When to use Gospel Tracts in Evangelism

When Gospel Tracts Are Effective in Evangelism

When to use gospel tracks in evangelism. One effective way, I think, for Christians to reach out and spread the gospel is through using gospel tracks. Again, every method has positive and negative aspects, but I think effective gospel tracks emphasize a couple different key points.

First, they emphasize the sinfulness of man, the law, the gospel, the basic notion that man has fallen, or the law. They also emphasize who Jesus truly is, that he's God in flesh, that he's the Son of God.

Third, that salvation is by grace through faith, apart from works, apart from any effort or anything we do. And fourth, they emphasize the assurance of that free gift of salvation through faith, through trusting in Jesus.

Using Tracts When You Cannot Have a Long Conversation

So I think tracks are helpful in situations where it is difficult to actually talk to a person in depth about the gospel, or after having a good conversation, you would like to leave someone with something as a follow-up material.

For example, you're in the checkout line. I mean, sometimes you don't have time to actually have a lengthy discussion with someone. So I think gospel tracks are effective in those situations when you don't have a good opportunity to really build a long-term relationship with someone, and you may only see them for one instance and never see them again.

So I think the first instance, I want to unpack that a little bit, is when you basically do not have the opportunity to have a conversation. That's like the first instance. Before every plane flight that I take, I do my best to remember to pray that God will use me on a plane.

In fact, back in 2008, for example, I was traveling from Salt Lake to Las Vegas on a business trip. And I sat next to a mother and her daughter, and they were actually very upset. They were crying, for example.

And I happened to overhear their conversation that they're actually LDS, or they're a Mormon. And I was sitting next to them, and they're really distraught. So I'm not going to go to them and say, Hey, let me give you information that talks about Mormonism, or Mormonism is wrong, or say something like that.

I don't think that would have been effective in that conversation or in that type of discussion. So since they were really upset, they were both looking at each other. They really wanted to spend time together.

I didn't really have an opportunity to break into their bonding time and start sharing the gospel. So my approach was actually to actually gently pat the lady on the shoulder and say, Hey, may I give you a gospel track?

It talks about who Jesus is and talks about how you can have eternal life through trusting in Jesus. And I just hope that would bless and encourage you. And I never saw these two ladies again, but it was an opportunity to sow a seed.

Give them a good solid gospel track. Hopefully they'll read it, and I pray and hope that God will work in that situation. So that was one example of basically when you do not have the opportunity to have a long conversation with somebody.

Using Tracts as Follow-Up Material After a Conversation

The second example to unpack a little bit is when basically you want to leave someone with follow-up material. Basically, you may have talked with them and had a brief conversation, but you want to leave them with something that they can read that would explain the gospel very clearly, rather than them just having to remember your short conversation.

So basically, one time I was on another flight. That was a couple years ago. I was flying to Florida to attend a speaking engagement with CARM. And on the flight, I sat next to a guy who said he was once a Catholic, and he was really not involved in church much.

So I briefly went through the gospel with him in a conversational way, and explained basically we're justified before God by faith, apart from our works. And he seemed open to talking about spiritual things.

It wasn't like I was prying his teeth or anything like that. So I could have pressed the issue further and said, if you died right now, where do you think you'd go? But it seemed from the conversation, the way his body language was, that I didn't want to just pound on him or really push him too much in that situation.

So I decided to just give him a gospel tract, which explained the gospel very clearly. And I wrote, give him my business card, and I also wrote the CARM .org website on the back of the tract. So if he had any questions or wanted to contact me, he could.

So I think that was another instance where gospel tracts could be effective. Now, I do want to say, you don't want to use gospel tracts as a cop-out. Like, hey, I'm really uncomfortable talking to this person.

I'm just going to give them something so I don't have to talk to them. And I think personally that I do struggle with that. I struggle with sometimes talking to people about the gospel if I'm sitting right next to them on a plane because I feel sometimes a little awkward with that.

And that's my weakness. And I think we have to overcome that. And we have to be willing to step out a little bit and make mistakes sometimes. Now, some people may say, well, I don't like your method of evangelism.

I'm just not good at that. I'm not good at personally going up to someone and talking to them and sharing my faith. And I think that we all oftentimes don't like to be in awkward situations. I mean, face it.

Spreading the gospel, sharing the gospel with someone personally is very awkward. But as I think it was Dwight L. Moody that said one time, he said, I would rather, I like my method of evangelism better than your method of not evangelizing at all.

And some people say, well, they'll criticize you. They'll criticize you for what you're doing. They'll say, hey, I don't like this method. Or that's not good. Or you should only do relationship evangelism.

