World Evangelism Quotes & Sayings

I wept more in Korea than in all the past several years put together. These experiences changed my life. I could never be quite the same again ... I felt sadder, older. I felt as though I had gone in a boy and come out a man. — Billy Graham

The mission that God has given us is a highly relational mission. Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" John 20:21. Jesus came into this world, lived in obscurity for 30 years and then spent three years relationally investing in twelve men, whose charge was to do the same thing by relationally investing in others. This strategy has worked for 2000 years each of us has been touched by someone reaching out to and investing in us relationally, thus advancing the gospel and the mission of God. — Gary Rohrmayer

When society was patriarchal, as it was in the New Testament context and as it has been everywhere in the world except in modern society in our day, the church avoided scandal by going along with it - fundamentally evil as patriarchy was and is. Now, however, that modern society is at least officially egalitarian, the scandal is that the church is NOT going along with society, not rejoicing in the unprecedented freedom to let women and men serve according to gift and call without an arbitrary gender line. This scandal impedes both the evangelism of others and the edification - the retention and development of faith - of those already converted. — John G. Stackhouse Jr.

Wanted: Steel toed Bible thumpers to reach a monster truck mad world. — M.J. McGuire

God called me many years ago to be an evangelist, and I have never regretted His leading. I love the crusades, meeting people from every country and culture all over the world. My life has been blessed by friends from every land, and challenges from every corner. — Billy Graham

Before they are preachers, leaders or church planters, the disciples are to be lovers! This is the test of whether or not they have known Jesus. This remains the case today: this cross-love is the primary, dynamic test of whether or not we have understood the gospel word and experienced its power ... It is our cross-love for each other that proclaims the truth of the gospel to a watching and skeptical world. Our love for one another, to the extent that it imitates and conforms to the cross-love of Jesus for us, is evangelistic.
pp. 56-7 — Tim Chester

Christian myth, reveals the truth that "the Christian was (and is) still like his forefathers a mortal hemmed into a hostile world. — Philip Zaleski

Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus' name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son. — Eugene H. Peterson

There is nothing in the world or the Church - except the church's disobedience - to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility. — Robert Speer

We are called to go make disciples, but how do disciples live? How do we function in the world - in our marriages, families, schools and places of business? How do we live as salt and light in the society? — Michael Brown

While the United States is becoming the most culturally diverse nation in the world, less than 5.5% of Christian congregations are multiethnic. — James MacDonald

People who were personally concerned about a better world, came to Washington, were drawn to it. Even though where we were going was still to be worked out. There was an elan, an optimism . . . an evangelism . . . it was an adventure. — Studs Terkel

What we do here, matters. What we make here, matters. How we serve here, matters. If it is only about our destiny in the world to come, this world becomes a mere means to our true end; every person merely an object of evangelism. — James K. Wellman Jr.

Evangelism is intrinsically relational, the outcome of love of neighbor, for to love our neighbor is to share the love of God holistically. The proper context for evangelism is authentic Christian community, where the expression of loving community is the greatest apologetic for the gospel. Holiness - being given to God and God's mission in this world - is a way of life that is expressly concerned with evangelism. — Elaine A. Heath

Apologetics is about persuading people that there is a door to another world - a door that perhaps they never realized existed. Evangelism is about helping people to open that door and enter into the new world that lies beyond. — Alister E. McGrath

But even if we remain in our own country, Christians and non-Christians are often widely separated from one another by social sub-cultures and lifestyles as well as by different values, beliefs and moral standards. Only an incarnation can span these divides, for an incarnation means entering other people's worlds, their thought-world, and the worlds of their alienation, loneliness and pain. Moreover, the incarnation led to the cross. Jesus first took our flesh, then bore our sin. This was a depth of penetration into our world in order to reach us, in comparison with which our little attempts to reach people seem amateur and shallow. The cross calls us to a much more radical and costly kind of evangelism than most churches have begun to consider, let alone experience. — John R.W. Stott

Not called!' did you say?
'Not heard the call,' I think you should say.
Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face - whose mercy you have professed to obey - and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world. — William Booth

How marvelous it was to stand in a place like the Soviet Union and talk about the coming kingdom and to tell them that Communism will not win. I told them capitalism would not win either; it's the kingdom of God that is going to win. — Billy Graham

I have stood in the places where history was made. I have seen with my own eyes the part that men and women of faith have played in these earthshaking events, and I have heard with my own ears their cries for freedom. — Billy Graham

Only God knows when the alarm will sound, ending the work and ministry of evangelism as we have known it. — Billy Graham

The significant thing about Edwards is the way he enters into the tradition, infuses it with his personality and makes it live. The vitality of his thought gives to its product the value of unique creation. Two qualities in him especially contribute to this result, large constructive imagination and a marvelously acute power of abstract reasoning. With the vision of the seer he looks steadily upon his world, which is the world of all time and space and existence, and sees it as a whole; God and souls are in it the great realities, and the transactions between them the great business in which all its movement is concerned. — H. Norman Gardiner

