George W. Robertson
Autor/a de Am I Called?
Obres de George W. Robertson
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Nom oficial
- Robertson, George William
- Data de naixement
- 1966
- Gènere
- male
Membres
Ressenyes
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 3
- Membres
- 60
- Popularitat
- #277,520
- Valoració
- 3.5
- Ressenyes
- 2
- ISBN
- 2
George Robertson starts off by giving the 3 P’s of evangelism, proclaim, persuade and pray. I would have been quite comfortable with him maintaining this alliteration as an outline and looking at the “practical” aspects to follow all under the persuasion heading. Looking at the practical as a subset of the whole leads to some confusing points and applications.
When Robertson began to look at the practical, I began to read this book with much skepticism, due in large part to the fact that it was not initially made clear that these practical aspects (testimony, being invitational, intentional, compassionate and intellectual), listed in the remainder, was part of, to large degree, the persuasion aspect of evangelism, not part of the proclaiming. Even with that bit of clarity from the conclusion, I still have some substantial reservations. Here is what I mean.
Robertson argues that testimony is one of the primary means of Evangelism and clears it up slightly at the end by putting it in the category of persuasion but it is still a bit off. The author seems to argue in a way that would imply you can win converts simply with your testimony and that you can be basically ignorant of Scripture but “everyone can have a testimony.” But that is the problem, everyone can have a testimony. Stories of changed lives are fruit of any worldview. What makes the Gospel so profound is the objective nature of its truth. Christ is risen regardless of whether your life is changed or not. He is Lord whether you suppress or or rejoice in that truth.
Our testimony is not primarily our changed lives, it is the Gospel. Robertson uses the story of the blind man healed by Jesus as evidence of the effectiveness of personal testimony. The only problem with that was that it was not his personal testimony that warranted the scorn of the religious leaders. His “I was blind now I see” is not what got him kicked out of the temple; it was his attributing it to a “sinner” like Jesus and asking the leaders if they wanted to be His disciples as well. It was the truth about Christ, not his changed life that got him excommunicated by the leaders. If personal testimony is simply used in a manner of persuasion, rather than proclamation, I have no problem with it. Often, too often, it is not simply a support proof of the proclamation, it is the entirety.
The second practical part of evangelism was that it needed to be invitational, like those being invited to the wedding feast in Christ’s parable, but the author presents this as inviting to church rather than inviting someone to repent of their sins and enter into the family of God, the Kingdom of God. I agree that evangelism must be invitational, I just do not think that “You wanna come to church with me?” is sufficient. This may be embryonic in the development of invitational evangelism, but it is far from fully developed.
The other three practical aspects, I thought, were excellent. Evangelism must be intentional. ”One must be willing to place limits on his or her rights to win some for Christ” becoming “slaves to all” so that some might be won. Robertson encourages the reader, to quote Andy Mineo, to “go where the wild things are.” He argues that,
I could not agree with him more. His point that the evangelist must be compassionate is also spot-on. “Compassionate and practical acts of service open doors for the gospel.” Beyond being compassionate and intentional, evangelism is intellectual.
This booklet has much in the positive column and some significant negative marks as well. I wish Robertson had been clearer on the testimony and invitation aspects of evangelism. Those shortcomings aside and especially when viewing the rest of the book through the clarity offered in the conclusion, I feel this is a pretty decent little book.
I received a review copy of this book.
… (més)