Evangelism Interview with Tony Ramsek: Resources

Me: I’ve got one last question for you. Maybe there’s others who are starting evangelism or wanting to learn and grow in their understanding or practice of evangelism. What advice or resources would you like to share with individuals or church leaders , regarding how they or their church can engage more in evangelism?

Tony: I would say, praise the Lord that He’s risen up a lot of parachurch ministries that work to equip the saints for evangelism. Living Waters with Ray Comfort is a fantastic resource. His whole ministry is helpful, but a few things in particular are The Way of the Master TV show. I think the first four seasons are on YouTube now for free. For years I would buy copies of those 12 DVDs and I would give them away to other Christians. Christians love them because Ray has been very blessed with being entertaining, as well as, getting the gospel across to people. They also have great resources to teach Christians inside of a church like The Way of the Master Basic Training Course, and the Intermediate Course. These are great in a group setting where you can walk through them. Answers in Genesis is another great resource for apologetics and having an understanding of the authority of the Word of God.  We come at apologetics from a presupposition perspective, so we take the Word of God as authoritative and we start with that. We don’t start with man’s word or man’s reasoning and then conclude that God can be trusted. I think that’s a very helpful perspective to have, presupposition apologetics. Answers in Genesis is not just about creation vs evolution, it’s all about the authority of the Word of God. Their resources and their website.

For those who are just getting started, I would say, just watching a lot of those and practicing. We practice, literally in your house, with your family or with your friends, or in a group. You can role play and then go out. It can be hard to find other Christians inside your church to go out with you. That’s the case in a lot of churches. I’ve met many people that say, “I’m going to a church of 100 or 200 people and I’m the only one that wants to go out and share the gospel. What should I do?” My advice is, just go out. Consider that Noah was the only one that went out and believed God. We just trust God to empower us, to enable us, and to get out there and do it.

Gospel tracts are good little tools to have. How are you going to walk up to somebody and just start a conversation? Gospel tracts are those icebreakers, you can go up to anybody and give them a tract, a million-dollar bill or something, and it’s fun. Usually they’re surprised, they’ll ask you, “What is this?” Then you can start up a conversation. Just get used to dropping tracts, not even starting up a conversation through a tract, but just handing them to the drive-through window person or the checkout person in the grocery store. Hand them out and don’t even try to start a conversation if that makes you nervous as a beginner, just step by step.

Me: Tracts. I think some have used the term “paper missionaries.”

Tony: Yeah, because they can keep on preaching the gospel, even while you’re not. They go home, they preach the gospel and they’re in the people’s homes. 

Me: It’s interesting as my younger son, whom you’ve met, came out at Tulip Time and handed out tracts too. It’s interesting because we will go to a drive through together and he’ll say, “Dad, give them one.” He always spurs me on that way.

Do you have anything else you would like to share with others?

Tony: Yeah, I would. I would say that a major part of effective evangelism is prayer. We can go out and do all the activity, we can go out and preach, we go out and share.

It won’t be effective, because it won’t be enabled by the Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit responds to our prayers. When we pray to God we’re not praying to a wall. He responds to us, we’re his children and I can’t emphasize this enough. I can tell you from real world experience that there are outreaches that I have prayed less for and I have seen a less effective outreach. Then I’ve done outreaches where me and others have prayed much more fervently for and I see the difference. I really do. I learned that prayer is not something you tack on to evangelism. It’s not a little checkbox that just do because it’s the thing to do. No, it is an essential part because we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit to open eyes, open hearts, open ears, and to draw people to himself. This is the way that we engage the Holy Spirit. This is the way that the Holy Spirit moves, when we pray.

Me: I think you really see God working very directly as you pray and then you go out and you see people responding. He is blessing conversations, driving people to Him through us, through a tract or the booth and individual conversations. You really do see God working.

Tony: I was at the Boone County Fair gospel outreach a few years ago, this is just one incident, where a couple kids came up and I started talking to them and sharing the gospel. They said, “This is so weird, we were just talking about this.” I said, “That doesn’t surprise me because I was praying for you earlier. And then they their eyes got huge.” I responded, “I pray for everybody that God would direct me to.” I have found that people appreciate, and people sincerely are touched when they hear that you have been praying for them.

Me: Thanks a lot, Tony. I really appreciate this time together. May God bless your ministry and outreach to the lost.

Part 1: Profile
Part 2: Booth Ministry
Part 3: Apologetics
Part 4: Using Doctrines
Part 5: Handling Conversations