There are three types of Evangelism: Pulpit Evangelism, Passive Evangelism, and Aggressive Planned Evangelism.

Pulpit Evangelism is preaching to an audience in mass. Paul, talking to a Pastor named Timothy, stated to him in 2 Timothy 4:1-5,

"I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; BE READY IN SEASON AND OUT OF SEASON; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, DO THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST, fulfill your ministry."

Timothy was called to be a Pastor, but in this passage the Apostle Paul makes plain that one of his responsibilities as a Pastor is to do the work of Evangelism. Even though this includes one on one Evangelism, it also includes preaching in the pulpit.

Pulpit Evangelism is preaching in a pulpit to an audience in mass. In this type of Evangelism there is no personal contact one on one. As a result the preacher can come across more authoritatively, more aggressively, because the individual in the audience knows if the message is for him or not and can deal with the issue privately between himself and God without any public embarrassment before proclaiming Christ publicly.

This is one-on-one Evangelism. Whereas not all Christians are called to be Pulpit Preachers or Evangelists, yet all Christians are called to share their faith with others. Jesus said,

"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be shamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels." (Mark 8:38).

This is pre-planned Evangelism: Planning in agreement with the Holy Spirit to go out literally and approach a total stranger in love to share the Gospel with them. Any time you go out in obedience to God and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others you are acting in love. Why? Because love is not a feeling but a decision of the will. Love is not based on feelings, but is a decision of the will. Jesus said in John 14:15, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. When the Bible tells us that we are to love God with all our hearts it is not talking about feeling love for God. It means making a deliberate decision against our normal feelings and nature to walk in obedience to God. Paul tells us in the Bible about our human nature:

"For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." (Gal 5:17).

To plan and take two hours of our time a week to go out and share our faith with total strangers is not only an act of love toward Jesus, but the greatest act of love we can show any man or woman. Why? Because there is a heaven and a Hell and men and women will go to hell if they do not know Jesus. The late Walter Martin, who wrote many books on how to witness to Christian cults, said, "How can a person say he believes in Hell and not take time in his week to go out and share his faith with others?"⁸⁶ His point was how can we say we believe that heaven and hell are an absolute reality and not warn our fellow men in love of the wrath to come unless we are not really believers? The apostle Paul believed that heaven and hell are absolute realities so much so that speaking about what motivated his life, he wrote,

"But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak." (2 Cor 4:13)

"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body whether good or bad. Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men." (2 Cor 5:10-11)

Did You ever wonder why God gave Paul so much space in the Bible? He wanted us to learn from his example and do the same.

Men who do not know Jesus WILL go to hell, FOREVER. Because of this reality, taking time in our busy week to go and share our faith with others is the greatest act of love we can show anyone. Evangelism is the responsibility of all Christians.

Aggressive Evangelism by its very nature requires vulnerability and transparency. You are face to face with the individual and so he is exposed to both Your strengths and weaknesses. This is not negative though because our message is not what we are but about the Lord and source of what we are: JESUS! Our message is not what we have done or accomplished but what Jesus has done and accomplished for us: "If Jesus can save us from our sins and change our lives and accept us for who we are, just think of what he can do for You!" Also, this kind of Evangelism gives the person you are witnessing too an opportunity to get answers to questions which may be presently hindering him from releasing his faith in Jesus. Finally, the benefit of this kind of Evangelism is that if the person is ready to receive Jesus you can give them that extra needed word of encouragement to make that decision that a pulpit Evangelist cannot. Often a person does not feel worthy to accept Jesus because of his or her guilt over past sins, but through your encouragement in love they find the courage to turn to Jesus and yield their lives to Him and receive His forgiveness for their sins. John wrote, ... as He is, so also are we in this world (1 Jn 4:17). We represent Jesus to men. How can they see Jesus unless we who represent him go to man and share our faith with him. Paul wrote,

"For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom 10:13-14).

Men must hear the Gospel to release their faith in Jesus. This is why it is the loving responsibility of all Christians to commit themselves in agreement with the Holy Spirit to take time in their week to go out and share the love of Jesus Christ with men. Personally, no matter what God’s agenda is for me, I go out every Saturday and Sunday afternoon and share the Gospel with men in malls, door to door, in the parks and anywhere else I can find anyone sitting still long enough to hear what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. Many times I have the joy of praying with these people and seeing them come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

When we die, we cannot take anything with us that this world has to offer. The only thing we can take with us are those men and women we allow Jesus to bring to Himself through us by giving of ourselves and time during the week to share the Gospel with lost humanity. To do this is a discision of love, that is a decision of the will, not a feeling. Stop right now and commit yourself to spend a minimum of two hours a week, with the help of the Lord, for the rest of Your life sharing the love of Jesus Christ with men. This is only 1.6% of your time in a week. I really encourage you to make this decision right now. "‘At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you’; BEHOLD, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ BEHOLD, now is ‘The day of salvation’" (2 Cor 6:2). Get down on Your knees and pray:

Jesus, by faith right now I commit myself to a minimum of 2 hours a week to go out and aggressively share the love of Jesus Christ with men. I acknowledge you in this commitment and make this commiment in Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s name; and I believe You to keep my paths straight in this regard in Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s name, amen.

What I really want to talk to you about in this book is On The Job, in the Neighborhood and in the Home Evangelism. The Apostle Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15,

"For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."

The circumstances of this type of Evangelism is working next to someone eight hours a day. To just come on immediately aggressively with an Evangelism Tract or some other type of Gospel presentation would be awkward, unnatural, and probably received as such by the recipient. To be an effective witness on the job involves the observation and practice of five elements: Work, Pray, Wait, Love, and Witness with positive results.

First, realize that witnessing your faith with fellow employees and employers or a neighbor is a privilege earned, not a right. So we witness first on the job by the way we WORK and relate to them on the natural plane as a Christian. If you are not witnessing Jesus in the way you work and in the way you relate to your fellow employees and employers on the natural plane, your verbal witness will fall on deaf ears.

We earn the right to share our faith with fellow employees and employers by first being a witness through being a good employee. Paul states in Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men." The writer of Proverbs states in Proverbs 18:9, "He also who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys." And Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Second, make a prayer list of your fellow employees and employers and begin PRAYING for them that Jesus will tear down the strongholds of Satan over their hearts and minds that are keeping them from seeing that Jesus is the answer to their life and needs and to surrender to Him as Savior and Lord of their lives. (2 Cor 4:3-4, 10:3-5).

The Bible teaches us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Our battle is not with people but with unseen spiritual forces which bind and blind men from the truth of the Gospel. Therefore, before men will be able to hear what we have to say, we will need to first bind those forces which are blinding them and ask the Lord to uncloud their minds so they can see the truth of the Gospel and recognize their need to accept Jesus as Savior from their sins and as Lord of their lives. Paul wrote,

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)