Evangelism Handbook, by Alvin Reid Nashville: B&H, 2009. 468 pages. Reviewed by Jason Fletcher.

This is the most recent work released concerning evangelism and was written by my former

professor of evangelism, Alvin Reid. Reid currently serves as professor of Evangelism and Student

Ministry and holds the Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in

Wake Forest, North Carolina.

This work is a major revision of Reid’s Introduction to Evangelism (1998). Though much of the

original content has been retained, the entire structure has been reworked and enough material has

been added and updated to warrant an entirely new title. Particular emphasis in this work is the new

catchword in evangelism, “missional.” In the first chapter he gives several definitions of this term, finally

settling on “I, though living in the West, take the posture of a missionary” (6). Ultimately, Reid states

that he desires to “take on the challenge of leading the church to a more effective and comprehensive

evangelism without abandoning the gospel” (10). He does this in four major sections: biblical, spiritual,

intentional, and missional.

Chapter Three is a discussion of the proper motivation for practicing evangelism. Instead of

starting with the need, Reid begins with the proper motivation being focused on God and His glory. He

moves from God, to duty, to need, and finally reward/judgment. It is more than a chapter on all the

reasons why the reader should be engaging in evangelism, it puts those reasons in a proper perspective.

If our ultimate reason for evangelism is anything other than for our love and devotion to God, then

however sincere our practice may be, we are doing it for the wrong reason. For example, evangelism

based on duty or obedience is not wrong in and of itself, but if not based on our love for God, it

degenerates into legalism.

A discussion of motivation is in and of itself more of a philosophical underpinning that Reid

discusses before getting on to the practical matter of evangelism. He does not leave the reader,

however, without a practical way to apply the material. At the conclusion of this chapter he includes a

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Bible study that one could easily implement in the context of a local church, small group, or Sunday

School class that reinforces the proper motivation behind evangelism.

Chapters four through six survey the biblical teaching on evangelism. Though chapter four is

titled, “The Mission of God: A Missional Reading of Scripture,” less than half is actually devoted to

reading Scripture as a whole in from a missional framework (47-48, 56-58). The bulk of this chapter is

devoted to mission in the Old Testament (48-55). It might have been better suited to break the

discussion of the Old Testament out much like was done in chapter five, “Jesus and Paul” and chapter

six, “The Birth of a Movement: Evangelism in Acts.”

The discussion on mission and evangelism in the Old Testament is very compelling. Reid

supports his argument well from Scripture and citing noted Old Testament theologians Christopher J.

Wright and John Sailhammer. The strongest section by far is the discussion on the Pentateuch and

specifically the book of Genesis. Though Reid distinguishes the Old Testament by the English/Western

divisions (Law, History, Prophecy, and Poetry), the section on the historical books gets only one short

paragraph and the Poetic books were left out entirely. This section is naturally far outweighed by the

two chapters concerning the New Testament, but could have been developed further.

In his chapter on Acts, Reid describes the evangelism of the early church and from that

description develops a strategy. The two main principles of the Acts strategy is total penetration

(answering the question, where?) and total participation (answering the question, who?) (74-76). He

closes the chapter with a more precise strategy by George Robinson based on Acts 1:8 called the “Acts

Missional Strategy Matrix” (87-88). The reader is then guided into developing an Acts 1:8 strategy based

on Robinson’s Matrix for their local church. With what is already a detailed analysis of evangelism in

Acts, Reid goes right to practical application.

Chapters seven and eight detail a history of evangelism and revival movements. While chapter

seven does a great job of surveying the second through eighteenth centuries, Reid really shines in his

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discussion of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Of particular emphasis is his treatment of the

Layman’s Prayer Revival in 1857-58 (115-116). In what many might overlook as less than significant as

the Second Great Awakening, its inclusion brings an encouragement that the winds of revival can be

found in different generations and manifested in different ways. One critique in this section would be

that his treatment of the emerging church movement is quite scant and it seems to be too easy an exit

to merely point the reader to his previous publication Convergent Christianity.

Another highlight of Reid’s work is Part 2, which deals with the spiritual side of evangelism. He

opens this section by stating, “Many books look at the message and the methods of evangelism, but we

will never go farther than the power of God will take us” (149). This is such a true statement. Reid does

well, over eighty pages to look at the work of the Spirit, the power of prayer, the testimony of the

witness, our personal character, and the spiritual disciplines. I know of no other work on evangelism

that does a better job or goes to greater depths in this particular and necessary element. The chapters

in this section could be easily used as an outline for Bible study, discipleship, and evangelism training. I

am glad that Reid builds his foundation this way. He leads the reader through the biblical, historical, and

spiritual aspects of evangelism before getting near the practical aspects.

Chapters sixteen and seventeen deal with personal evangelism. The most helpful sections in

this discussion are his answers to overcoming the fear of evangelism. The two greatest fears he assists

the reader in overcoming are the fear of failure and the fear of rejection. One tool that he introduces

the reader to is the Engel scale (250-51). This scale shows people existing on a continuum of spirituality.

Though as we witness, we might not see a person move all the way down the scale to conversion, but

we may be part of seeing them move one step closer in the right direction.

Reid does not disappoint when it comes to detailing practical applications and strategies of

personal witnessing. His best contribution is not so much in giving the reader yet another memorized

presentation, but in the inclusion of several models that detail leading questions that end in calling for a

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decision and leading to a decision (263-64). Just in case the reader was struggling with creativity, he

includes a section called “62 Ideas for Sharing Christ’s Love” by David Mills (265-69).

The final section of the Handbook Reid entitles, “Missional.” He states that this section was

written “to demonstrate that both the planting of new churches and the refocusing of established

churches can and must occur” (353). Reid’s contribution to the genre here is not in his discussion of

engaging culture, or church planting, however well written. No, Reid is helpful in that he includes

sections that many other works in this field would leave out, including evangelism to the radically

unchurched, to children, to youth, and to the urban cities of the world.

One of the strengths of this book is the inclusion of probing discussion questions at the end of

each chapter. These questions are very personally directed to the reader which, if answered, allow for a

type of engagement beyond a simple understanding of the material, but point the reader towards

personal application. This helps Reid greatly in reaching his goal, which is not just to help the reader

understand evangelism, but to practice it on a personal level.

Throughout Reid’s Handbook the reader is introduced to a wide array of other secondary

material related to evangelism. The reader is introduced to whole sections by Thomas P. Johnston (25-

28), Mark Liederbach (56-57), Robert Coleman (65), Ken Keathley (137-138), Chuck Lawless (170-172),

David Mills (265-269), David Wheeler (275-278; 405-407), George Robinson (301-303), and Ed Stetzer

(389-391). Though he does not include a bibliography, extensive footnotes are used in each chapter.

Reid also writes in a very accessible style, which makes it widely accessible to students of

evangelism. Because of the sheer size and scope of this work, however, it might be better suited for the

college or seminary classroom than the typical Sunday school or small group Bible study at the local

church level.

In the afterward, Roy Fish mentions that Reid alludes to this book as his magnum opus. I would

agree that throughout the pages one finds both the passion and precision that define Alvin Reid. What

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Reid has produced for the church is truly a Handbook of Evangelism that deals with every aspect.

Though some of the practical applications may fade with time, the principles that Reid discusses are

timeless and apply no matter what way the culture changes in the future.