Evangelism Training Series

Session 03 - Evangelism Program  (NIV based)

Forming An Evangelism Program In A Church:
- - Formulate the logistics to periodically conduct evangelism training seminars; an evangelism committee can be utilized to produce these seminars.
- - For a period of time in advance of the training seminar, repeatedly extend a call to the congregation to attend and go through the evangelism training seminar.
- - When feasible, collaboration with other like-minded churches can be jointly conducted to produce evangelism training seminars.

Training Of Adults:
- - A main goal is to have all of the leadership persons (pastors, elders, deacons, ministry leaders, teachers, staff, assistants) and any interested members or attenders in the church go through the academic part of the evangelism training.
-- The reality is:
- - - - only some of the believers are given the spiritual gift of evangelism by the Holy Spirit;  (Ephesians 4:11)
- - - - some adult believers will only be willing or able to do group evangelism presentations to children;
- - - - some adult believers will be proficient and/or comfortable at doing evangelism presentations to only adults and teenagers, and not to children;
- - - - some adult believers will not be willing to do an evangelistic presentation, even though they have been trained how to do it and they hold a ministry position of authority in the church.

- - Look for true believers who have an intrinsic concern about reaching the lost for Christ.  This may supply some subtle evidence that those persons may indeed have the spiritual gift of evangelism but have not yet developed that gift, which of course comes through training and then exercising the spiritual gift.

Training Of Teenagers:
- - Start with training teenagers to do small group child evangelistic presentations.
- - Spiritually-mature and substantially-interested teenagers will quickly learn how to do the presentation.
- - Provide the trainee teenagers with a presentation that has simplified content, concepts, and wording for audience children.  Have them practice on you in a simulation setting.
- - Expose and supervise the teenagers to doing an actual presentation to children, that is simple, straightforward, and includes an invitation and the supplying of a prayer to the responsive children.

- - It is usually necessary that all trainees need initial observing, coaching, and monitoring, to ensure that they are making gospel presentations that are entirely proper, appropriate, theologically correct, and contain all of the necessary gospel concept elements.
- - Also, this monitoring can help in finding an environment in which each trainee can do evangelism well, according to his/her own ability, preference, and comfort zone.

Some Methods of Conducting Evangelism As A Function of the Church or Ministry:
- - A presentation of the gospel can be especially impact-ful and effective when embedded within sermons and Bible lessons, in which one (or more) of the comprising foundational verses of the sermon or lesson naturally contains or distinctly refers to an element of the gospel.  Two good examples of this are Christmas and Easter sermons or lessons naturally contain elements of the gospel.  (Note: There are many of these gospel presentation-embedded sermons or lessons listed and available on the "Topical" web-page of this website.)

- - A special speaker can be brought in to present the gospel, and perhaps in an old-time revival-type of meeting or series.

- - Gospel presentations also can be conducted: at funerals, with the grieving family's permission, of course; through Internet websites; through social media interactions; as a neighborhood introductory exploratory study about Jesus that starts verse-by-verse in John chapter 1; at a Billy Graham-type crusade; on missions trips; at public parks or county fairs; or through various gatherings of home groups, such as their meeting nights, grill-out or games get-togethers, watching sports events on television, or work projects.

- - For teenagers, gospel presentations can be intentionally incorporated in such events or occasions as: Sunday school classes; youth group regular meeting nights, and special pizza nights or gymnasium nights; youth hang out / play games at the youth pastor's home; camp; mission trips; lake or beach or pool or water park splash events; amusement park trips; volunteer community service projects; or attending a concert by a renown Christian music group.

Child Evangelism:
- - Conducting evangelistic presentations with children of ages 6-10 are typically the most successful in the producing of salvations, because usually children of this age range do not yet have bondages and love for personal sins in their life that hinder openness to the gospel.  Starting at about the age of 10, the older that people get, the more generally-resistant they become to openness to the gospel, due to the effects of increasing sin in their life.
- - Children of ages 4 and 5 are usually too young to get saved because they do not adequately comprehend all of the various concepts that are contained in the gospel message.

- - Evangelism of children in groups can be accomplished very successfully - with the right adults, environment, and technique.
- - However, preventing or reducing distractions is critically important, because children are easily diverted and consumed by the occurrence of distractions, which effectively shut off their attention and listening to the presentation of the gospel during that time.  And with one or more parts of the gospel message missing in their thinking, the possibility for them to actually and genuinely acquire salvation is terminated for that gospel presentation at that time.
- - Distractions during the gospel presentation to children commonly come from: one or more children talking, moving around, or poking at their neighbor; an intrusion into the meeting area by some animal or person; or an external source of significantly-loud noise.
- - Therefore, in conducting an evangelistic presentation to a group of children, the presenter person should have one or more helpers, who are competent in preventing and in handling the various kinds of distractions.
- - Of course, sometimes distractions cannot be avoided or stopped immediately, in which case the part of the presentation, that was being presented when a significant distraction occurred, needs to be stated again to the group, after the significant distraction has ceased.

- - For children, gospel presentations can be utilized in: Sunday school classes; children's church; vacation Bible School; church-run carnival; camp; water park trips; and at playgrounds or parks - which are suitable environments to effectively use bubbles as an attractor.

- - Being tailored for specific age groups, puppets shows, flannel graph presentations, an artist making a drawing, electronic graphic pictures, videos, and theatrical plays can also be used as an attracting and visual medium through which to present the gospel.
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Works Cited:
Bible. “The Holy Bible: New International Version.” The Bible Library CD-ROM. Oklahoma City, OK: Ellis Enterprises, 1988.
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Copyrights:
Scriptures taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc®
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Copyright © 2026 Mel W. Coddington, and permission is hereby granted that this document may be used, copied, and distributed non-commercially to non-profit organizations, individuals, churches, ministries, schools, colleges, and seminaries worldwide, provided the copies are distributed at no charge and retain this sources documentation as supplied herein. This document is not for sale, resale, or for use as a gift or premium to be offered in connection with solicitations or contributions.
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