Evangelism

How a Witness is Essential to Your Witness

Kirk E. Miller

Introduction

“Stepped out in faith.” “God laid it on my heart.” “Ask Jesus into your heart.” All of these are what we call “Christianese” phrases. UrbanDictionary.com defines “Christianese” as “A communicable language within the Christian subculture with words and phrases created, redefined, and / or patened that applies only to the Christian sphere of influence.” Another example of this sort of sub-cultured speech is the term “witnessing” or “being a witness.” Now, I have absolutely no problem with this particular “Christian term.” In fact, I think it is quite helpful (contrary to most ambiguous Christian lingo). I also believe it can teach us something incredibly vital to our Christian life. However, as with all “Christianese,” confusion can also accompany its use.

Continue reading →

“Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions” by David Platt

Kirk E. Miller 3 Comments

This past Spring I was privileged to be able to go the 2012 Together for the [Underestimated] Gospel conference. I heard various well-known speakers such as John Piper, Al Mohler, C.J. Mahanney, Matt Chandler, Mark Dever, etc. But my favorite sermon was “Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel of Death-Defying Missions” by David Platt, based out of Revelation 5, delivered on Wednesday, April 11th.

Continue reading →

6 Ways to Effectively Lose Your Gospel Witness (A Satire)

Kirk E. Miller 2 Comments

The Christian’s Gospel witness is his or her call to spread the good news that Christ died to save sinners and that all who turn from their evil ways to faith in Christ will be made right with God and saved from His wrath.

Now, many Christians throughout America are currently practicing various techniques that improve their ability to effectively lose their Gospel witness. But in order to help more Christians in this endeavor, I have decided to promote the awareness of these impeccable methods so that more and more Christians might begin employing them into their own lives. The following is a helpful list of various ways in which you too can successfully lose your Gospel witness.

Continue reading →

Marks of the Messenger by J. Mack Stiles

Kirk E. Miller

I just finished this book yesterday. This is certainly not some high academic, grit-your-teeth-through-it book. It is written at the average person’s level, very easy to read (I read it in three days without much dedication), and very enjoyable.

The book is about evangelism, but more so, as Mark Dever says in the book’s foreward, “Mack puts the evangel [the Gospel] back in evangelism.” In other words, the main thrust of the book is not directly the idea of sharing the Gospel but understanding the Gospel and then seeing how a precise understanding of the Gospel affects the way you share it. It is an excellent book and the truths within it are surely something, as Christians, we all need to hear and be reminded of constantly. If we think we know the Gospel, we don’t know ourselves. We are inclined to forget the Gospel, neglect the Gospel, de-emphasize the Gospel, add to the Gospel (which in reality subtracts from the Gospel), distort the Gospel, tone down the Gospel, etc. We need reminders such as this.

Here is an excerpt from the last chapter of the book. I believe this portion summarize the main themes rather well.

Continue reading →

Gospel Clichés

Kirk E. Miller

What I would like to do with this article is present to you some popular Gospel clichés, as I like to call them, and provide some rather brief thoughts on each—-nothing exhaustive or too in depth, but just some thoughts to make you think about them, their use, what they seem to be saying, their accuracies and inaccuracies, etc.

“I asked Jesus into my heart” / “Ask Jesus into your heart”

First of all, the Bible does indicate that Christ may dwell in our hearts (Eph 3:17). Yet we must understand that this of course is figurative and not literal and that this specific statement occurs in the context of Paul’s prayer for believers (Eph 3:17), not as an analogy of sorts of someone being saved. With that said, I have some problems with this phrase.
Continue reading →