How should pastors train those in their congregation to evangelize?

Joel Beeke explains in this video that pastors must train and equip members in their congregations to evangelize and not simply just send them out as soon as they are saved. The best technique to teach evangelism is not necessarily an evangelism class, but the Puritans explained that individuals learn how to evangelize by learning from their pastor's interactions with unbelievers and how he evangelizes from the pulpit.

Thus, when a lay person goes out and evangelizes, he has the same zeal, the scriptural and doctrinal emphasis, and passion that their pastor shows in the pulpit and in his life. While there is a burden on the pastor to model this, when they do this faithfully and continue to shepherd those he has already trained, it is a very effective means to train others to evangelize.

1 Peter 3:15-16 (NKJV) – “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.”

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. In terms of personal evangelism training today, one of the great problems is that people are sent out as soon as they're saved. And I did that myself when I was a teenager.

As soon as I was saved, I started going door to door on my own thinking I could handle this, and I got into all kinds of problems because I wasn't equipped. I think pastors need to equip their people. Probably the best equipping for evangelization is not necessarily an evangelism class that can be helpful, but the Puritans would say the best equipping for evangelization is the life of the minister and the evangelizing that the minister does from the pulpit. And that should be something that is more caught than taught. And so when the layperson goes out and evangelizes, he has some of the same passion, the same zeal, the same scriptural, doctrinal, experiential, practical emphases that the minister is showing in his own life and from the pulpit.

So this puts a lot of burden, the Puritans would say, on the minister to model this in every possible way. And I think that when ministers do this faithfully and then couple it with teaching specific classes on evangelism to those who are interested and Then doing some shepherding and having other people whom he's trained shepherd others and have them go door to door or passing out tracks or getting neighborhoods together and showing those people through people trained by the minister how to evangelize and then letting them do it and the trainer observing the trainee and having the feedback go back and forth, that that's a very helpful way to prepare people for evangelization. You