THE HOLE IN THE GOSPEL by Richard Sterns

I have just started reading the book, The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns.
Although the author is the President of World Vision ,this is not a book about child sponsorship, it is a book about understanding what it means to live out God's love in our lives.I strongly share his view on methods of evangelism. The following are some of my favorite quotes from the first few chapters:

"Focusing on "the afterlife"(heaven) reduces the importance of what God expects of us in this life."
( I have always been uncomfortable focusing people on reaching heaven through salvation as their MAIN goal in becoming a Christian ,as it really makes every day of living seem meaningless.Living each day by sharing God's love through kindness to others is what i feel i want to share!That to me is what the gospel is.)

"Christ commanded us to go into the world- to bear fruit by lifting up the poor and the marginalized,challenging injustice,wherever we find it,rejecting the worldly values found within every culture, and loving our neighbors as ourselves."

"God's love was intended to be demonstrated not dictated."

"Our charge is to embody the Gospel so that others can see, hear, and feel God's love in tangible ways."

"God is responsible for the harvest-- but we must plant, water and cultivate the seeds."

"It is rare that a simple recitation of the gospel will cause people to instantly change their minds.
It usually takes much more than that. Our own narratives typically involve a journey of discovery marked by relationships with respected friends and loved ones, reading, discussions, learning about the basis for Christian faith,seeing the difference faith made in the lives of people
we knew and witnessing genuine faith demonstrated through acts of love and kindness toward others. In other words, before we became ripe for harvest a lot of other things had to happen first."

I personally believe offering unconditional love to others in need, developing true relationships , sharing your own testimony and publicly giving the glory to God when good things happen in our lives ,can be some of the best tools of evangelism. Seeing the love of Jesus through our lives can be more of an honest effort at evangelism that preaching the gospel to someone. I feel sharing honest love to others is really what the gospel is all about.

I read a story about a group of pastors who traveled out of country on a church planting mission but no one would come to their meetings.One pastor who was walking around the village then began to see that many people were sick and dying in that village due to contamination of the water well by animals too close to the site. He and the group of pastors then began to set out to clean up the well that was the cause of so much disease and death in this village.After doing so many villagers came to their meetings. Reaching out in love to those in need better demonstrated the love of God- much more than any meeting could. Love brought them to Christ- not a meeting!! This is a good example of getting the cart before the horse. Why do we go on mission trips- hopefully to genuinely help others in need and in that process many come to faith not the other way around. Let's all share that love that Jesus demonstrated for us in the gospel story, not just on a mission trip but in every day we live!!