7 Evangelism Mistakes You’re Probably Making
Evangelism has almost become a dirty word in our culture. Sadly, it’s not all that different in many churches. We either go all-in with enthusiasm only to find that most people aren’t interested, or we’ve quietly given up on it altogether. But what if we’re missing the heart of evangelism?
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we’ll define what true biblical evangelism is (and what it’s not) while uncovering the 7 worst evangelism mistakes Christians make today.
Even when we’re confident in our faith and what the Bible teaches, how we communicate and carry ourselves speaks volumes about who God is. God isn’t pushy—he’s patient. He’s gentle, loving, and always available. Our approach to evangelism should reflect that same heart.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- What the Bible actually teaches about evangelism.
- Are all Christians called to be evangelists?
- Why so many believers are looking for ways to “opt out” of evangelizing.
- The 7 biggest evangelism mistakes today—and a better way forward.
From this episode:
“Believe it or not, most people are very open to having spiritual conversations. But it must be in the right context, at the right time, and we must have the right heart posture in order for it to truly be a conversation that others want to participate in… and maybe revisit over time. Asking more questions and listening well–especially at the beginning of a relationship–is a lot more important than trying to “win” the conversation on the spot.”
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…
Thanks for Listening!
Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Join us on Facebook and take part in the discussion!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of this page or right below.
Also, please subscribe and leave an honest review for The Everyday Disciple Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living.
Free Discipleship and Missional Resources
Transcript
Acting like your take on religion or you know, how life works or politics is a hundred percent correct all the time.
Caesar Kalinowski:And everybody else is wrong and you know, and then boxing people into corner, it's really bad evangelism and it certainly doesn't feel and sound like good news to others when you do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now no one thinks they're doing that, but wow.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've seen it and I've seen it a lot.
Caesar Kalinowski:And even when we're certain of our faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:And what the Bible teaches, our posture and how we discuss these things is a huge proclamation of who God is and the heart of our Father.
Caesar Kalinowski:God is never pushy.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's patient.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's kind and slow to anger and gentle and generous.
Caesar Kalinowski:I. And loving and available.
Heath Hollensbe:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast where you'll learn how to live with.
Heath Hollensbe:Greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Heath Hollensbe:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
Heath Hollensbe:This is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Heath Hollensbe:And now here's your host, Cesar Kalinowski.
Heath Hollensbe:Here we
Caesar Kalinowski:are.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is another great day to be here, to be together and.
Caesar Kalinowski:A very important season here in the Northwest.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yes.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because the Seahawks are kicking off soon here.
Caesar Kalinowski:So
Heath Hollensbe:I'm a huge soccer fan.
Heath Hollensbe:I know you're a big rugby fan.
Heath Hollensbe:Mm-hmm.
Heath Hollensbe:Are Seahawks.
Heath Hollensbe:Have you ever been to a game?
Heath Hollensbe:Oh yes.
Heath Hollensbe:Fun of course.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I recently attended a preseason game.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I was.
Caesar Kalinowski:I gotta be honest with you, the whole time I just kept saying to Tina, and this is another reason why rugby is the best sport.
Caesar Kalinowski:Isn't that funny?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, no kidding.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, because it seems so slow now to me.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's so slow.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's just like all this jockey and the lining up and everything and then like it's over.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know the whole thing of like an NFL game, if they just take the time, the ball's in play, what is it?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like five minutes or less.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not long.
Caesar Kalinowski:Something like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've heard three and a half.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've heard five and a half.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's just say you watch it for three and a half hours.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, but there's only about five or seven minutes or something of play, not in rugby or soccer.
Caesar Kalinowski:Bro.
Caesar Kalinowski:That clock starts and they're on it, right?
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, no, we, I joke about the Seahawks because it's like every, you do one play, then the reviewers do it again in slow motion.
Heath Hollensbe:Then there's a flag, then it goes to commercial, then you do the next flag.
Heath Hollensbe:It's just slow.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm ruined now.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, I'm ruined.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:I still say I'm a Hawks fan.
