You won’t find this method of “evangelism” in the Bible …

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For many years, I’ve spoken out about the misdirection of Christians by many church leaders with their persistent teaching and emphasis on, “Tell your story.”

God never instructed us in scripture to “go tell your story,” but many pastors make this their primary “evangelistic” encouragement to the sheep they shepherd. No wonder most churches aren’t making disciples!

My friend, John Hendee, has been training people around the world in relational evangelism and how to effectively present the Gospel and make disciples for half a century. He recently wrote about this unbiblical trend of how church leaders push “tell your story” as the means of making disciples. With John’s permission, I’m sharing below his insights on how such a trendy teaching is absent in scripture, while what the Bible actually instructs us is absent among church leaders:

IT SEEMS THAT I MUST HAVE BEEN READING ALL OF THESE VERSES WRONG???
You would think that based on popular preaching today, that the Gospel has been replaced with ones testimony or story. I don’t see it.

1. Matthew 26:13, “Truly I tell you, wherever I share my story (this gospel is preached) throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
2. Mark 13:10, “And my story (the gospel) must first be preached to all nations.”
3. Mark 14:9, “Truly I tell you, wherever my story (the gospel) is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
4. Mark 16:15, “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach your story (the gospel) to all creation.”
5. Acts 8:25, “After they had further proclaimed their story (the word of the Lord) and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching their story and life change, (gospel) in many Samaritan villages.
6. Acts 8:40, “Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, sharing his life changing story, (preaching the gospel) in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”
7. Acts 14:7, “Where they continued to share their story (preach the gospel).”
8. Acts 14:21, “They preached their story (gospel) in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.”
9. Acts 16:10, “After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach our life story (the gospel) to them.”
10. Romans 1:9, “God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching my life story (the gospel of his Son), is my witness how constantly I remember you.”
11. Romans 1:15, “That is why I am so eager to preach the story of my life (the gospel) also to you who are in Rome.”
12. Romans 15:20, “It has always been my ambition to preach my life story (the gospel) where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.”
13. 1 Corinthians 1:17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the story of my life (Gospel) — not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
14. 1 Corinthians 9:14, “In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who share the story of their life (preach the gospel) should receive their living from the sharing their story (gospel).”
15. 1 Corinthians 9:16, “For when I preach the story of my life (gospel), I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach it. Woe to me if I do not share the story of my life (preach the gospel!).”
16. 1 Corinthians 9:18, “What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the story of my life, (the gospel) I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the story of my life ( gospel).”
17. 1 Corinthians 15:1, “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the story of my conversion (gospel) I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.”
18. 2 Corinthians 2:12, “Now when I went to Troas to share the story of our life (preach the gospel of Christ) and found that the Lord had opened a door for me.”
19. 2 Corinthians 10:16, “So that we can preach the story of our life (the gospel) in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory.”
20. 2 Corinthians 11:7, “Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the story of my life (gospel of God) to you free of charge?”
26. Galatians 1:11, “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the story of my life (gospel) I preached is not of human origin.”
27. Galatians 2:2, “I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the story of my life (gospel) that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.”
28. Galatians 2:7, “On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the story of my life ( gospel) to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.”
29. Galatians 4:13, “As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the story of my life (gospel) to you.”
30. 1 Thessalonians 2:9, “Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the story of our life (the gospel of God) to you.

What does the Bible actually teach us? 2 Corinthians 4:5, “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

To simplify things, I have made a list below of all the verses where Jesus, Paul, John, Peter, or others told, taught, or commanded Christians to GO and share their story:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Now, is there a time and place when it is okay to share your story? Yes, but after 40 years of leading people to Jesus using our Relational Evangelism model (https://www.yousharejesus.org) I can’t recall ever starting with an unbeliever thinking that sharing my story would make them more interested in hearing the Gospel. In some cases it can damage the possibility of doing so.

“Telling your story,” or me telling mine, might inspire or encourage someone (or might hinder our efforts in presenting the Gospel!), but your story and my story cannot save anyone.

Your story and my story cannot reconcile anyone to God.

So maybe our evangelism efforts should focus on what can.

Scotty