Robert E. Coleman - The Master Plan of Evangelism

The
MASTER PLAN
of
EVANGELISM

Books by Robert E. Coleman

Established by the Word

Introducing the Prayer Cell

Life in the Living Word

The Spirit and the Word

Dry Bones Can Live Again

One Divine Moment (editor)

Written in Blood

Evangelism in Perspective

They Meet the Master

The Mind of the Master

Songs of Heaven

Growing in the Word

The New Covet

The Heartbeat of Evangelism

Evangelism on the Cutting Edge (editor)

The Master Plan of Discipleship

The Spark That Ignites

Nothing to Do but to Save Souls

The Great Commission Lifestyle

The Coming World Revival

Singing with the Angels

The Masters Way of Personal Evangelism

Let the Fire Fall

SECOND EDITION, ABRIDGED

The

MASTER
PLAN

of

EVANGELISM

ROBERT E . COLEMAN

Foreword by BILLY GRAHAM
Introduction by PAUL S. REES

The Master Plan of Evangelism
1963, 1964, 1993 by Robert E. Coleman

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

New Spire edition published 2010
ISBN 978-0-8007-8808-7

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic,
photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only
exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the American Standard Version
of the Bible.

Scripture marked AMP is taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright 1954, 1958,
1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To
LYMAN and MARGARET
who dared to follow
the Master Plan

The Master Plan of Evangelism presents a thorough examination of the Gospel accounts, revealing the objective of Christs ministry and his strategy for carrying it out. Robert E. Coleman focuses on the underlying principles that consistently determined what Jesus action would be in any given situation. By emulating his pattern, youll be prepared to minister to the specific needs of those God brings into your life. With the help of The Master Plan of Evangelism, you can be sure that your course of action fits into Gods overall plan for the Great Commission. Every Christian who seeks to follow and witness for Jesus Christ should read this significant and relevant book.

WORDS OF COMMENDATION

The greatest insights are almost always simple. The MasterPlan of Evangelism contains such insights. In it Robert Coleman has set forth an understanding of Jesus approach to reaching out to precious people and invites us to do the same.

Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline

I came across The Master Plan of Evangelism many years ago while serving as a missionary-evangelist in Latin America. When the Spanish-language version was published, I was honored to write the foreword to it for the sake of the tens of millions of Hispanic Christians in nearly twenty-five nations. I join with the thousands of Christian leaders who have recommended The Master Plan of Evangelism, used it, and seen the fruit of this New Testament master plan from the Master himself.

Luis Palau, president, Luis Palau Evangelistic
Association, author, High Definition Life

CONTENTS

Few books have had as great an impact on the cause of world evangelization in our generation as Robert Colemans TheMaster Plan of Evangelism. For many years this classic study has challenged and instructed untold numbers of individuals in reaching our world for Christ. I am delighted it continues to be reprinted.

The secret of this books impact is not hard to discover. Instead of drawing on the latest popular fad or newest selling technique, Dr. Coleman has gone back to the Bible and has asked one critical question: What was Christs strategy of evangelism? In so doing, he has pointed us to the unchanging, simple (and yet profound) biblical principles which must undergird any authentic evangelistic outreach.

For that reason there is a timeless quality to this book, and just as it has spoken to men and women for decades, so it now deserves to be discovered afresh by a new generation of Christians who have glimpsed the heartbeat of their Lord for evangelism.

May God continue to use this book to call each of us to Gods priority for his peoplethe priority to reach out in love to a confused and dying world with the good news of Gods forgiveness and peace and hope through Jesus Christ.

Billy Graham

Philosophers, wrote Karl Marx, have only interpreted the world differently; the point is, however, to change it.

However unlike they are in fundamental affirmations, the Christian gospel and communism are at this point in agreement. But the agreement goes little further. Distinctively, the church proclaims the changed world as the consequence of changed men. Reflective man produces new philosophies; it is only regenerate man who holds the clue to a society that is really new.

It is the conviction, grounded in the good news that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, that makes evangelism immensely more than a theory or a slogan. It brings it into focus as a necessity.

At this point, however, the question rises: How do we go forward with an evangelisma widening of the circle of faith so that it includes more and more people who have transformingly trusted Christ as Saviorthat is continuous, contagious, and compelling?

Robert E. Coleman has presented a set of principles and sketched a scheme that, if studied carefully, will go far to- ward rescuing the concept of evangelism from the realm of the special and the occasional, and anchoring it where it belongs in the essential, ongoing life and witness of the congregation.

There is nothing in the following pages that belittles what the Spirit of God has done, and continues to do, through the colossal, concerted, temporary undertakings of such evangelistic specialists as Moody, Sunday, or Graham. On the other hand, there is much that beckons us to the disciple winning that works through small groups and builds toward congregational witnessall of it calculated to demonstrate the connection between the gospel to which we bear testimony and the life which that gospel enables us to live.

The authors work, concentrating as it does on the pattern we see in our Lord and his disciples, is saturated with Scripture. His style is unembellished. It is plain. It is direct. It unfailingly echoes the transparent sincerity of the mind that has thought long on the theme with which it is at grips.

Only this morning I heard a radio speaker make the observation that, in most matters, we move in either of two directions: from words to things, or from things to words. That is to say, if we do not make the journey from theories and ideals to concrete situations, then the concrete situations will be lost under a smog of words.

From the latter peril I believe this earnest volume can help deliver us. It is therefore a pleasure to commend it.

Paul S. Rees

I am the way.

John 14:6

The Problem in Evangelistic Methods

Objective and relevancethese are the crucial issues of our work. Both are interrelated, and the measure by which they are made compatible will largely determine the significance of all our activity. Merely because we are busy, or even skilled, at doing something does not necessarily mean that we are getting anything accomplished. The question must always be asked: Is it worth doing? And does it get the job done?