As a Bible college graduate and a seminary student I have read my fair share of books on evangelism( and still have more to read). When reading this book I was not exactly sure what to expect. I have never heard of J. Mack Stiles before and Evangelism was the first work I have ever read by him (of course right!). The copy of the book in which I read was the digital edition so it did not have the page numbers listed in the work just location, which I am not crazy about. I believe that the book is around 130 pages or so long. This short book packs quite a punch. I have to admit that his style is a little on the dry side lacking the humor that you will find with different authors. What he does bring to the table is a good sense of story-telling. If you are anything like me you mark up a book that you really like and ebooks are no different. I can tell that I had some enjoyment of this book by the amount of highlights I have in it.
Just to give you a feel for what the book has to say I am going to share some of the highlights I have made. One statement that he makes is, “Jesus was engaging, but he never entertained; there is a huge difference, one that is lost on the modern church.”(location 298).That was one of several statements found throughout the book that caused me to take a moment a think just a little bit more. Another profound statement was, “If you do not know how to teach the gospel, you may not truly understand it.” (location 325).
Now what should you expect from this book is a work that hopes to point to a culture of evangelism, DO NOT EXPECT a how to manual on how to do street level evangelism. This book does a good job breaking down what it looks like to do good one on one evangelism. I would recommend this work to anyone who wants to grow deeper in their understanding of what evangelism should and can look like. If you are looking for tips and techniques this book is not for you. I was given copy of this book in exchange for a fair and balanced review of this work I was in no way required to speak well of said book.
