The Gospel and Personal Evangelism - A Review

A Review of Dever's Gospel and Personal Evangelism

Dever’s The Gospel and Personal Evangelism

Mark Dever claims to have written his book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, to help individual Christians and local churches develop a culture of evangelism. He wants them to evangelize more.

For this, Dever should be commended. I am eager to endorse this aim. I share his aspirations. I think every local church should have the same goal.

Greatest Strengths

1. The Scope.

Dever seeks to create a culture of evangelism. In the process, he brings in details that other authors skip. This book attempts to deal with stumbling blocks that keep people from evangelizing. Dever makes the case that evangelism is something for all Christians to grow in and to participate in. Dever discusses what to do leading up to, during, and after actual evangelism takes place. These are worthwhile things to discuss and I’m glad he included them in his book.

2. What Evangelism Is Not.

Like other books in the 9 Marks series, Dever attempts to clarify the gospel and evangelism by presenting both what it is and what it isn't. Particularly helpful in this little book is the discussion of commonly held views about evangelism. Dever rightly teaches these popular techniques and approaches are actually not evangelism. Dever tackles many related topics that are good Christian activities on their own — things like personal testimony, service, and apologetics — by showing how these are different than evangelism.

This section is worth the price of the book alone.

3. The Move Toward Discipleship.

Many books on evangelism focus only the actual evangelistic encounter. They discuss matters leading up to and during the actual witnessing event. Dever's book goes further. He includes what to do afterward, too. This is part of the number one strength listed above. But it deserves its own mention.

I've met many Christians who evangelize and think a lot about scattering the seed of the gospel. I think we would all do well to think about how to continue caring for the seed that has been sown in both those who believe and those who reject the gospel message. Dever helps his readers to think more about these things. This discussion is a true strength in this little book.

Greatest Weaknesses

1. The Length.

What makes this series of books popular is that they are short. As such, they are extremely readable. They are digestible.

However, I am seemingly always left wanting more. The gospel and personal evangelism is such a weighty subject. In this short book, we only briefly touch on the surface. It's a good step in the direction of building a culture of personal evangelism. Taking action in this area will go a long way. However, the brevity of much of the discussion in this book leaves a superficial impression in my mind.

This leads to my next thought...

2. The Gospel.

The weakness mentioned above is most glaring in Dever's discussion of the gospel. According to the title of the book, this is a book about the gospel. Yet, the discussion spans a measly 14 pages. To add to this weakness, a good portion of this brief discussion is anecdote.

While I don't think Dever failed in his pursuit, it is an extremely superficial discussion. Dever may have done about as well as possible in such a short amount of space. Yet, there are far better treatments of the gospel. To be fair, there are certainly far worse, too. As part of the title and aim, this element is severely lacking, in my opinion.

3. Misuse of the terminology “Evangelist.”

Dever is not alone in his misuse of this biblical term. It's probably not fair for me to single him out. It should be stated clearly that sharing the gospel doesn't make you an evangelist. This issue is a bigger deal to me than to most. I’ve written a book about this common misconception and attempting to reclaim the true forgotten officer of evangelist. Take that for what it's worth!

Conclusion

I like Mark Dever's book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. In full disclosure, there are other, similar books that I like a lot more. I would be happy to recommend Dever’s book to someone who I am confident already has an excellent grasp on the gospel or who expresses a strong desire to study the gospel in greater depth after they are done reading this one.

To truly succeed in the aim Dever shoots for — that is, creating a culture of evangelism — I think we need to cultivate a far deeper understanding and appreciation of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. We must do this both in our own hearts and minds, and in the hearts and minds of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Dever’s book can help us take a step in that direction.