Caesar Kalinowski:Anyway, enough of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:No one hardly is caring about this.
Heath Hollensbe:Boom.
Heath Hollensbe:Hey, today we're talking about this, the seven big, worst, awful evangelism mistakes today, right?
Heath Hollensbe:And we did shows before on evangelism and our views on that, but this week we're gonna kind of take a bit of a different approach on common mistakes to actually avoid.
Heath Hollensbe:However, the first thing I. Thing that we need to talk about is to clarify meanings that we do a lot on this show.
Heath Hollensbe:So let's talk about what evangelism really means.
Heath Hollensbe:Great
Caesar Kalinowski:place to start.
Caesar Kalinowski:I and I, I always like to set a baseline so we can all talk from the same media, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:So many people use the word evangelism in different ways, actually, but what does the Bible say about it?
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a good place to start.
Caesar Kalinowski:So when we look to scripture, US English speakers sort of run into a problem.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's no direct equivalent word for our English word evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:Found in the New Testament, so, you know, we, we could discount it or whatever, but, but it's in there, it's just not that exact word.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:But it's, but it's, origin is rooted in three different Greek words.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So here, here where I'm gonna go a little nerd, nerd, alert for a second and I'm gonna murder it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some pronunciations here, but the three words, one is, uh, gelian.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, to describe what is said.
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, there, it's, it's the term, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, they're talking about the thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you can look like mark one 14 to 15.
Caesar Kalinowski:Look that up.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So describing what is said, then there's.
Caesar Kalinowski:You and Es.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:You and Es evangelist.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's, that word is used like in Acts 21, in Ephesians four to describe the person who is telling the gelian the gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then there's ew and gso to proclaim, to proclaim the gospel, to describe and, and that word's like describing the activity.
Caesar Kalinowski:Of telling the gospel, those who are proclaiming the good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:You see that in Roman 10.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, so there you go.
Caesar Kalinowski:Nerd alert.
Caesar Kalinowski:But those three words kind of pulled together, like the thing they're talking about, like who's talking about it?
Caesar Kalinowski:The evangelist, you and Gieses, and then the you and GSO to proclaim what's going on.
Caesar Kalinowski:The activity, uh, then is.
Caesar Kalinowski:That all kind of pulls together for us, right.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we kind of understand what's going on there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:And what's being conveyed in the New Testament by the word, to bring the good news Zo.
Caesar Kalinowski:So let's remember the word gospel means good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:So.
Caesar Kalinowski:The gospel is the good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:The evangelist is the one who is telling about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And to proclaim it, you, the you and Zo, I'm gonna be done with this in a minute, is to bring the good news, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's the, it's to do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, um, in this case, the good news we're talking about is about Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, 'cause everybody thinks maybe the word gospel, like, like, we made it up.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, no, it's, it's news.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it could have been about anybody.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:It could have been about anything.
Caesar Kalinowski:It was, it meant the term, you know, the good, like, hey, someone's coming with good news, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:In this case, the good news is about Jesus and the forgiveness that he brought us through his life, death and resurrection, God coming as man, and that the kingdom of God has now come.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm, and Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not you or I lovingly rules this kingdom.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's that's really good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:Absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's the baseline from which we start to talk about evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's, it's the proclaiming of this good news or the displaying of.
Caesar Kalinowski:The good news about Jesus.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And all the things that the gospel then fills up in our life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, props to you for getting through those hard words.
Caesar Kalinowski:Wow.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I, you know, I never claim to speak Greek, but I, anyway.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well then that's not the point.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's the point is the three different words kind of frame it
Heath Hollensbe:for us.
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:So, no, it's beautiful.
Heath Hollensbe:So when I, as you're talking there, I'm thinking.
Heath Hollensbe:Initially of Ephesians four about the, the call and church leadership, those were called to be evangelists.
Heath Hollensbe:Right?
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:And Ephesians four, you're referring to like, there's the AEs model.
Heath Hollensbe:Yep.
