What are some ways you share the gospel locally using Apologetics? College Campuses Evangelism

(For more about the meme check out this post)

On social media someone asked:

What are some of the ways you are sharing the gospel locally with presuppositional apologetics?

While the context was about actively applying Presuppositional apologetics to sharpen one’s skill I think the question could also be applicable concerning biblical evangelism method in general too.

Here’s my quick thoughts expanding on my original comment:

One evangelistic venue that afford the opportunity to apply apologetics and to sharpen one’s apologetics’ skill set is evangelism in a college campus.

• Every week I’m at my local college campus evangelizing.  There’s many students to evangelize to; not to mention the occasional professors, campus workers, small business vendors, etc.  Given there are many students and that college campuses are place of learning one should expect that apologetics’ conversation would be plenty if one evangelize there.
• Even if you have work or other responsibilities campus evangelism can be flexible.  If you have an extended lunch break (which I know many do not have) consider going then once a week.  Sometimes in four years universities you can also be there in the afternoon or early evening and there will still be people you can talk to.
• If you are shy or have a hard time breaking the ice with new people I think having a table with a whiteboard with questions helps those who have a hard time striking up conversations as people will go up to our table.  We typically begin with the question “Are you a Good Person?” borrowing the method of The Way of the Master in our evangelism.  But sometimes we also ask thought provoking questions to make people think and when it is really slow stronger statements such as “Atheism and the Problem of Evil,” or questions such as “Is Atheism rational?” are helpful. But these days I don’t use those as much as I see God answering our prayers to bring people we can share the Gospel to without seeming unnecessarily provocative.
• The individuals who stop by your table will either be hostile (where the opportunity to use Presuppositional apologetics would be helpful) or they are curious; but one thing is for sure, they weren’t apathetic enough to just pass you by.  What an opportunity!
• Sometimes with the bigger universities there’s people walking around campus all year round, even when there’s no summer school.
• When I was younger and fresh out of the Marines I use to treat college campuses like its Ramadi Iraq where I look forward to Wild West shoot-outs types of apologetics’ encounter; these days I’m more about sharing the Gospel than arguing.  But sooner or later a Christian evangelizing will have to defend his or her faith.  For those that want to have more apologetics’ encounter realize Gospel driven evangelism isn’t a “waste” if you are trying to learn apologetics in evangelism; sometimes the thing we need to also learn is when to employ and not to employ apologetics.  If I may use the analogy you don’t always have to treat every evangelistic opportunity as if its a SWAT incident when you can be the friendly neighborhood street cop using tact and straight forward clear communication concerning the problem at hand (sin) and the solution (the Gospel).
• Sometimes when things are slower during the summer it is also a good time to follow up with people I’ve gotten contacts from throughout the year and during the summer when it is slower is great to have better quality and quanitity follow-up with some individuals by grabbing a meal to talk (I would pay for their meal as an act of kindness). I imagine if it is hard for an individual to strike up conversations with strangers out of the blue this might sound like an especially good idea since often people who have harder time striking up conversations have a better time following up and building upon what was previously shared; perhaps God wired you that way.
• Go with another believer; take that time to disciple and mentor another Christian to evangelize.  The good thing about evangelizing with another believer is that no two Christians are exactly alike; there will be things that are strengths they have that you don’t have and vice versa; be a “team-player” evangelist, or better yet a “team-builder” evangelist.  Be humble and realize you are learning too, just as they are learning.  Feedback is also a two way street and be willing to learn from the person you are teaching and hear what they have to say in terms of positive encouragement but also their constructive criticism.  In all things be biblical.  Also follow up with the brother or sister with further discipleship by reading through a book on evangelism, the Gospel and apologetics together.  I encourage by the way that you pick someone of your own gender if its just one other person evangelizing with you so that things don’t look inappropriate but when there are several individuals in your evangelism team I do think it is alright to have brothers and sisters sharing the Gospel together and being trained as a group.  One thing I appreciate about having an evangelism team with both brothers and sisters in the Lord is that when you have that creepy guy or girl someone of the same sex can talk to them.  Or when there are sensitive sins being confessed or complicated issues in their lives are brought up you have more resources from each other.
• Starting out is difficult; but remember you will never regret any opportunities you had to evangelize that you did take when you go to heaven.  Pray when you are starting out your steps towards evangelizing and applying your apologetics.  Pray before each outing.  Pray when everyone evangelizing with you gets to the campus.  Pray during evangelism.  Pray after evangelism.  Pray when you share with the rest of the church about your evangelism and implore others to pray for your evangelism too.
• To learn more about Presuppositional apologetics and worldview apologetics itself check out our post: Ultimate Collection of Free Presuppositional Apologetics Lectures.

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