Mark and Ernestine Finley have distilled more than four decades of evangelism experience into one power-packed manual on conducting a public evangelistic series, Fulfilling God’s End-Time Mission. The purpose of this book is to train how to effectively prepare and implement a public evangelism series.
The first few chapters lay down the underlying philosophy, while the remaining chapters give step-by-step details that cover each aspect of effective public evangelism. The writing style targets both ministers and laypersons, while clearly speaking to leaders of local congregations.
What makes this manual especially helpful is its thorough coverage of almost every aspect of a public evangelistic seminar. From chapters on how to draw a crowd and keep one, to chapters discussing evangelistic visitation and the science of appeals, Mark and Ernestine lay a clear outline of productive ministry.
Three concepts stand out in my mind that help both novice and experienced evangelists. First, in the desire to preach good sermons, it is helpful to see the underlying framework for the array of truth that Seventh-day Adventists have. The authors explain how the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 lay the foundation and outline for the preaching of an evangelistic series. They give the order of events used by Pastor Finley in a series and explain the topic, goal, and appeal that attend each sermon. This organization leads to quality evangelistic preaching.
Second, as a new evangelist, I struggled to find my way in the area of evangelistic visitation. I would try one thing and then another until I found what worked best for me. If I had access to this manual, it would have saved much trial and error and I would have had better results sooner in my evangelistic efforts. The authors go through visitation techniques to be used when visiting guests during a public seminar. For example, when visiting someone after the sermon on baptism, the manual explains how to engage that guest in conversation concerning baptism as well as what literature to share. These details are very useful in the realm of public evangelism.
Finally, asking someone to make a decision for Christ is easily the most important part of evangelism and probably, for many, the most intimidating. The authors start their chapter on making effective appeals by quoting Richard Boothby: “You must preach like you expect people to respond” (159). This section of the manual covers nine different calls or appeals that can be made in an evangelistic series. Sample calls are given for several of them with clear instructions for all nine. This practical and intellectual study of appeals is just one more reason to make sure that this manual is not only part of your library but used in accomplishing successful soul-winning.
Fulfilling God’s End-Time Mission will appeal to ministers and laypeople that long to be more effective in public evangelism. Evangelism knowledge as found in this manual will take ordinary committed pastors and laypersons and make them powerful tools for evangelism in their local churches and districts.
— Charles Holtry II, assistant director of the Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism, resides in Madison, Virginia, United States.