I've never seen such a hunger in people for spiritual things ... People realize the past is gone, the future is uncertain, and the present seems to be hopeless. As a result, many [in Moscow] were open to God. — Billy Graham

We must warn the nations of the world that they must repent and turn to God while there is yet time. We must also proclaim that there is forgiveness and peace in knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. — Billy Graham

You are the enemy and a vessel through which the cure flows - if Christ lives in you, then you are an embodiment of the very shot this hostile and crying world needs as it, in every waking moment, struggles belligerently to resist. — Criss Jami

Whatever response we draw, we've got to know this: evangelism is not easy. It's not supposed to be. It's challenging to tell someone that he or she is lost, in danger of coming judgment, and in need of wholehearted repentance. That's not a light and airy message. It's a world-changing message, one that calls our entire lives into question. It's a loving message, but love in a biblical sense is not mushy or weak. Biblical love is transformative, powerful, renewing, redeeming, cleansing. — Owen Strachan

Ancient wisdom collides with modern crises, equipping believers to image Christ in a world entranced with salvific knock-offs. — Owen Strachan

In the evangelical world, prying can be an indicator of compassion. — Kevin Roose

I was born for a controversial world, and I cannot escape my destiny. John Quincy Adams — Paul C. Nagel

Nations and civilizations rise, flourish for a time, and then decay. Eventually each comes to an end. This, because of sin, is the decree of history and the way of life on this planet. — Billy Graham

Disciples of Jesus Christ have had a profound life-altering experience. They have encountered a supernatural personality, revealed in history as Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Messiah. And they have discovered the meaning and purpose of their lives in the subsequent revelation of his continuing presence to them. The experience demands a faithful, reliable witness.

What would public opinion say of a person who discovered the absolute cure for AIDS, but was unwilling to share that cure with a world that so desperately needs it? What if the antidote were kept hidden and made use of by only the discoverer and his family? We would consider it an moral outrage and he or she would be infamous. Why? We expect the cure to be shared, not only shared, but made available to all as soon as possible! — David C. Alves

Lewis at his best is about trying on ways of looking at the world. — Alister E. McGrath

The church tastes true delight, and the world only samples a counterfeit. Pastors cannot help but pull off the mask of worldly thinking and harmful societal developments as they preach and teach and disciple. — Owen Strachan

God uses prepared vessels, no substitute. God is not looking for a rocket scientist, he's looking for those with a mind, and then he will finish the rest. It's like, 'God, here I am, send me,' and He will do the rest. He will prepare you. He will provide for your preparation. One thing I have seen in all my years of travel all over the world and in teaching and in proclaiming the Gospel, whoever is hungry for the word, God will break every barrier to get to that person. And who wants to know God, God will make Himself available to that person - somewhere somehow. The problem the church is having today is we have so many unprepared vessels in the church, and it's showing everywhere. — Moses C. Onwubiko

The scene is France. The theater is the world. — Barbara W. Tuchman

William Wilberforce ... w as a great man who impacted the Western world as few others have done. Blessed with brains, charm, influence and initiative, much wealth ... he put evangelism on Britain's map as a power for social change, first by overthrowing the slave trade almost single-handed and then by generating a stream of societies for doing good and reducing evil in public life ... To forget such men is foolish. — J.I. Packer

Facebook has more than 1 billion members, which by population makes it the third largest country in the world - somewhere between India and the United States. Who's sending missionaries to that country? Who's planting churches there? — Phil Cooke

The imitation of Christ is the joyful participation in the sorrows of the world. — Joseph Campbell

One of the great joys of my life has been to travel around the world and meet thousands of Christians in every country. — Billy Graham

Those who withdraw Christianity from the social order to "focus on evangelism" narrow down our engagement in a similar way. I hope it goes without saying that evangelism is a critical aspect of the life of the church! But when evangelism is the only way in which Christians seek social influence, the world encounters the church in two ways: gospel presentations, and activities designed to manipulate people into hearing gospel presentations. In the eyes of the world, the church comes across as a sort of spiritual Amway. — Greg Forster

But if we abide in Him and He abides in us, we will bear much fruit in oneness with other believers. He will give us the glory to come into unity. And when we receive love from God, we will be able to love others as He loves us. This twofold unity - with the triune God and with each other - is the key to evangelism. Indeed, our intimacy with God has everything to do with His great harvest. Jesus said, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (John 17:23, emphasis mine). It is through our oneness with God and His people that His glory is revealed through us, leading the world to believe in Him. — Che Ahn

Whenever you feel like feeling like a devil's advocate, Bible-thump. That, in a worldly world, is the great irony and satire of evangelism. — Criss Jami

The church speaks finally in that it prays for the world. — Karl Barth

We must reject the thought that evangelism is to be separated from the importance of standing against evil. We weren't saved just to escape this world and go to Heaven. Transformed people transform the culture while standing boldly against evil. — James Robison

City of God interprets all of the human story, from Creation to the Last Judgment, as the drama of divine providence and human free choice, especially the choice between the two most fundamental options of membership in one or the other of the "two cities." The City of God is the invisible community of all who love God; the City of the World is all those who love the world and themselves as their God. — Peter Kreeft

