Jesus condemned the Pharisees for trying to turn ordinary Jews into people like themselves through their evangelism, which hurt both the converter and the converted. In the Parable of the Sower and the Seed and the Parable of the Wheat and Tares Jesus emphasized the spreading of the Word and leaving it to take root,…

The fatal flaws in the evangelism of the Pharisees were that it was specific and exclusive. It was offered primarily to fellow Jews and it specifically sought to turn them into Pharisees. Jesus condemned this in His comments about the “woes” of the Pharisees and gave us the principles of proper evangelism in the parable…

What would Jesus do about sharing faith? The parable of the sower and the seed perhaps provides a clue: “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil;…

What did Jesus find so reprehensible about the proselytizing of the Pharisees? Was it their method? Was it the outcome (making converts doubly damned)? Was it both? What should we do to avoid the errors they made? Jesus gave us a clue: Woe to you lawyers [Pharisees]! For you have taken away the key of…

Today we will put our discussion of evangelism, which began with a study of the Woes of the Pharisee—in particular, the Woe they suffered from their evangelism. First, we turn to some recent statistics to provide some context and background that helps us locate evangelism in our modern world. Here are findings from a Barna…

Besides convertee and convertor, there is a third party to any conversion deal: God. The convertor’s role may be minor in comparison to God’s role. The convertor may serve as a guide and teacher, but should never coerce. The 2015 Pew Religious Landscape study gave a partial look into conversion, or what it calls “religious…