Too Much Information

It’s often been said the gospel is so simple it takes man to complicate it. While evangelizing with other Christians, I’ve seen some try to give out too much information. One night I hit the streets with a woman who literally preached a sermon with everyone she approached. This wasn't necessary considering some of these people were already saved.

Another time prior to an outreach I was asked to lead, the pastor suddenly handed us large flyers promoting the church plus devotionals to give away. Although two people still got saved during this outreach, we could have seen more if our focus hadn’t been diverted by the pastor’s instruction to hand out all the extra literature. We already had gospel tracts, Bibles, and business cards from the church.

Then just recently, a man showed me booklets he hands out when witnessing. In response, I showed him the “Good News” tracts I've been carrying with me. I was politely pointing out my tracts are much simpler. In our fast-paced society, many people are in a hurry and won’t take time to absorb lengthy theological explanations. Gospel tracts should take no more than a couple minutes to read.

One exception would be the cartoon tracts put out by Chick Publications. While I don’t agree with some of Jack Chick’s doctrine (especially his “King James Only” stance), I do agree with his website’s assertion that “Chick tracts get read.” One time I went evangelizing at a college fair with a friend who brought a huge variety of Chick tracts. Some of the students came back to us asking for more tracts. They were collecting them like baseball cards.

Nevertheless, a fisherman wouldn’t put a bunch of lures on a hook just to catch one fish. Likewise “fishing for men” doesn’t require overloading people with information. Unless the Lord leads otherwise, it’s best to find out quickly what their spiritual beliefs are, review the gospel if they aren’t born again, and then lead them to salvation if they are ready. 

Evangelism should be kept as simple as possible.

“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” - 1 Corinthians 2:2