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:There's apostles, prophets, prophets, evangelists, shepherds teachers.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:But when we're looking at Ephesians four, that doesn't negate that all followers of Jesus actually are called to move people from unbelief to belief in every area of life.
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:So I've actually heard people before say like, oh, well I'm not an evangelist.
Heath Hollensbe:And it's like, that's not my thing.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:It's not, not not who I am.
Heath Hollensbe:I'm not wired like that.
Heath Hollensbe:Do you think anyone can really use that as a scapegoat to get outta sharing their faith or is sharing the faith for everyone?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, it's, first off I'd, I'd say it's really not a matter of getting out of sharing our faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's if that's, and I'm not saying that's your heart, I'm just saying, but a lot of people say it that way and a lot of people think it that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like I can say that and I get outta it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, no, if we really see the gospel of the kingdom and Jesus' life and sacrifice and rule as good news and a needed good news to the people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Everybody in the world, then we're gonna want to share it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's first off.
Caesar Kalinowski:So really, I think I would love to see our heart being going like, man, I wish I was an evangelist so I could talk about it more.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, that Ephesians four passage is talking about specific giftings.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, which are people like evangelist, that's a person, a prophet, that's a person that are given, and I'm not gonna teach Ephesians four now, but what for the equipping of the Saints.
Caesar Kalinowski:To bring us to unity and fullness in Christ and maturity.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:So there are those who are going to be evangelists that really equip the rest of us in evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's the point for the equipping of the saints.
Caesar Kalinowski:So no, no one quote gets out of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I hope our heart is moving much more towards.
Caesar Kalinowski:We get to, but see, that only flows if you really think that Jesus life, death, and resurrection and, and all the effects of that and how it speaks into our identity and our lives and our marriage is really good news and it's needed good news for the world.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you don't feel that, well then you probably will be looking for ways to avoid talking about it.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:You know, and I'm thinking as, even as you're talking about evangelism, uh, the way I've seen it much in the past is that evangelism typically in American Christianity is like this big.
Heath Hollensbe:Billy Graham, huge event at a stadium where he comes and shares a message.
Heath Hollensbe:There's not much follow through stage.
Heath Hollensbe:Lots of planning.
Heath Hollensbe:Thousands of people.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Big bands.
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:So those are kinda like the giant nets being thrown.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:But there's not usually much follow through there.
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:But then discipleship typically is like this boring kind of classroom setting where you go through a book together.
Heath Hollensbe:Knowledge acquisition.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, exactly.
Heath Hollensbe:But it sounds like in your thinking, and I know from stuff we've talked about previously on the show.
Heath Hollensbe:Over and over and over that evangelism and discipleship are a lot more connected than, than these two kind of segregated worlds.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:And that's huge.
Caesar Kalinowski:And not, not everyone agrees with it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, but that, that's one of the big mistakes that we can make in evangelism and in discipleship today.
Caesar Kalinowski:In fact, it's one of the seven.
Caesar Kalinowski:So let's talk about those big evangelism mistakes.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, let's do it.
Heath Hollensbe:Okay.
Heath Hollensbe:So you've come up with a seven.
Heath Hollensbe:Worst mistakes to avoid?
Heath Hollensbe:There's
Caesar Kalinowski:probably more.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I tried to whittle 'em down to like, what are the things that are really barriers or, you know, to us and to others, the Caesar seven.
Caesar Kalinowski:So let's talk, let's walk through those here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So the first one is not knowing and understanding and embracing a really big gospel, like one that speaks into all of life now.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:And instead, preaching about someone's afterlife when they have real problems and needs right in front of you.
Caesar Kalinowski:That the gospel, the actual gospel does address today.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a, that's a huge problem.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah,
Caesar Kalinowski:that's a huge problem.
Caesar Kalinowski:So if your gospel is so small and you think it's primarily about the afterlife, that's one of the worst things.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's not gonna be good news to anybody with real daily problems when you're talking about, well, you're afterlife, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:The second I think of of huge problems with evangelism is thinking that evangelism's about closing the deal and getting people to say a certain prayer.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:And coupled with that is, is thinking that it's our job to get out there and get everyone saved.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, which just puts crazy weird pressure on us.