During all my years as an evangelist,
my message has always been the Gospel of Christ.
It is not a Western religion, nor is it a message of one culture or political system . , .it is a message of life and hope for all the world. — Billy Graham

We want our children to know and believe the one good story. Every other story is a copy or shadow of this one. Some copies of it are quite good and shout the Truth. Others see only the faintest whisper of it, or, in its absence remind us of the Truth. We want our kids to know the one good story so well that when they see Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Frodo, Anne of Green Gables, Arielle, or Sleeping Beauty, they can recognize the strands of Truth and deception in them. Saturating our children in the one good story will enable them to discern Truth and error as it comes to them from the world. — Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Radical obedience to Christ is not easy ... It's not comfort, not health, not wealth, and not prosperity in this world. Radical obedience to Christ risks losing all these things. But in the end, such risk finds its reward in Christ. And he is more than enough for us. — David Platt

Itinerant evangelists are the most important ambassadors and messengers on earth. They are a mighty army, spreading out across the world with a vision to reach their own people for Christ. — Billy Graham

In youth his mind had been closed, for every prejudice of upbringing was a disinfectant against pagan ideas. He now had an even more satisfying answer to the puzzles of human strivings and destiny. Paganism at its philosophical best would appear a gluttering candle to a man who had followed the Light of the World, and more usually it was idolatry, mixed with license. — John Charles Pollock

Ask God to help you see the world the way He sees it. — Billy Graham

God is at work in all the places we already inhabit. He is bigger than the arena of our own immediate church programs and ideas about evangelism. He is a prodigal God recklessly working in people and situations of all types. If we truly believe God is at work in the world, we must take the time to pay attention, listen, and discern what God is doing in the lives of those around us. — David E. Fitch

All over the world God is opening doors of opportunity, making it possible for us to take the Gospel to millions who have never heard of Christ. — Billy Graham

I realized with a growing and startling sense of clarity that the seminary was educating and training me for a world that no longer existed. Moreover, the posture of this particular brand of Christianity toward the surrounding culture was one of enormous suspicion and at times hostility. It seemed that part of this evolving designation involved a posture of entrenchment and argument toward culture. But I loved culture. I loved the freedom to engage with people for the purpose of friendship and dialogue, not simply evangelism. — Tim Keel

I have walked down jungle trails in Africa where I met fellow Christians; and immediately we were brothers even though we were separated by language, race, and culture. — Billy Graham

Poetry of World War I, at least in its lyrical mode, was itself the last flowering of the Age of Innocence that preceded the war, that the horrors of the trenches sparked the final blossoming, as friction gives rise to fire; that the daily nightmare unfolding before the soldiers sharpened their sense of beauty, prophecy, and mission. — Philip Zaleski

The world doesn't judge us by our theology; it judges us by our behavior. The validity of Scripture in the world's view is determined by how it affects us. — John F. MacArthur Jr.

My visits to Hungary over the past twelve years absolutely fixed my conviction that God's Holy Spirit was releasing a spiritual force in that part of the world that was bound to challenge the atheistic philosophy that had dominated nations in that region for decades. — Billy Graham

Spiritual disciplines answer the shallow world. — Richard J. Foster

He had found his vocation: to fight the Lord's battles in the Academy and the world at large. — Philip Zaleski

In no other way can the believer become as fully involved with God's work, especially the work of world evangelism, as in intercessory prayer. — Dick Eastman

When the world sees us doing evangelism, they just see us recruiting. When they see us doing justice, they see God's glory. — Timothy Keller

In the earliest days of World War II when London was undergoing the blitz but the United States had not yet been drawn into the hostilities, the US ambassador walked the streets during the hottest of the bombing and ask people at every level of British society what he could do to help. What a picture of our role as ambassadors of Christ's coming Kingdom! — Lynne Olson

Mass communication can aid in personal evangelism and the development of Christians, but it cannot be a substitute for the world seeing the truth lived through us. — Erwin W. Lutzer

I began to wonder if what we were doing it evangelical circles had more to do with redeeming ourselves to culture than it did with showing Jesus to a hurting world, a world literally filled with outcasts. — Donald Miller

We met with more closed doors than open ones
and the people who answered our knocks were invariably older. Young people didn't aswner the door to strangers, who would undoubtedly be trying to sell something, any more than they would answer the telephone to telemarketers once Caller ID came along. The only people we encountered going door-to-door were the ones old enough to remember when that's the way the world worked. — J. Mark Bertrand

What other country has had the privilege of making the world's heart beat faster? — Barbara W. Tuchman

God is calling us to live for the sake of Christ and to do that through suffering. Christ chose suffering; it didn't just happen to Him. He chose it as the way to create and perfect the church. Now He calls us to choose suffering. That is, He calls us to take up our cross and follow Him on the Calvary road and deny ourselves and make sacrifices for the sake of ministering to the church and presenting His sufferings to the world. — John Piper