The Pastor-Evangelist

by Roger S. Greenway

Book Overview

An outstanding collection of essays by a number of Reformed scholars concerning many aspects of evangelism. This tackles a variety of topics related to evangelism. From church strategies, to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875522793
• ISBN13: 9780875522791
• Release Date: December 1951
• Publisher: P & R Publishing
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended

This book is an outstanding collection of essays written by a number of Reformed scholars concerning many aspects of evangelism. As I will expand upon later, this book has regretably flown under the radar even within Reformed circles and I think that's highly disappointing and even damaging.Over a dozen Reformed contributors (some high profile, others not) come together to tackle a variety of topics related to evangelism. From the role of prayer, to evangelistic church strategies, to individual evangelistic empowerment, there are precious few aspects of evangelism that aren't covered at least to some degree in here. Some contributions are better than others, but nearly all of them are good stuff.Reeder's chapter on revitalizing existing churches that are dying was masterful. Evangelical pastors suffering in mainline churches in particular might benefit from this chapter, but also many seminary students planning pastoral ministry - for different reasons. Since mainline denominations, even after 4 decades of steady decline, place little emphasis on church planting, the question is not how to start a new church, but how to save and revitalize existing churches - which is a mission made all the more difficult by denominational level abandonment of Christian orthodoxy. In contrast, within evangelical denominations, such an emphasis is placed upon new church planting that existing church revitalization doesn't seem to get nearly as much attention. And for the would-be pastor, this is very problematic since seminary graduates heading off to pastoral ministry are still quite likely to be called to a dying church requiring revitalization as their first pastoral assignment. This chapter, in my view, is must reading for these reasons. One wonders if the emphasis on church planting might be fueled by a general lack of strategy on how to revitalize existing churches who are struggling. This chapter is a needed antidote, very needed.Clowney's chapter on Kingdom evangelism is quite good as well. Not surprisingly, Clowney's theology of evangelism is heavily influenced by Vosian Biblical Theology. Gyger's chapter on integrating evangelism with church growth is also very good, since it provides some perspective and guidance on the commonly thorny question maintaining the vitality of the gospel while also reaching out as a church in the context of growing Christ's church.This book was published back in 1987, making it rather old. This is both good and bad. It's bad because after 16 years, the Reformed community has still paid scant attention to its contents, which is quite ominous. The distinguished group of authors who came together in this collaboration were clearly writing as a group of Reformed scholars and pastors who were quite concerned about the state of evangelism within Reformed circles, and were writing as an appeal for change. Well, little change has resulted because it doesn't appear that many folks have been listening, which almost cer