Sam Chan. Zondervan, 2018. 288 pages.

Numerous books on evangelism and local mission exist the Christian bookosphere—I have read very few of them. Between the fact that the author of this book is local to my part of the world and that he left me feeling like it deserved further thought, I decided to write about it to share it with others.

Sam Chan, an Australian, is a “public evangelist” with City Bible Forum with his own blog at www.espressotheology.com. Chan is from a medical background and still serves as a doctor in a part-time capacity. He also holds a PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. His ministry involves speaking to mixed groups of believers and non-believers from high schools and youth groups, as well as professional fraternities.

The opening chapter presents “A Theology of Evangelism”. This chapter gives a basic yet comprehensive survey of key terms and the different ways that “the gospel” can be understood or articulated, as well as a lengthy discussion on the nature of conversion and the implications for the practice of evangelism.

At a practical level, Evangelism in a Skeptical World seems to advocate and prepare primarily for two pathways for evangelism. One calls for serious personal investment in the relationships we already have with others who aren’t followers of Jesus. This pathway is explored through chapter 2, “Everyday Evangelism, and presents six strategies to help in this. These include: making efforts to merge our Christian and non-Christian friendship groups, thinking about how transformative conversations really work, learning the art of crafting a compelling account of our own faith or of something Jesus did or said in the Gospels.

I found these to be worthwhile recommendations, but I wondered how well some of them would work for people with limited time in their week outside of work, caring for a young family, and other non-negotiable responsibilities. Nevertheless, I think he gives a compelling reminder of the value of investing in our existing relationships for sharing the hope of the gospel.

The other pathway takes up the bulk of the remainder of the book, and is that of giving presentations of the gospel to gathered groups of interested people.

• “How to Craft a Gospel Presentation” (chapter 3) presses the fact that different ways of presenting the gospel message do exist. Chan spends much of this chapter demonstrating various ways that God is described in the Bible together with corresponding understandings of sin and what a correct response toward God would be. The purpose of this is to point out that not all ways of presenting the gospel are going to connect well with any given audience, and that would-be evangelists should work to discern what will be the most helpful way to make the gospel clear to those they are speaking to. As one example see the chart from page 69 duplicated below.

God	Sin or Sinful State	Correct Response
Creator	Idolatry	Worship
King	Rebellion	Repentance & Submission
Holy	Impurity	Purity
Judge	Transgression	Righteousness
Savior	Self-righteousness	Calling on his name
Father	Broken relationship	Becoming a child of God
Groom	Unfaithfulness	Faithfulness
Shepherd	Wandering	Following

• Chapter 4 outlines some important factors that shape our current context. These must be understood if we are to effectively do “Evangelism to Postmoderns”. The differences between the world of modernity that our parents and grandparents grew up with is contrasted with that of postmodernity which has been emerging in recent decades. In this context, evangelism is facilitated better by hospitality and sharing personal stories than by rational arguments and debates, even if the latter still play an important role in the process.

• Chapter 5 emphasizes how different the concerns of different groups within any given society are. Differences such as ethnic origin, life stage, education, work culture, life goals, all make a difference to how people view the world. In view of this, Chan demonstrates “Contextualization for Evangelism” and encourages evangelists to avoid both underadapting and overadapting gospel presentations to their hearers’ culture. Following this, Chan offers some guidelines on how to interpret a culture and identify its themes and storylines, so as to make our message clear.

• Chapter 6 is about “Gospel-Cultural Hermeneutics”. This develops some of the ideas in the latter half of the previous chapter. After discerning the “storyline” of a given culture or subculture, evangelists should aim to be able to understand it, empathize with it, and then with the gospel challenge it and show how Jesus can answer the underlying existential cry

• Chapter 7 makes a case for the value of storytelling. Many people listen and learn much more avidly through narratives than through didactic monologues. While stories might not be able to carry as much content, they can powerfully deliver the most important points that want to be conveyed. After this, the author describes how he uses “Storytelling the Gospel” and guides readers who wish to use it too.

• Chapter 8 teaches readers “How to Give Evangelistic Topical Talks”. Chan draws from his experiences to share how he has given meaningful topical evangelistic presentations at men’s health nights, beer appreciation nights, workers’ gatherings, graduate gatherings, Christmas events. He highlights the importance of several components (ideas, illustrations, explanations, examples, applications) to include and how best to arrange and utilize them:

• Chapter 9 is like the previous chapter, only it teaches readers “How to Give Evangelistic Expository Talks”. Chan presses readers to work hard at distilling the message to one large, simple idea that gives the message its main thrust. Numerous examples are given to show how the preparation steps can worked through in practice. This chapter had lots of helpful pointers for building a sermon plan and fleshing out the big points.

• The final chapter discusses “Religious epistemology, apologetics, and defeater beliefs”. It outlines the roles that facts, feelings, and the character of the communicator play in persuading someone toward a new position or belief. It gives advice on engaging with rebuttals of the gospel using what Chan calls a ‘modified presuppositional’ approach, together with a range of exemplars.

---

Overall, Evangelism in a Skeptical World left me with the impression that I need to revisit it—with a pen and notebook. Much of its content is relatively straightforward, but requiring further reflection and practice in order to make it useful and useable. The copy I read was actually a library book that my wife had come across, and so I will likely buy myself a copy I can keep and return to regularly.

Chan seems to advocate two pathways for evangelism—those being the friendship/relational approach, and the gospel presentation approach. If readers find themselves unable to engage in those pathways, this book will be of less value to them (fortunately there are plenty of other books on evangelism with other pathways to sharing one’s faith). It is certainly better geared towards people with more social time on their hands and towards people with the skill and opportunity to present to groups.

Nevertheless, for readers who want to improve their evangelistic skills on these fronts this manual will be very helpful if they are willing to put in the work and practice. I will certainly be returning to it, and commend others to do so too.

---

Evangelism in a Skeptical World is available from Fishpond for NZ$28 (September 2025). Alternatively, my wife found the copy I read in the Auckland Council Libraries (also available as an E-book).

---