How do students come to Jesus in today's postmodern culture? Not by a mechanical, linear formula of cookie-cutter conversions. Nor by aimless spiritual wandering that never requires decision or commitment.
Over the last decade, Don Everts and Doug Schaupp have listened to the stories of two thousand postmodern people who have come to follow Jesus. While their stories are diverse and varied, certain common themes emerge. Postmodern evangelism is a mysterious and organic process that nevertheless goes through discernible phases. People cross thresholds from:
- Distrust to trust
- Apathetic to curious
- Closed to open
- Meandering to seeking
- Lost to saved
Rick Mattson, an apologetics specialist with InterVarsity, is a huge fan of I Once Was Lost: “This is the evangelism book I recommend most as I visit campuses around the country. It’s a great book about the incremental journey that many postmodern people take on their way to faith in Jesus.”
Students agree. One InterVarsity student leader found this book to be a “great tool to use to see where friends are at and how to best approach reaching out to them.”
Rachel, a student leader in Michigan, learned a lot from the book: "I realized that it's not accurate to categorize my friends as 'saved' and 'unsaved.' It's not that simple. If I believe that Jesus is constantly pursuing those who don't yet know him, how I engage my friends with the gospel should reflect that reality. At different stages in their journey, people need different things and have different questions. Through this book, I learned how to serve and love my friends well as I introduce them to Jesus."
In I Once Was Lost, Everts and Schaupp describe the factors that influence how people shift in their perspectives and ultimately become open to the gospel. They provide practical tools to help people enter the kingdom, as well as guidelines for how new believers can live out their Christian faith.
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