Evangelism in Acts 13 is the twelfth episode in our series looking at the evangelistic encounters found in the Book of Acts. In this episode, Matt and Joshua focus on a fascinating encounter Paul and Barnabas have with Jews while sharing the message of the Gospel in the synagogue.

In the first section Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas are summoned by the proconsul of Salamis, Sergius Paulus. However, they were opposed by a magician and false prophet named Bar-Jesus who wanted to keep the proconsul from the faith. Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit to call out the false prophet and then miraculously to make him blind for a time. After this the proconsul believed in the teaching of the Lord.

The bulk of the chapter then focuses on the speech that Paul gives after being invited to share in the Synagogue. We see Paul integrate several of the elements of the GOSPEL acronym while doing Evangelism in Acts 13. He masterfully weaves the context and content of the Gospel by starting with the choosing of Israel as God’s people and touching on major points of Jewish history leading up to death of Jesus. Paul then explains that in condemning Jesus to death on a cross, the people both misunderstood the prophecies and ended up fulfilling them. Yet this was the plan of God and in the resurrection, Jesus is vindicated as the one identified in the messianic prophecies.

When we developed our training approach for Engage 360, we did not focus on what verses can be used to explain the Gospel. Instead, we looked to the Bible and asked the question, “What did they actually do?” Below is the summary of their approach.

• G: Gauge your audience
• O: Offer common ground
• S: Shift to Christianity and the Gospel
• P: Provide evidence
• E: Explain the Gospel
• L: Leave with a clear next step

After listening to our podcast on Evangelism in Acts 13 and the death of Herod, if you would be interested in our team coming to your church or group to provide more training on biblical evangelism and how to apply it today, please fill out our contact form.

To access all past Engage 360 Podcasts click here.

Evangelism in Acts 11 is the tenth episode in our series looking at the evangelistic encounters found in the Book of Acts. In this episode, Matt and Joshua discuss the return of Peter from his interaction with the house of Cornelius the Centurion and the start of the church at Antioch.

In the first section Acts 11, Peter returns from sharing the Gospel with the household of Cornelius. Peter receives rebuke from members of the circumcision party for eating with gentiles. Peter shares of his vision from God about the unclean animals that God had called clean. He then tells of how the Holy Spirit fell on the household of Cornelius just as it had on the disciples at Pentecost. This interaction was a key point in understanding that the gentiles were also being offered forgiveness through the Gospel of Christ.

The second half of Acts 11 we read about the beginning of the Church at Antioch which began with the conversion of Hellenists after men from Cyprus and Cyrene had preached about Jesus. The leaders in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to support the church at Antioch and he also brought Saul to help. We discover this is where the followers of Christ are first called “Christians.”

When we developed our training approach for Engage 360, we did not focus on what verses can be used to explain the Gospel. Instead, we looked to the Bible and asked the question, “What did they actually do?” Below is the summary of their approach.

• G: Gauge your audience
• O: Offer common ground
• S: Shift to Christianity and the Gospel
• P: Provide evidence
• E: Explain the Gospel
• L: Leave with a clear next step

After listening to our podcast on Evangelism in Acts 11, if you would be interested in our team coming to your church or group to provide more training on biblical evangelism and how to apply it today, please fill out our contact form.

To access all past Engage 360 Podcasts click here.

Evangelism Excitement in Maine! We certainly had a lot of "evangelism excitement" up in Maine! In this episode, Ibrahim interviews Travis Pelletier about our recent Engage U Event. Pulling off a successful evangelism event requires a lot of coordination. For our recent Engage U event in Maine, Travis Pelletier, missionary apologist with Ratio Christi, did a great job at coordinating students and churches to come and participate in an amazing time of evangelism. This is what Travis had to say about the event: I'm trying to gather my thoughts. I am blown away by the success of the past week of outreach. We had hundreds of conversations, many of which lasted over an hour, and some over two hours. Of the 46 long discussions, seven people came to a place of repentance and faith. Yes, that's right, seven people followed Christ. I've been involved in evangelism quite a while, but I've never had that much response in three days. The Holy Spirit was definitely working. And in many of the other long conversations, there was a visible softening in the hearts of those being engaged with scriptural truth. After the three full days of evangelism, we had an open Q&A event in which almost 30 students (mostly non-believers) came to ask about the questions and difficulties they had with Christianity. Immediately following the event, a Christian student contacted me to say that he had been struggling with doubts about Christianity and that the event not only answered his struggles, it answered several tough questions he hadn't thought of yet! Another goal for the event was to have local believers be more engaged in sharing their faith. We worked with the organization "Engage360" to train believers from the surrounding churches and to get them signed on to the event. The training and modeling were both very effective. And we had over 15 believers from the local community come to help. We had enough that quite frequently we would have six or seven serious gospel conversations happening at the same time. This event just reemphasized for me the need for both apologetics and evangelism training.

Evangelism in Acts 10 is the ninth episode in our series looking at the evangelistic encounters found in the Book of Acts. In this episode, Matt and Joshua examine the incredible interaction between Paul and Cornelius the Roman Centurion. This episode covers a crucial event that signaled what was to be a significant development with Gentiles being brought into the church through the Gospel.

In this fascinating passage, God brings the Gospel to a faithful Centurion who eagerly anticipates what God is doing and God teach Peter and the other Apostles that the Gospel is for the Gentiles as well. Peter’s Gospel presentation in is not the main focus but is informative in what he covers in conveying the ministry and Gospel of Jesus. We discuss what we can learn from Peter and Cornelius that we can apply in our own understanding and witness.

When we developed our training approach for Engage 360, we did not focus on what verses can be used to explain the Gospel. Instead, we looked to the Bible and asked the question, “What did they actually do?” Below is the summary of their approach.

• G: Gauge your audience
• O: Offer common ground
• S: Shift to Christianity and the Gospel
• P: Provide evidence
• E: Explain the Gospel
• L: Leave with a clear next step

After listening to our podcast on Evangelism in Acts 8, if you would be interested in our team coming to your church or group to provide more training on biblical evangelism and how to apply it today, please fill out our contact form.

To access all past Engage 360 Podcasts click here.

Evangelism in Acts 9: The Conversion of Paul

Evangelism in Acts 9 is the eighth episode in our series looking at the evangelistic encounters found in the Book of Acts. In this episode, Matt and Joshua examine the conversion of Paul (also known as Saul of Tarsus). This episode is a bit unique as we focus most of our time discussing the background and implications of the conversion of Paul.

While there is less opportunity to apply the G.O.S.P.E.L framework below, this will be a very fruitful conversation not only for learning about the conversion of Paul but also what his story can show each of us. In our training we stress that God will not merely use you in spite of who you are (by empowering you beyond your own human ability alone) but often God will use you because of who you are. Just like Paul had opportunities to reach both Jews and gentiles because of his background, God can use you to reach people because of your background.

When we developed our training approach for Engage 360, we did not focus on what verses can be used to explain the Gospel. Instead, we looked to the Bible and asked the question, “What did they actually do?” Below is the summary of their approach.

• G: Gauge your audience
• O: Offer common ground
• S: Shift to Christianity and the Gospel
• P: Provide evidence
• E: Explain the Gospel
• L: Leave with a clear next step

After listening to our podcast on Evangelism in Acts 8, if you would be interested in our team coming to your church or group to provide more training on biblical evangelism and how to apply it today, please fill out our contact form.

To access all past Engage 360 Podcasts click here.