“The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men and of nations is always being decided. Every generation is crucial; every generation is strategic. But we cannot be held responsible for the past generation and we cannot bear full responsibility for the next one. However, we do have our generation! God will hold us responsible at the judgment seat of Christ for how well we fulfilled our responsibilities and took advantage of our opportunities.” – Billy Graham1
“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
“To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in this world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth.” – Charles Spurgeon
“If you alter or obscure the Biblical portrait of God in order to attract converts, you don’t get converts to God, you get converts to an illusion. This is not evangelism, but deception.” – John Piper
“As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.” – Elisabeth Elliot
“Our responsibility has never been to moralize the unconverted; it’s to convert the immoral. Our responsibility is redemptive, not political. We do not have a moral agenda; we have a redemptive agenda. We can’t reform the kingdom of darkness that Satan rules.” – John MacArthur
“God has given believers the responsibility of spreading the Gospel to all the world, and we need to use all at our disposal to accomplish this task.” – Theodore Epp
“Nature teaches us that every believer should be a soul-winner. It is an essential part of the new nature. We see it in every child who loves to tell of his happiness and to bring others to share his joys.” – Andrew Murray
“Love your fellowmen, and cry about them if you cannot bring them to Christ. If you cannot save them, you can weep over them. If you cannot give them a drop of cold water in hell, you can give them your heart’s tears while they are still in this body.” – Charles Spurgeon
“I care not where I go, or how I live, or what I endure so that I may save souls. When I sleep I dream of them; when I awake they are first in my thoughts.” – David Brainerd
“We know exactly what needs to be done to advance the Gospel and fulfill the Great Commission. The question is Will we do it?” – David Jeremiah
“If we are to better the future we must disturb the present.” – Catherine Booth
“If you had the cure to cancer wouldn’t you share it? … You have the cure to death … get out there and share it.” – Kirk Cameron
“Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth.” – John Wesley
“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.” – Hudson Taylor
“Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned?” – Leonard Ravenhill
“There is a moral and spiritual war for the souls of Americans. And this war must be waged by preaching the Gospel, prayer, and obedience to God’s Word.” – David Jeremiah
“The mission of the Church is to seek and to save them that are lost.” – James H. Aughey
“You may not be able to predict the time of a tornado, earthquake or the Lord’s return. But you can know for a fact that He is coming back. Work today to share the escape route of God’s grace with others, before the night cometh.” – David Jeremiah
“There is no joy in the world like the joy of bringing one soul to Christ.” – William Barclay
“I am convinced, by the way, that friendships provide the most fertile soil for evangelism. When the reality of Christ is introduced into a relationship of love and trust that has already been established, the effect is powerful. And it seems that invariably, when someone becomes a true follower of Christ, that person’s first impulse is to want to find a friend and introduce that friend to Christ.” – John MacArthur
1 All of these quotes are from the websites below:
Not Called? No. Not Listening…by M.R.Neveu
Serious like a rescue, not like a marketing campaign.
Curt stacks the witnesses so we can’t hide behind “busy” without feeling ridiculous: Billy Graham’s “your generation” urgency, Booth basically telling you to put your ear to Scripture and the screams of the perishing… and Ravenhill asking who sits comfy while people drown.
…not exactly milk and cookies…
Biblically, the tone is the same: the Great Commission is a command (Matthew 28:18–20), and people don’t “accidentally” hear without someone speaking (Romans 10:14–15).
So yes, down periscope, dive dive dive: all ahead full.
We go serious. Not performative-serious. Not panic-serious. Sober, steady, obedient serious (2 Corinthians 5:18–20; 1 Corinthians 9:16).
Truth matters more than “results,” because fake converts are just baptized illusions. Piper’s warning is the needed slap. If you edit God to attract people, you get converts to an illusion, not to God.
That’s straight out of the apostolic playbook: don’t peddle or distort the word (2 Corinthians 4:2), don’t preach a different gospel (Galatians 1:6–9).
Translation: if your evangelism requires bait-and-switch, it’s not evangelism, it’s religious salesmanship. And God ain’t recruiting a cheerleading team.
So, the format for evangelism in the 21st century today: “friendship + clarity,” with a spine.
MacArthur’s line about friendships being the most fertile soil is dead-on. It matches the New Testament pattern: Andrew brings Peter (John 1:41–42), Philip brings Nathanael (John 1:45–46), Levi throws a dinner and Jesus goes straight for the sinners (Mark 2:15–17). The modern question isn’t “street preaching or nothing?” It’s: Which lane will you actually obey in without quitting in three days? yea, I said three.
We are talking about driving in a Relational lane: intentional conversations with real people (Colossians 4:5–6; 1 Thessalonians 2:8).
Hospitality/service lane: meals, help, presence, then words (Luke 19:10; Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 3:15).
Public/digital lane: writing, posting, inviting, teaching, apologetics, testimony (Acts 17:16–34; 2 Timothy 4:2).
Use “all at your disposal” energy, but keep the message the message.
If you truly believe Christ is Lord, risen, and the only Name that saves, then treating evangelism as optional is spiritual comedy. The world doesn’t need Christians who “feel called” once every Christmas. It needs witnesses who love people enough to tell the truth, clearly, without turning it into politics, therapy, or a personality brand. MacArthur nails that correction: our work is redemptive, not “moralize the unconverted”.
Evangelism is not yelling at the Darkness to behave. It’s carrying the Light into it (John 1:5), with tears if necessary (Jude 23), and courage always.
The Gospel is the cure, not a collectible. If you hoard it in silence, don’t call it humility. Call it what it is: fear wearing church clothes. (mic drop)
Thanks Curt!
Hey there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I genuinely enjoy reading through your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Appreciate it!
Glad you are enjoying my posts. I would recommend gotquestions.org to start