Contagious Faith

 

I am always looking for ways to connect people with other people, with ideas, with opportunities, with experiences, and most importantly with Jesus, and for this reason I had been excited for many months about my friend Mark Mittelberg's new book Contagious Faith.  Mark is a best-selling author and speaker who has spent his life doing two things, helping people come to salvation through Jesus and equipping people to help their friends and family do the same.  He is also the executive director for the Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University, so it is safe to say that when he writes a book whose subtitle is Discover Your Natural Style for Sharing Jesus with Others, he knows what he is talking about.

I have been devouring this book about as fast as I can, which at times is not all that quickly since I am highlighting, making margin notes, and tweeting key lines.  In this post I will offer both a standard book review so you know what you are getting and a look at why this book needs to be in every church's bookstore, on every pastor's bookshelf, and in every Christian's arsenal for doing what God has called them to do.  To wrap it up, you will find a very personal reason why I am excited about all this.

The Review

The book is very well structured. After a foreward by Lee Strobel and two chapters that set out the why of evangelism, it moves into five "contagious faith styles," or approaches to personal evangelism.  Each style gets its own chapter that describes the style for sharing your faith, gives a biblical example to show how this style has been used, and backs that up with some personal stories from modern people.  It then gives practical tips related to that style that are useful for anyone, whether or not that particular style connects with you, and importantly offers some cautions about that style if it is pushed too far.  Too many books only present the positives of the author’s ideas, but Mittelberg is quick to show the pitfalls of each style so that they can be avoided.

Mittelberg identifies five styles for sharing your faith that he calls Friendship-Building, Selfless-Serving, Story-Sharing, Reason-Giving, and Truth-Telling.  I highlighted multiple passages in each style, even though the style that came back from my self assessment on the book's website was the Reason-Giving style.  In particular, I found myself enthusiastically highlighting, underlining, and writing "YES" with multiple exclamation marks in the Truth-Telling chapter.

The book then includes four chapters that go quite deep.  One discusses what the gospel actually is, and if you think you think it can be boiled down to just a quick prayer for salvation, think again.  Another explores what to do when your natural style doesn't seem to fit the situation, one explores the truly adventurous nature of sharing the good news of Jesus, and the final chapter takes a look at the evangelism explosion around the world and how your legacy can be caught up in it.

And if this were not enough, the book contains an exhaustive list of resources at the end, which in itself would be worth the price of the book.

The Why

Obviously, I am a fan of Contagious Faith, and although I would have loved to explore in depth each chapter, it is better that you just buy the book for yourself and jump in...unless, of course, you are not persuaded the idea of personal or lifestyle evangelism is all that important in the first place.  Let's be clear.  Mark Mittelberg has not paid me to write what you are about to read.  This is my own stance.  If you have a beef with it, take it up with me.

Church leaders, what could be more important than equipping our people to share the good news of Jesus Christ?  Addressing issues of sin and brokenness are important, as are the many acts of service that local churches provide, but nothing...nothing...is more important than someone's relationship with God, and if a person does not know Him or has chosen to reject His grace, that person's relationship will be defined by an eternity of separation from the living, loving God of the universe.  There's a name for that, by the way.  It's called hell.  Pastors, elders, youth leaders, Sunday school teachers, deacons, bishops, and choir directors...either you believe this or you don't.  If you don't, then I would suggest finding another line of work or at least stop using the word "Christian" on your business card.  If you do, then you understand what I'm saying and it will either encourage you in your evangelistic training efforts or it will light the fire that helps you start them.

And this leads us to Christians who would not consider themselves part of that list above.  These are the children and teens, moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas who fill our churches, worship faithfully, and try to live good lives, but who would never in a million years consider themselves evangelists.  Here's the thing.  Christians have understood since the time of Jesus that it was incumbent upon us to share the gospel.  From the beginning we have understood that Matthew 28:18-20 was speaking to all of us.

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age."  (ESV)

As Mittelberg makes clear, it is not enough just to be a nice person and hope people can guess what is going on and accept Jesus as their Lord.  How do we know?  The last chapter of the book talks about the flourishing of evangelism and the increasing numbers of people around the world who are turning to Jesus.  What is conspicuous by its absence is mention of the United States.  Do you really need me to link data that show a decline in our country of those who follow Jesus?  I could, of course, such as here, here, and here, but just look at your news and social media feeds.  Listen to the conversations you have with co-workers, friends, and family.  Those will make more than a sufficiently compelling case for evangelism.

We must help our children and teens, moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, indeed everyone in our churches and Christian communities, know how to share the good news of God through Jesus Christ.  Mark Mittelberg's Contagious Faith is an excellent resource in this most important of works.

Mark, my son Austin, and me

The Personal Part

Part of my own journey with Jesus can be found starting on p. 239 of another of Mark Mittelberg's books, The Unexpected Adventure, which he co-authored with Lee Strobel.  It was Wednesday, August 9, 2000.  The pastor of our church and I had gone to a conference where Mark was speaking, and in his morning session on relational evangelism, he made frequent reference to the clear point at which a person came to saving faith in Jesus.  I had grown up in the church, had been baptized the summer before I turned 13, and had an active prayer and devotional life.  Jesus was always part of my life, so I could not put my finger on a specific, transitional moment in my life, a Damascene conversion, if you will.  The church we attended at the time did not speak of such things, either, but I was interested in helping our congregation develop evangelistically, so this seemed like something I should understand better.

At the mid-morning break, I stood in line to ask Mark about it, but when my turn came, I found the words coming out haltingly, and as he spoke, tears unexpectedly filled my eyes.  Mark knew something was up, and since the break was nearly over, asked if I wanted to grab lunch at the conclusion of the session.  I nodded and headed off to the men's room to compose myself.  Alone in that church's restroom, I heard the nearly audible voice of Jesus saying that after that day, I would never need to doubt my relationship with Him again.  I could hardly wait for lunch, and it wasn't from hunger!

We hopped into Mark's car as soon as the session was over and drove to a nearby deli.  There, in the parking lot, Mark unpacked the gospel.  It was not that I had never heard it before, but I needed to make it my own.  We prayed, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and we grabbed lunch.  Something transpired in those moments that is best captured in Mark's telling of it in The Unexpected Adventure.

He [Steve] told me later that as I spoke, he kept praying, "Yes, Lord Jesus."  He said that "suddenly the word Lord took on a whole new meaning.  It was as if the four letters of that word radiated with red and blue and gold colors.  I kept saying, 'LORD Jesus -- just those two words, over and over.  I finally understood the word Lord and I laughed and cried."  (p. 242)

Mark did not miss an opportunity.  Yes, he was leading a conference session and needed to keep his mind on his presentation, but he was prepared for a divine appointment that day and met it.  I hope you read this latest book of his, Contagious Faith.  Perhaps there is someone just waiting to experience the Lordship of Jesus Christ because of a conversation with YOU!