When I first arrived in Sydney in 1981 as a keen young curly-haired Christian from country NSW, I knew nothing about expository preaching or house-parties or quiet times or the importance of things being ‘helpful’, or any of the other commonplaces of modern evangelicalism.
And I had certainly never heard of ‘personal evangelism’—the idea that any Christian could be trained to explain the gospel to their friends and neighbours and family. And so it was with a mix of curiosity and excitement that I embarked on a new course that was just starting to do the rounds called Two Ways to Live. The course materials were fresh off the Gestetner,1 and there was no accompanying DVD (such things in those days still being in the realm of science fiction), but it was revolutionary for me, and for so many others. Not only did I come to understand the gospel clearly (probably for the first time), but I was trained to share that understanding with other people if and when I got the chance.
I don’t remember being particularly good at it—especially the part that involved showing some boldness with my non-Christian friends. But I learnt an enormous amount through the training, and I saw the world with new eyes. There were only two ways to live, which meant that the great multitude from every nation and tribe living in red-roofed houses all around me, sitting next to me on the bus, milling with me in the shopping centre—the vast majority of them were living as rebels against the God who made them, and doomed to face his judgement. And here I was in possession of the news that they desperately needed to hear. Read more
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