Caesar Kalinowski:Nowhere in scripture does it say, go get people saved.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says, go make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:We have plenty of examples of people proclaiming the good news of Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if you don't wanna walk in his ways, we wanna show you.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you wanna understand how his life and death and his resurrection and him being a son and you now being a son or a daughter, affects all of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's, that's what proclaiming the good news of the gospel's about, but thinking that I gotta get you saved.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, there's so much pressure on you.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then we mark people and we put weird things on them and we don't have real relationship.
Caesar Kalinowski:No.
Caesar Kalinowski:I
Heath Hollensbe:remember a, with my decade stint in the South where there's a, a church down the street that did their good old fashioned soul women where they get together and on Thursday nights they go out, soul in and Oh yeah, blow the door.
Heath Hollensbe:And you're like, no.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I know some people are gonna be ticked off here in this episode.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, because they're gonna go like, you should.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm like, Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that kinda leads me right into the third of the, of the worst things is, is that your Evangeline is giving a presentation instead of having a conversation.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or a series of conversations relationship, which by the way, conversation includes listening.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:At least 50% of the time.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:Two people in the conversation.
Caesar Kalinowski:So don't think if, if your evangelism is presentational, I. It's primarily about a historic event that happened a long time ago.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's not the gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's not what gets proclaimed in scripture.
Caesar Kalinowski:Absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Fourth is, um, seeing apologetics.
Caesar Kalinowski:As the primary form of evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, trying to argue with people into believing what you believe is true.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or going after, you know, the age of the moon rocks or you know, like this or that.
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, apologetics, which is there's a defense of the faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's, it makes for horrible evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:And often this approach leads us to focusing on behavioral modification with people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, we start out by pointing out their particular brand of sin.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then quoting lots of Bible verses and, and really trying to prove it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then thinking we just evangelize some people, we just Good news them.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Yikes.
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:So, you know, that reminds me of, uh, it was way back, but episode two 12 when we were talking about why apologetics makes for poor evangelism.
Heath Hollensbe:Yep.
Heath Hollensbe:If, if you haven't heard that one yet, go back to two 12.
Heath Hollensbe:Why Apologetics makes for.
Heath Hollensbe:Evangelism, but just
Caesar Kalinowski:pointing out someone's sin and, you know, and then going hard after it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now even in relationship, that's kind of icky.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, but often people do that, right.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, with the whole trick people into like, have, you know, have you ever, you ever stolen, are you a thief?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, no.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, you never taken a paperclip or maybe picked a pencil off the floor at school and it wasn't yours, but you took it home and like, you see you're a liar too.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you know all that stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then you just quote unquote, like, I, I just evangelized them.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, that was no good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:No good news in there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Exactly.
Caesar Kalinowski:Don't put that in the category.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, the fifth one is acting like your take on religion and how life works and politics and, and fill in the blank is, is a hundred percent correct and everybody else is wrong.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then we sort of box people into a corner That's bad evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:And often we do.
Caesar Kalinowski:And why do I list all those things connected to evangelism?
Caesar Kalinowski:'cause that's kind of how people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Take us as Christians, like, we come off as like, you know, you support this person or that person in politics, or you're against this issue, or that, or you know, there's only my way and like, wow, Christians don't even believe there's one way, there's thousands of denominations.
Caesar Kalinowski:My point is not that you can't be have a conviction, it's acting like your view on all this stuff is a hundred percent correct and everybody else is, is wrong.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's bad evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it certainly doesn't feel or sound like good news to others when we do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's antagonistic, it's argumentative.
Caesar Kalinowski:And even when we're like, like I said, really certain of what we believe in our faith and what the Bible teaches, our posture and how we discuss these things is a huge proclamation of who God is and displaying the heart of our father.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:God's never pushy.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's patient.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's kind, he's slow to anger, he's gentle, he's generous, he's loving, and you know what?
