the work would develop a Kingdom of better taught, readier
disciples than blanket "come to Jesus" phenomena.
There
are no apparent biases or agenda going on here, save the emphasis on following
Jesus' example, as no one would argue we are certainly expected to do in all
other areas of life. Coleman does not mince words: the goal here is not
quantity, but quality. Jesus established a pattern that works,
and true disciples are only
generated in this way.
This
will be very useful in my ministry. As a music minister in an irreligious part
of town, there are ample opportunities to blanket the area with a thin film of
the gospel. While this is better than nothing, opportunities are more prevalent
to cultivate a small portion of "typical" people who will more effectively
communicate the cause--and cost--of Christ to those I would otherwise never have
had opportunity to interact with.