But my question is, if you're only doing relationship evangelism, how many people are you actually reaching on a year-to-year basis? Again, think of Dwight L. Moody's quote, I like my method of evangelism better than your method of not evangelizing at all.

It's better to try to evangelize, to step out and spread the gospel. And sometimes you're going to mess up. Sometimes you're going to look awkward. Sometimes a person is going to reject you. But you know what?

It doesn't matter. We always have a 100 success rate when we spread the gospel. If we're rejected, it's 100 success. Because only our job is all we're supposed to do is just sow seeds. Our job is not to get somebody to respond.

Our job is not to get somebody saved. That's not our job. That's what God does. He's the one that draws people to himself. And all we do is sow seeds and watch God work. So, back to our little presentation here.

Choosing Clear Gospel Tracts

I want to talk a little bit about what kind of gospel tracts I think that are effective. And it's very brief. Nothing extremely in-depth. But I personally like the gospel tracts that Evantel .org presents.

It's E-V-A-N-T-E-L-L .org. And the reason I like them is they give a clear and simple presentation of the gospel message by emphasizing four key points. One, the sinfulness of humans. Two, who Jesus truly is.

Three, that salvation is a gift by grace through faith apart from works. And four, the assurance of that free gift of salvation. And you can go on karm .org and I have a link for where you can find a list of their gospel tracts.

Or you can just go to their website, Evantel .org. But I do also think there are certain gospel tracts that are ineffective. And again, it's better to use a tract that's not the best in the world than to not give somebody something at all.

But I do think that if you're going to evangelize on a regular basis you should invest in a few hundred gospel tracts and have them with you. Have them in your wallet if you're a man or have them in your purse if you're female or what have you.

Or have them in your car so that you have an opportunity when you go somewhere to actually have them handy. So the types of gospel tracts that I think would probably be ineffective are ones that oftentimes say a person to repent and believe.

Again, there's nothing wrong with using the word repentance and believe. From my experience, a lot of people don't understand what the word repentance means. They think that it means basically cleaning up your life, being a good person, and then coming to God and God accepts you.

When Scripture's clear that we're dead in our trespasses and sins, as Ephesians 2 says, that we're unrighteous, that there's no person who's righteous, no, not one, as Romans 3, 10 -11 says. So God doesn't demand we come to Him with moral righteousness.

He demands that we give up our moral righteousness. We realize that we're completely sinful. We have no righteousness of our own. That even our best deeds are as filthy rags as Isaiah 64, 6 says. And we transfer our trust from ourself and place it 100 in Jesus and His person and His work.

And that's what salvation is. And I think that repentance is really an aspect of faith. You can't believe in something without coming away from something else. So that's what I think is important to emphasize.

So if you're going to use the word repentance, that's perfectly fine. It's a scriptural word, metanoia. But make sure that you are clearly explaining what that term means so that your hearer does not think that they have to do good works before coming to God, which again is not what Scripture says.

As Romans 4, 5 says, To him that works not, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. So again, if you're going to use the word repentance, just define the term so that your hearers clearly understand the good news of the gospel.

And also some gospel tracts will say, believe in Jesus, which is fine, but just make sure you explain what that is. And they'll say, obey God's word. They'll almost say, come to Jesus, trust in Him, and then be good.

Well, make sure your reader understands, or the person that's hearing that message, if you're going to use that, make sure they understand that we work from salvation. We work from justification. We don't work to get justification.

We don't work to get salvation. Salvation's a gift. And as Scripture says, we work out our salvation through fear and trembling, but it's God who works within us, both to will and to do His good pleasure.

So you can't work out something unless you have it put in you. So God's the one that puts it in us. So you need to be careful to explain that there's a difference between justification and sanctification.

So obeying God's word, that's good, but that doesn't save us. That doesn't keep us saved. That doesn't merit us salvation. It's a fruit, and it shows that we're truly saved, and it's very important. But again, it doesn't merit us salvation.

It doesn't earn us a place in heaven. So I would really recommend, if you do have a tract that makes the gospel unclear, that you don't use them, or you write your own tract, or again, use tracts like Eviantel .org puts out.

So those are just a few key points that you could use when evangelizing. God bless you as you go out and share your faith. I know it's difficult. I know it's not easy, but trust, watch what God does, and pray, and ask God to use you, and give you a heart to reach the lost, because we need Christians to share their faith.

It's very important that you step out, and don't expect other people to do what God has called you to do. And as the scripture says, blessed are those who turn many to righteousness. May God bless you as you share your faith.