The Problem of Gospel Static

Imagine a phone call with a lot of static (“noise”) on the line—so much that you are only understanding part of what you hear. That’s what the gospel of Jesus Christ can sound like to people whose worldviews are strongly influenced by non-Biblical belief systems. We call this problem “worldview noise.” And if we do not understand the worldview noise in our communication of the gospel and do not find a way to penetrate it with clarity, our evangelistic efforts will likely produce spurious fruit. There are two reasons why unbelievers do not understand the gospel. The first is something that all unbelievers everywhere have in common, to the same 100% degree—spiritual blindness. And only the Holy Spirit can lift this veil and open an unbeliever’s understanding of the gospel. But the second reason for not understanding varies greatly from unbeliever to unbeliever. It’s worldview noise. Depending on the types of spiritual influences in a person’s earlier life, his or her worldview noise may be very dense or not dense at all or somewhere in-between.  →

Initial Contact or Relational Evangelism—or Both?

How quickly should we encourage an unbeliever to make a faith response to trust Jesus as Savior? In our initial evangelistic contact with this person? Or, should we wait until we have had multiple opportunities to explain truths related to the gospel? The Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship Scale can help us answer these questions in a way that we can be relatively confident that we are planting God’s Word in “good soil.”  →

Gospel Receptivity – From Closed to Open

A lot of people who understand the gospel of Jesus Christ are not receptive to it—not open to embracing it. And many who do not understand the gospel clearly are very receptive to it—are eager to know more, with an openness to possibly embracing it. Only God knows the human heart. But if we had a “tool” to help us assess where an unbeliever is in his or her receptivity to the gospel, as well as understanding of it, that could be a very valuable instrument to use in personal evangelism. The Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship Scale was created to be that kind of tool. The Good Soil Scale is two-dimensional. The vertical dimension addresses understanding. The horizontal dimension addresses receptivity.  →

How To Assess A Non-Christian's Worldview

How clearly and completely do they understand the gospel of Jesus Christ? Only God knows for sure where an unbeliever is in his/her understanding of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. But as we share the good news of His salvation with unbelievers, it is important that we try to assess how much they know about the true God of the Bible and the salvation He has provided through His Son. “All models are wrong. But some models are useful.” -Statistician George Box The “Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship Scale” is only a model, but many Christians have found it to be useful in assessing the gospel-understanding levels of people with whom they are sharing the gospel.  →

Three Greek Verbs Define “Good Soil” Evangelism and Discipleship

​The “parable of the sower” might be better called “the parable of the soils.” After all, the different qualities of the soils are the focus of the parable. A wide variety of opinions are held regarding the four types of soil in the parable. For example: Do they all represent true believers? Or, do some of the soils represent true believers and others represent unbelievers? Nothing in the texts or the contexts answers those questions definitively. But one point of interpretation is beyond dispute—the “good soil” certainly represents a true fruit-bearing believer in and follower of Jesus Christ. But, how do we do evangelism and discipleship in a way that produces “Good Soil believers”?  →

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