Caesar Kalinowski:He's available.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And oftentimes we sort of do these drive-by shootings.
Caesar Kalinowski:I, I sometimes I've called it like just sitting in the corner and chucking rocks at people, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Do you hang out with those people?
Caesar Kalinowski:No.
Caesar Kalinowski:'cause of this, like, so we point out their sin.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've talked to him about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:They didn't wanna hear anything about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're rejectors, they're going straight to hell.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like, please don't call that evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's just jerky.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's just being beep.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, like, you know, not good.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sixth one is, and you kind of alluded to this just a second ago, is separating evangelism from discipleship and discipleship from evangelism.
Heath Hollensbe:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus said, if you'll walk in my ways, in John eight, he says, if you'll walk in my ways and be my disciple, then you'll come to know the truth.
Caesar Kalinowski:He meant like in every area of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that truth will set you free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so we look at that and we go like, oh, wait a minute.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus didn't ask people to first believe a set of doctrines and principles before they could hang out with him.
Caesar Kalinowski:He said, come and follow.
Caesar Kalinowski:Come and follow me.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hang out with me.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he did life, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so his form of evangelism looked exactly like discipleship, but we talk about discipleship is the process of moving from unbelief to belief.
Caesar Kalinowski:In every area of life in light of the gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:So then wait a minute.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can't do discipleship without the gospel transforming all of our beliefs.
Caesar Kalinowski:So then what Jesus said, so we get set free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is for freedom that I have come set you free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right, exactly.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I think we've done ourself a huge disservice when we separate.
Caesar Kalinowski:And put evangelism on one as like on a continuum before discipleship or vice versa, or just purely the separating of those two.
Heath Hollensbe:Yep.
Heath Hollensbe:They're way
Caesar Kalinowski:more inter, they're way more interconnected.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:So it's, it's a, it's an evangelism, quote unquote mistake.
Caesar Kalinowski:Evangelism is discipleship.
Caesar Kalinowski:Discipleship is evangelism, and it's over the long haul.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've said it before in the show, quote, my buddy Hugh Halter, that when he meets someone.
Caesar Kalinowski:For the first time, and he knows they don't have a relationship with God or Jesus in in, in the right sense and they're walking with him.
Caesar Kalinowski:He just counts on it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Taking five years probably.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:For them to come to a point where they've walked in his ways enough and come to know the truth about him and been set free enough that they can trust him as lowered and savior of their whole life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sounds like Jesus, right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Three year commitment.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, man.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:The seventh one.
Caesar Kalinowski:And this, this one kinda wraps up a lot of stuff, man.
Caesar Kalinowski:But the seventh worst mistake in evangelism is loving yourself more than other people or God's glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:We love ourselves more than people.
Caesar Kalinowski:We love ourselves more than God's glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, so you avoid speaking about the truth and the good news of the gospel and who Jesus is and what he's done and, and how we get to live now because of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and we do that because we love ourselves and we fear what others may think.
Caesar Kalinowski:Self-love and fear of man is a huge barrier to evangelism, and it's one of the worst mistakes we make now.
Caesar Kalinowski:We can't just wave a magic wand.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And say, well, I'm done with that.
Caesar Kalinowski:But that's the thing that is the biggest hurdle was we love ourselves more than we love people in God's glory, and we're not that fluent.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've talked about gospel fluency a lot on the show.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're not that versed or able to speak in ways that are actually good news to people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Since I love myself and I don't ever want anybody to think poorly of me, or I don't want to risk any relational strife, or I don't want my neighbor thinking I'm a weirdo or whatever because I love me.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, I can control that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I won't say anything that's bad.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's really, I think why we have a huge evangelism.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's one of the big reasons, one of the seven, why we have a huge evangelism crisis right now in the church.
Heath Hollensbe:You know, even as you're just talking there, I'm thinking about how amazing.
Heath Hollensbe:The differences are when I'm looking at evangelism from what I grew up hearing in a local church versus what you had just talked about.
