Evangelizing Your Community - Lesson 11

By Stafford North

Teaching the Gospel

Background for the Teacher

Objectives:

  1. The student can describe at least three different approaches to teaching the gospel.
  2. The student can explain how to carry out each of the three different approaches.
  3. The student can name a set of materials he/she might use with each of the three approaches.

Preparation:

  1. Have pen and paper for the class.
  2. Have access to a chalkboard or markerboard.
  3. Read Chapter 8 in North's Evangelizing Your Community in preparation for this class.

Theme:

The personal worker needs to be acquainted with different approaches to use in teaching the gospel and to be able to choose among them for each specific situation.

Lesson Plan for Conducting the Class

Introduction to the Class (12 minutes)

  1. Call the roll and greet visitors.
  2. Prayer for the evangelistic efforts of the class and congregation.
  3. Song about evangelism.
  4. Reports from each student on his/her effort at friendship evangelism.
  5. Remind students that the class is reaching the critical stage to make application of the lessons.

Learning Experiences: (35 minutes)

  1. Add the "teaching the gospel" circle to the chart.
  2. Q: Describe some of the occasions when you or someone you know about has taught the gospel to someone. Q: How would you describe this method?
  3. We may describe three different general approaches to personally teaching someone: (1) one_on_one studies, (2) small group studies, and (3) correspondence studies.
  4. For one_on_one studies, a person might choose from several different materials. (Teacher: select the ones you wish to share with the class and have samples of these to show the class. Evangelizing Your Community, page 115, tells where one can get copies of these.) Ask each student to write down one or two of these he/she would be most likely to use for a one_on_one study.
    1. Use the 10 steps in God's Eternal Plan from Chapter 2.
    2. God Makes a Man by Lloyd Deal.
    3. Open Bible Study by Ivan Stewart.
    4. Lessons from Matthew-go to www.oc.edu/faculty/stafford.north. Look under Articles on Biblical Subjects. Then click on Matthew Home Bible Study.
    5. Safety Chain.
    6. Jule Miller videos.
    7. Robert Oglesby videos.
  5. In one_on_one studies, the attitude you show toward the person with whom you are studying is very important. Q: What are some attitudes you think a person should show in a Bible study? A: Humility, concern for others, good listener, openness, warmth, empathy. Q: What are some attitudes to avoid in doing a Bible study? A: Being judgmental, being haughty-I know more than you do, competition on who is right, being uninterested in what the other person is saying, pride.
  6. Q: What physical arrangement is good for a one_on_one study? A: Quiet, free from distractions, sit at 90 degrees if possible so you can see each other and make eye contact but can still see the same things from the Bible or a diagram on a piece of paper.
  7. Q: What style of study works best for one_on_one studies? A: A high level of involvement of person with whom you are studying. Let them ask questions. Let them read passages of scripture. Let them find answers to questions. Let them draw their own conclusions whenever possible.
  8. Now let's look at the small group Bible study. Q: In what circumstances would a small group study be better than one_on_one? A: When you have several who want to study, when you want a situation that is a little less direct, when you want to use group discussion as a way to approach subjects, when you want a "support group" situation. Q: When would the one_on_one be better? A: When you want to be more direct and personal, when you want to bring the person to a decision, when you are building on a close personal friendship.
  9. Q: What studies might you use for a small group? (Most of those mentioned above for one_on_one studies could also be used for small groups. Usually, the small group works best when the group can be involved using discussion.) Q: What books of the Bible might work best for small group studies? (One of the gospels to study Christ's life and teachings; Acts to study the beginning of the church and how people responded to the gospel; Galatians to study about grace and obedience and Christian living.) Ask the students to write down what they would most likely use for a small group study.
  10. Q: Have any of you been involved in correspondence studies? Tell us about it. Correspondence studies are for those times when a person needs to study on their own because of distance or for some other reason you cannot be present with them. Q: What are some situations like this? (Prison work, people in other countries, people with whom you can have occasional contact who can study on their own in between these times. Sometimes a correspondence course can be combined with personal studies by leaving the lesson with the person to work on before the next in_person study.)
  11. Correspondence studies involve four basic steps: (1) getting the lesson in their hands so they can study it and answer questions over it and send their answers back to you, (2) responding by explaining to them anything they missed and getting them the next lesson, (3) continuing to send lessons back and forth but adding longer comments to them to make the lesson more personal, and (4) following up with them after the study is over by seeing them and/or having someone else to see them.
  12. There are printed Bible correspondence courses which you can send by mail or leave with someone. At www.worldbibleschool.org you can get Bible correspondence courses on line. (See pages 115 and 116 in Evangelizing Your Community for a list of Bible correspondence courses. Briefly mention some of these to the class and ask them to write down the name of a series they might want to use.)
  13. Let's imagine a situation. Suppose you had a friend at school or work that you wanted to bring to Christ. How would you get started in that direction? (Lead the discussion through various stages until a Bible study develops and the person makes a decision to become a Christian-and the follow_up.)

Application and Assignment: (2 minutes)

  1. Next week, be ready to give a report on your progress with a friend or with your conversational evangelism.
  2. In two weeks, we will spend some time thinking about what this congregation could do to be more evangelistic, so be thinking about that.

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