Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

My church has just begun a new course for people exploring Jesus. It runs for five weeks and explains who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian. I invited a friend along and was nervous about how she’d find it. But it’s been wonderful hearing everyone’s questions.

How should we do evangelism? Through courses, Sunday gatherings, or personal evangelism? This is something that Christians were also wrestling with in the 1960s, when Packer wrote his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. 

It’s been super refreshing to zoom out with Packer. The big question of the book is why do we evangelise if God is sovereign over all? Then he asks how we can know whether an evangelistic method is effective. 

When we evangelise, the gospel message does not need to be “beautified with the cosmetics and high heels of fashionable learning in order to make people look at it, but as a word from God, spoken in Christ’s name.”

This book is great for a new Christian who is nervous about sharing the gospel for the first time, or for a Christian leader, or anyone in between! It has reminded me of the confidence I can have in God’s sovereignty, and given me a new excitement to share his gospel.

“There are, in fact, two motives that should spur us on constantly to evangelise. The first is love of God and concern for his glory; the second is love of [people] and concern for [their] welfare.”

Reviewed by Emma Warren

Emma loves going to the beach, learning to cook something new and reading the Bible with women as she completes her ministry traineeship at Engadine Anglican Church. She leads EQUIP Teens, which is having a training afternoon later in the year on the topic of phones.