Heath Hollensbe:Mm. Because, uh, again, the soul winning thing, I remember the chick tracks, you know, where it's like, Hey, hand out the, I just saw something on Instagram today where someone said,
Caesar Kalinowski:someone just handed me this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I can't even tell you how many ways the theology is bad.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they had a couple pictures there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some guy, some guy commented and said like literally someone keeps taping him to the front of my car.
Caesar Kalinowski:Chick tracks in my driveway and I'm the pastor's and I live in the parsonage right next to the church with the sign.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like they just have no clue.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, we were
Heath Hollensbe:down at the water the other day and somebody was handing out million dollar bills with like.
Heath Hollensbe:To my kids.
Heath Hollensbe:I've done, I've
Caesar Kalinowski:had it.
Heath Hollensbe:I was like, you know, you going to hell.
Heath Hollensbe:I used
Caesar Kalinowski:to do that wacky stuff, man.
Heath Hollensbe:So it's so di I mean, this way actually sounds like repent.
Heath Hollensbe:Jesus.
Heath Hollensbe:I repented.
Heath Hollensbe:I did
Caesar Kalinowski:that to you.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm so sorry.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you happen to be listening.
Caesar Kalinowski:I repent.
Caesar Kalinowski:Stop by the house.
Caesar Kalinowski:I will repent on my face to you.
Caesar Kalinowski:If I find a,
Heath Hollensbe:if I find a chi track in public, I. Personally throw it away.
Heath Hollensbe:'cause I feel it's doing the Lord work.
Heath Hollensbe:Oh, please bring
Caesar Kalinowski:it to me.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's take pictures and put 'em on Instagram.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Hey, what first steps would you say people could take to begin to feel more confident and better equipped for this good, solid, effective type of evangelism that you just shared?
Caesar Kalinowski:Great question.
Caesar Kalinowski:Heath.
Caesar Kalinowski:I, I'll take us back to, to the first number one item on the list today.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, and that's believe in a bigger gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:We really need to understand the gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a gospel about all of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know that's almost like a broken record on the podcast, but we have to, we, we've gotta see the beauty and immensity and the relevance of the gospel speaking into and transforming all of life and experiencing life of freedom in, in the kingdom, knowing of the father's love and what he thinks of us and how we get to live our identity, our authority and privilege.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so I, you know, I think.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's where I'd say is like, if you have that sort of lack of confidence that I can even sound like good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:Invest yourself, like, grow in your gospel fluency.
Caesar Kalinowski:I I'm gonna put a link to a couple of really great resources in the show notes.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, I do a, a free webinar called the Gospel in Everyday Life, and I'm gonna put a link to that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that'll really help people, you know, put their foot on the path.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then also my book, bigger Gospel, which that webinar is kind of based on, it's, it's actually available right now for free.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll, it's a hard, it's a book, it's a full printed book.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not an ebook.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll ship it to your house if you're willing to pick up the shipping to handling on the book.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like seven bucks or something.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah,
Heath Hollensbe:that's not bad at all.
Caesar Kalinowski:So if you want the book, it's, you know, you can go and buy it and go to, you know, go to my website and find it and buy it.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I'll, I'll put a link in the show notes where all you have to do is pick up the shipping and I'll ship it to you for free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Fair enough.
Caesar Kalinowski:Easy.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:So those are some real practical steps.
Caesar Kalinowski:Don't just think about it, just, just don't think about all the barriers, but like start to make a difference by growing in your own gospel fluency.
Caesar Kalinowski:So
Heath Hollensbe:sweet man.
Heath Hollensbe:Thanks for that.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, a lot of giveaways this week.
Heath Hollensbe:Hey, uh, we wanna get to the big three, which are the big three takeaways.
Heath Hollensbe:If, if nothing else we want you to walk away with from this week's episode and you get as a printable PDF right into your inbox by going to everyday disciple.com/big three.
Heath Hollensbe:Cesar, what are the big three for this week?
Heath Hollensbe:Here you
Caesar Kalinowski:go.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm, I'm wound up for these.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So the first one is like, hear this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Believe it or not, most people are very open to having spiritual conversations.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:I believe that with all my heart.
