Book Review: Honest Evangelism, by Rico Tice

The following book review was written by a member of our congregation. The views presented here are solely those of the reviewer and may or may not align with the views of other members.

Reviewer
Richard Jones
Summary

The author of this book starts out by telling the reader right up front that Evangelism will sometimes be painful, uncomfortable and hard to do. But, he says that the rewards are so wonderful when a new soul is won to Christ. In the chapter, Is it Worth It?, he discusses Bible reasons for Evangelizing.

The third chapter, Why We (Still) Won’t Evangelize the author talks about how he himself was at first afraid of what people would say, afraid of their opposition or afraid others would think his remarks were inappropriate. The author says that because he wanted to avoid these negative reactions, he came to realize that he loved himself more than he loved Jesus who commands us to tell others about the Gospel. He says that when we react this way we are making our own comfort into an idol because we put ourselves above Jesus.

The remaining 5 chapters give simple down to earth guidelines for talking to others about the Gospel. Here are the chapter headings:

  • What Must I Remember
  • What Do I Say?
  • Be Yourself
  • Getting Started
  • Two Things to Do

Finally, this quote from near the end of the book, “If you’re like me, you’ll never find evangelism easy. You’ll always find it hard to take the risk, and get over the painline. Let’s remember:

  • There will be hunger as well as hostility.
  • Jesus Christ is glorious; the new creation is wonderful; death and hell are real.
  • God is sovereign; he is gracious; and he is powerful.”

Recommendation
I highly recommend reading this book. It is relatively short and has some very important advice for those of us who haven’t gotten started in actively spreading the Gospel.