Editorial Note
If you’re new to Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen’s teaching on evangelism, we recommend beginning with the short presentation below.
Rather than summarizing the seminar itself, this brief introduction highlights one of its central themes and prepares you for Dr. Bahnsen’s complete Evangelism Seminar.
We designed these resources to work together, helping you move from introduction…to reflection…to in-depth study.
Listen to the presentation below, then continue reading.
Not Long Ago
Not long ago I came across a website that does one thing. It counts deaths.
Every second, the numbers change. Another person dies. The totals keep climbing whether anyone is watching or not.
It’s strangely difficult to look away.
The figures are easy enough to understand. The problem is how impersonal they are. You can watch thousands of people disappear from the count in just a few minutes without thinking about any of them.
That’s the danger of statistics. They help us measure reality while quietly separating us from it.
No one remembers a parent as part of an annual report.
No child stands at a funeral thinking about percentages.
Death is never experienced as a number. It is always someone’s life.
Christians already know life is short. James didn’t need to convince his readers — they already knew. His reminder was direct: you don’t know what tomorrow holds (James 4:13–15).
We make plans as though next week is already reserved on the calendar for us. Scripture doesn’t promise that.
What it does offer is today.
Now stop there for a moment.
If it’s true, everyone looks a little different.
Most of us can probably think of someone we’ve been meaning to really talk to. Maybe we’ve even said, “I’ll catch him next week.”
James makes no such guarantee.
The ones we’ve been putting off aren’t interruptions. They are people made in God’s image, and you may never have another opportunity to speak with them again. None of this is meant to make us anxious. It’s meant to wake us up.
Being offended is better than being condemned for eternity.
From the testimony Dr. Bahnsen shared at the opening of his Evangelism Seminar
One of the more striking moments in Dr. Greg Bahnsen’s Evangelism Seminar isn’t a complicated argument. It’s a simple question from a Jewish man who had come to believe Jesus really is the promised Messiah. After becoming a Christian, he couldn’t stop wondering why no one had told him sooner.
His question stays with me. I can’t help asking myself: How many conversations did I postpone, assuming there would always be another chance?
Sometimes there is. Sometimes there’s not.
Conversations like this are easy to keep putting off. We tell ourselves it can wait, or that we’d better learn a little more before saying anything. Weeks pass surprisingly fast.
But Bahnsen starts right there, with the hesitation.
It isn’t because Christians don’t care about people. It’s that silence usually just feels safer. And so he tells the story.
The Jewish man, now a Christian, gave an unforgettable response:
“Being offended is better than being condemned for eternity.”
This isn’t an invitation to become argumentative, however. Anyone can win an argument by being obnoxious.
Love occasionally risks an uncomfortable conversation.
The New Testament never pictures evangelism as a hobby for unusually outgoing Christians — it’s part of following Christ. Not because every believer has the same gifts, but because every believer has received the same mercy.
I’m a debtor to all men… I owe it to them to give them the gospel… We live before a world that is in need, and we have the cure to that need.
Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen — Evangelism Seminar
That’s what makes the silence worth examining.
If Christ sought us when we were far from Him, why do we so often wait for everyone else to make the first move?
Maybe that’s the better place to begin. With an honest look at our own reluctance.
Dr. Bahnsen’s Evangelism Seminar opens exactly at this point. Before discussing methods, he asks why Christians who believe the gospel so deeply often struggle to speak about it at all.
It’s a question worth sitting with.
Because the clock isn’t simply measuring how many people leave this world.
It’s also measuring opportunities that never come back.
Evangelism Seminar
An informal course in how to share your faith. Dr. Bahnsen lays out the motivation , requirements and forms of evangelism, as well as its power (prayer), message and methods. Very helpful for those who want to evangelize but are not sure how to start.
New to The Bahnsen Bible Academy?
If you’re new to the Academy, this brief introduction explains our mission and how these articles, videos, and lecture series are designed to help you study the teaching ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen.