Caesar Kalinowski:I just, that's been my experience all over the country.
Caesar Kalinowski:All over the world.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:But it must be, those spiritual conversations must be in the right context at the right time, and we must have the right heart posture in order for it to truly be a conversation that others want to participate in.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:So people are open to spiritual conversations, but not jerky.
Caesar Kalinowski:Weird ones like some of the things on the list and, and they, you want 'em to be open to it and maybe even willing to like revisit that and come back.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let me think about that and come back.
Caesar Kalinowski:So asking more questions and listening well, especially at the beginning of a relationship is a lot more important than trying to.
Caesar Kalinowski:Win the conversation on the spot.
Caesar Kalinowski:Alright, man.
Caesar Kalinowski:Number two.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Number two, we must understand this is kinda what I just said a minute ago.
Caesar Kalinowski:We must understand and believe a really big gospel that speaks good news into every area of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Starting with our own, we need to be evangelizing our own hearts.
Caesar Kalinowski:I.
Caesar Kalinowski:Before, we'll probably love people and love God enough.
Caesar Kalinowski:We must also love God and His glory more than our own comfort and our control over what people think of us.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like do you believe that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and his loving rule in your life is merely a convenient thing for your afterlife?
Caesar Kalinowski:And so that's why you said that prayer and your.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're, you're glad that you're in the club or are you grateful and have a desire for everyone to experience the freedom that you have in Christ.
Caesar Kalinowski:See that changes things a lot.
Caesar Kalinowski:It sure does.
Caesar Kalinowski:Absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:Alright, number three.
Caesar Kalinowski:Alright, number three.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is the sort of hands part of it, like the practicum start groan in your gospel fluency so that we have good news to proclaim.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's essential learning to speak and live and enjoy the gospel in every area of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not just like, eh, I'm a church person kind of waiting for heaven with, you know, behavioral modification for me and the kids, you know, and my neighbors that'll listen, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, but like learning to experience in, in like, like really live out the gospel in every area of life allows us to proclaim the gospel in both words and throughout all the normal stuff of life as people interact with us in our community.
Caesar Kalinowski:So get the resources and training you need.
Caesar Kalinowski:Take me up on those offers for.
Caesar Kalinowski:Free webinar, online training, free book, and then share with others in your family and your community so you can begin to evangelize yourselves and each other before you know, kind of heading out in the road to do that for everyone else.
Caesar Kalinowski:Remember that moving from unbelief to belief concerning the truth of the gospel in every area of life is what discipleship is.
Caesar Kalinowski:So as we learn to evangelize ourselves, that's gonna also totally pump up.
Caesar Kalinowski:Our discipleship as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:'cause that's what discipleship's all about.
Heath Hollensbe:Thank you for those big three.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Again, you get those four free in your inbox right now as a download by going to everyday disciple.com/big three.
Heath Hollensbe:And if you haven't yet joined us, uh, in rating our show and given us a couple of stars on iTunes or now we're not just on iTunes.
Heath Hollensbe:We're on Spotify.
Heath Hollensbe:Spotify, yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:We're all over the place.
Heath Hollensbe:Would you jump in and write a quick review?
Heath Hollensbe:Takes about 30 seconds.
Heath Hollensbe:Give us a couple stars.
Heath Hollensbe:Please subscribe though.
Heath Hollensbe:So that ding, the thing shows up every Monday
Caesar Kalinowski:in your box on Monday.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:So, and then that also gets the, the news of the show out to some new people that I don't know how the algorithms work, but
Caesar Kalinowski:boy, I wanna say, I wanna say a shout out to all the new folks on our Facebook group.
Heath Hollensbe:Wow.
Heath Hollensbe:If you're not yet on Facebook in our group, just go to everyday disciple.com/facebook and you can join our conversation.
Heath Hollensbe:Thanks for joining us today.
Heath Hollensbe:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everyday disciple.com and remember, you really can live with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that Jesus promised every day.