Surprise the World: The Five Habits of Highly Missional People - Softcover

Frost, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1631465163 ISBN 13: 9781631465161

Publisher: NavPress, 2015

Synopsis

Sharing your faith doesn’t have to be complicated.
Christians are called to be a witness for Christ in daily life, to surprise people around us with the good news of the gospel. Yet putting that mission into regular practice can seem overwhelming. Author Michael Frost, a renowned expert on evangelism, offers refreshingly simple tactics to make evangelism fulfilling, exciting, and effective.

Surprise the World teaches clear and practical tools for making evangelism part of your daily life. This short and easy read covers the BELLS method, along with thought-provoking questions and prompts for applying each habit. You’ll learn about each of the five habits:

• Bless others
• Eat together
• Listen to the Spirit
• Learn Christ
• Understand yourself as Sent by God into others’ lives

Ideal for personal use or training groups on evangelism, the inspiring lessons in this book will transform your view of evangelism in daily life.

“A timely wake-up call for believers. A concise and helpful encouragement to those seeking to live on-mission in their communities.” ―Ed Stetzer, author and pastor

“Eminently doable, entirely practical, and exceptionally effective!” ―Felicity Dale, author of An Army of Ordinary People

“If every believer developed a lifestyle that included these 5 habits, I’m convinced a great spiritual awakening would take place.” ―Al Engler, mission director of Nav Neighbor

About this title

From the Back Cover

Share your faith in surprisingly simple ways . . .
Christians throughout the world have found renewed enthusiasm to share their faith using Michael Frost’s BELLS model.

We Bless people, both inside and outside the church.
We Eat together, sharing meals with believers and nonbelievers alike.
We Listen to the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit as we engage with those around us.
We intimately Learn Christ as our leader and model for making disciples.
We see ourselves as Sent by God to everywhere life takes us.

Surprise the World is a practical tool for cultivating these habits in our lives. Ideal for personal use and for training groups on evangelism, the simple lessons in this book will surprise those who receive the gospel―and will surprise you with the overwhelming goodness of the kingdom of God.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Surprise the World!

The Five Habits of Highly Missional People

By Michael Frost

NavPress

Copyright © 2016 Michael Frost
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-63146-516-1

Contents

Introduction, ix, 
Chapter 1 Living "Questionable" Lives, 1, 
Chapter 2 A New Set of Habits, 17, 
Chapter 3 Bless: The First Habit, 29, 
Chapter 4 Eat: The Second Habit, 41, 
Chapter 5 Listen: The Third Habit, 57, 
Chapter 6 Learn: The Fourth Habit, 71, 
Chapter 7 Sent: The Fifth Habit, 85, 
Chapter 8 Discipleship, Nurture, and Accountability, 99, 
The BELLS Challenge: DNA Accountability Form, 105, 
Questions for Discussion and Engagement, 109, 
Appendix: Resources for Learning Jesus, 117, 
Notes, 121, 
About the Author, 125, 

CHAPTER 1

Living "Questionable" Lives

Before we get to the five habits themselves, allow me to sketch the background. Evangelistic mission works effectively when we are living generous, hospitable, Spirit-led, Christlike lives as missionaries to our own neighborhoods — and when the gifted evangelists in our midst join us in sharing Christ with our neighbors. That's not just good evangelism strategy. That's the biblical model.

A Twofold Approach to Evangelism

With all the best intentions in the world, some people will tell you that every Christian is an evangelist and bears the responsibility to share Christ with others. I certainly agree with the latter part of that contention (that we bear responsibility to share our love for Jesus with others). But I fear that the first part of that statement (that every Christian is an evangelist) is unhelpful.

Are we really all evangelists? Certainly the vast majority of Christians I know don't feel much like evangelists. It's as if we're being told that — even though we don't believe we're evangelists, and don't perform very effectively when we act like evangelists — we are nonetheless, deep down in our bones, really truly evangelists who just need to step into our true identities and fulfill our calling to share Christ with others. Is this fair, and more importantly, is it true?

Contrary to the myth that every believer is an evangelist, the apostle Paul assumes a twofold approach to the ministry of evangelism.

• First, he affirms the gifting of the evangelist — interestingly, not the gift of evangelism but the evangelist herself is the gift (see Ephesians 4:11).

• Second, he writes as though all believers are to be evangelistic in their general orientation.

Paul clearly places himself in the first category, seeing his ministry not only as that of an apostle but also as that of an evangelist. But it doesn't appear that he believes all Christians bear the responsibility for the kind of bold proclamation to which he is called. Note his description of this twofold approach in his letter to the Colossians:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

COLOSSIANS 4:2-6

For evangelists, Paul asks for opportunities to share Christ and for the courage to proclaim the gospel clearly (verses 3-4). But he doesn't suggest the Colossians pray as much for themselves. Rather, e

Edition details

• Publisher: NavPress
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1631465163
• ISBN 13: 9781631465161
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144