I work as the National Director of the MTS Ltd, Australia. But I write as a layman. In the last few decades, I’ve spoken evangelistically, a lot. But this article is about my year in evangelism as a Christian bloke, a rank-and-file member of my local suburban church.
My Attitude
I want to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ out of love. I find it extremely important to prayerfully discipline my heart so that I have the right attitude. The following phrases help me.
“Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” (D. T. Niles)
Rhys Bezzant humbly showed me where to find bread in 1988. I am trying to humbly help others find bread today.
“Evangelism is long-term, low-key and relational.” (Steve Timmis and Tim Chester)
Most people in my local area have a very limited knowledge of the Bible. There’s the odd occasion where someone hears the gospel and believes within a few weeks, but most people will take months if not years. I am in it for the long haul.
“Evangelism is a team sport.”
I need help. I need help with communication. I am fifty-five years old and often need a translator when chatting with young adult blokes at 5pm Church. I need teammates with different gifts. I am good at getting people “in the tent”, but I like to hand them over to someone else to do the long-term follow up. I need encouragement when the priority of evangelism drops off. I need people praying for me and the people I’m sharing Christ with.
BELL: Be Early, Leave Late.
The best outreach conversations happen before church because newcomers arrive early… and when everyone is packing up. Because spiritually hungry people hang around.
Prayer Works
Perhaps the biggest the biggest lesson I have learnt in evangelism over the last five years is that prayer works. My wife and I pray prior to speaking more now than we ever have in the past. We need God the Father to go ahead of us by his Spirit before we speak about his Son. I am calling upon my Heavenly Father to pave the way.
We have seen amazing answers to prayer this year. One of our relatives became a Christian by watching church online during the Covid pandemic. Our church has gone from 170 people in 2023 to 270 in 2025, due in large part to prayers answers in the Wednesday 5pm Church Prayer Meeting that started on Zoom in January 2023.
Go-to Resources
“Two Ways to Live” by Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne
A superb six-picture explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I learnt it when I was eighteen and it is the framework I always have in my head. It also requires Bible memorisation, one verse for each box, and that is superb. Two Ways to Live helps me know what to say.
“How to Talk about Jesus without Being THAT Guy” by Sam Chan
This helps me to relate lovingly to people so that they want to hear what I have to say. This book has superb principles like: “Evangelism Tip #2: Go to Their Things”, “Evangelism Tip #4: Listen” and “Hospitality is the secret hidden sauce of evangelism.”
I liked this book so much that I wrote a course to teach it to others. I read it regualrly and I prayerful try to live it.
My Formal Activities in 2025
I designed my year so that I could use my energy as effectively as possible to be evangelistic. I play my part as a team member in the following organised Church activities:
Life Course Table Captain
Our church runs two four-week evangelistic courses each year in May and July. I facilitate conversation at one of the tables. My wife and I usually run a reunion at our house one month after the course finishes. This low-key, long-term, relational work yields great fruit. In 2025 we ran a course where all six guests filled in a contact form ticking boxes that read, “I thought I was a Christian at the start of the course but I was wrong”, “I prayed the prayer of commitment” and “I would like to keep meeting to read the Bible”. All six. It was miraculous.
“Newcomer Events” at Church
We run these once a term for our morning and evening congregations. I go to these to serve in two main ways. First, I am a social lubricant: I love meeting new people. Second, to do evangelism. I am amazed at the high percentrage of people who are new at church and do not know that Jesus was the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Newcomers often ascribe to God-ianity rather than Christ-ianity. They usually warmly receive the news of 1 Peter 3:18.
Informal Activities
There are a whole series of informal activities I engaged in 2025.
Lift Conversations
There is a two-word question you can ask people that is guaranteed to start a conversation. Don’t look at the person in the lift with you, just look ahead or at the buttons and ask, “Busy Day?” I guarantee you people’s shoulders will relax and they’ll chat with you.
Just last Saturday I was out for coffee with my wife, and a lady came up and said, “Didn’t we meet in the lift in Hurstville yesterday?” Her name is Megan, and she’s just moved to Australia from New Zealand. The same country my parents migrated from. We’ve struck up a friendship.
Aeroplane Outreach
I go on the plane budgeting for a yak. I am prayerfully expectant. I just ask people questions about their life. Where they grew up, where they moved, what they love, what they value, who they love. I just aim to listen to their story. Generally people will speak about their lives for a solid hour. Sometimes longer. People feel loved when you listen to them. Genuinely listen to them. nine times out of ten they’ll then ask me where I grew up, where I moved, what I love, what I value and who I love. Jesus lies at the centre of many of those questions. In 2017 I met a Japanese traveller called Hitomi on a flight from Sydney to Perth. We kept up on Facebook. In 2025 Hitomi was in Sydney. We met up again and I invited her to read the Bible in Japanese using an app recommended by a CMS Missionary who ministered in Japan. She said she has never read the Bible before and is keen to read it. Praise God.
Spiritual Gifts at Christmas
Emma and I bought fifty copies of Sam Chan’s book, The Missing Peace. As a family we prayed together and gave them to our unbelieving contacts.
Other
Other informal activities from 2025: sending handwritten Christmas Cards; inviting people to our church’s Easter services and Christmas carols in the park; talking about Jesus on social media all the time.
My Evangelist-Multiplication Activities
Yes, training Christians to do evangelism is one step removed from me doing evangelism. But the older I get, the more committed I am to the “see one, do one, teach one” principle. I can share Jesus with a finite number of people. I need to train others to train others who will train others to train others (2 Tim 2:2; Ps 78:1–8).
I support my wife Emma who preaches weekly to high-school-aged students at a Christian school. I do everything I can to keep her vibrant and energetic when she is “on the front” fighting the good fight of the faith.
I pray regularly and fervently that my four children will be disciple-making disciples.
I co-lead a Bible Study at church and I treat it as an evangelistic platoon. We gather on Tuesday night to fuel up for mission in the rest of the week.
I coordinate a six-person volunteer team to run our ministry training at church. We run three six-week courses in Term 1 and Term 3 each year that equip the saints for works of ministry. We want everyone at Park Road Anglican Church to be trained in the basics. Connecting like Jesus, evangelism, one-to-one Bible reading, leading Bible studies, basic theology and more.
Whenever I meet with Christians for one-to-one discipleship, I make the goal of equipping them for disciple-making.
As I reflect on 2025, I think I’ve hit my goals. I aimed to stay faithful to Jesus’ great commission. I worked hard to spend time and energy on evangelism, whether I feel like doing it or not. That’s the difference between discipline and motivation. I aimed to give God the Father all the glory no matter what. He’s the one doing the supernatural work of spiritual growth (1 Cor 3:6). I trained other believers to be disciple-making disciples too. I praise God for a great year.
