Redeemer Community Church Study Center

Personal Spiritual Disciplines Syllabus

2nd Trimester, 2012

Course Description:

A study of personal evangelism designed to equip the minister to train others in a variety of skills related to personal evangelism.

Course Rationale:

Evangelism should be a primary activity of a New Testament church. Each member should be motivated to witness and trained to do so. It is imperative for church leaders to know how to witness so that they can win others to Christ and model evangelism for their church members. The goal is to equip all of the members of the church to share their faith effectively with others and to train members to do effective follow-up.

Course Objectives:

  1. The student will understand the biblical basis and human

need for personal evangelism.

  1. The student will learn how to present the gospel effectively

on a person to person basis as a way of life.

  1. The student will learn methods to equip others to

evangelize.

  1. The student will learn to understand and analyze various

schools of thought regarding the efficacy of several methods of evangelism.

  1. The student will learn how to evaluate theologically various

personal evangelism methodologies.

  1. The student will learn how to obtain resources and

materials for personal evangelism.

Course Texts:

Beougher, Timothy. Overcoming Walls to Witnessing. BGEA, 1993

Dever, Mark, The Gospel & Personal Evangelism. Crossway, 2007

Course Requirements:

  1. Lectures: Regular attendance to lectures is required (10 points per lecture)
  2. Required Reading and Summaries:

Students will be required to read all texts in their entirety. Some of the forum questions will include discussion on the books (25 points per reading assignment).

  1. Forum Responses: Students are required to respond via forum to a question and with other students' responses (25 points per response) 2 responses required per forum.
  2. Personal Testimony:

Each student will be required to write and submit his or her personal testimony in accordance with the guidelines in the lecture. Students will submit a rough draft that will be evaluated and returned by the professor. Students will then submit a final draft. (25 points for rough draft and 75 points for final draft)

  1. Witnessing Reports:

The only way one ultimately learns to do personal evangelism isby doing it! Therefore, each student is encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to witness during the course Five of these experiences will be summarized on a Personal Evangelism Report Form (100 points).

  1. Mid-Term Exam: emphasizing Scripture memorization(100 points).
  2. Final Exam:

The exam will come from the books as well as the lecture material(100 points).

Grading Scale (%):

100 – 91 = A90 – 81 = B80 – 71 = C70 – 61 = D60 – 0 = F

Course Outline:

May 6thIntroduction to Course

13thWhat is Evangelism?

Biblical Foundations for Personal Evangelism

[The Gospel Personal Evangelism, 11-29]

20thMotivations for Evangelism

Devotional Life and Evangelism

Personal Holiness and Evangelism

[The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 31-44]

27thWhat is the Gospel?

[The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 45-54]

Rough Draft of Testimony Due

June 3rdBridges to the Gospel

Concentric Circles of Concern

[The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 55-68]

10th Methods of Sharing: Gospel Booklet

Methods of Sharing: Personal Testimony

[The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 69-92]

17thMethods of Sharing: Home Bible Study

Methods of Sharing: Servant Evangelism

[The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 83-94]

24thBreak (Final Draft of Testimony due June 27, 2012)

July 1st Calling for a Response

Dealing with Obstacles

Common Objections and Obstacles

[The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 95-106 ]

8thMidterm Test

Evangelism as a Way of Life

[The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, 107-112]

15thTarget Group: Children

Target Group: Family Members

[Overcoming the Walls of Witnessing, 7-17]

22ndTarget Group: Cross-Cultural Evangelism

Target Group: Cult Members

[Overcoming the Walls of Witnessing, 19-26]

29thBreak

Aug. 5thLocal Church Evangelism

[Overcoming the Walls of Witnessing, 27-34]

12th Follow-up: General Principles

Follow-up: Assurance of Salvation

[Overcoming the Walls of Witnessing, 35-42]

17th Overcoming the Walls of Witnessing, Part 1

[Overcoming the Walls of Witnessing, 43-56]

25thOvercoming the Walls of Witnessing, Part 2

Final

*This course is modified from a course given by Dr. Timothy Beougher from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Redeemer Community Church