1. Relational Evangelism STUDENT QUOTES WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR YOUR PEOPLE SAYING THINGS LIKE THIS? Are you hearing things like this from your people? If not, then get yourself and all of them signed up for this course.!!!!!

2. In reading the syllabus before class began I was completely freaked out by the amount of material there was to read, watch and comment on each week, along with the reports to be submitted. Once I got into it, however, it was totally manageable. More than manageable... life changing! My priorities have changed. The fire has been lit to share the Good News with the lost! The really cool thing is this: This change in me will have an eternal impact on the Kingdom!!

3. My experience with personal evangelism in the past has not been a successful one. Most of the courses and training I have gone through has been primarily focused on how to tell my testimony or developing a track to pass out to those I meet. The idea in seminary was always, “Even if you can’t talk to someone, you can at least pass them a piece of paper that can change a person’s life.” Also, when “going out into the world,” most experiences would be to stand at a corner and approach people I don’t know about a God they don’t want to hear about. When preparing our youth for a mission trip and taking an evangelism training course, our training was focused on how to approach people cold on the street. The main disappointment is the idea that if a person said no, you were deemed a failure. None of these approaches were effective because I am, by nature, an introvert. It is difficult for me to strike up a conversation with those I don’t know, never mind develop a spiritual conversation about God. I would always try but I would let too many people pass me by as I was too fearful of bothering people I don’t know with a message they probably do not want to hear, or have time to listen to. I just picture myself not wanting to stop if the situation was reversed.

4. “Evangelism has always been intimidating and somewhat frightening to me. On top of that, most evangelism tactics have always seemed, to me, to be unrealistic, ineffective, wouldn't have long term results, and didn't make sense. This course has introduced me for the first time to a tactic that makes complete sense to me and has gotten me excited to put it into practice. Now that I have an outline that makes sense, that I can realistically see having long term results, I see it as a way around the intimidation and fear

5. What are one or two major ways taking this course has changed your outlook on personal evangelism in your life? There are a couple of things that have changed for me since this course began. I never realized there was anything missing in my ministry or in our church until I started in this process. We have totally dropped the ball as a church when it comes to evangelism and training ourselves and our leaders how to do that! With our lead pastor being our mentor and the four of us taking this training presently, that changes very soon!! Onward and upward for the King!! The second thing that kind of snuck up on me is the confidence that has come through this training. When I first started I could barely look in the mirror and practice the presentations! Last night I presented the last two to my Personal Consultant and I didn't realize until afterward how comfortable I felt. It was a pretty cool realization. It's so easy to keep on track, but yet there's some room to add a little personal stuff (not too much, and not too deep) as well.

6. IAAR gives me an entire "package" or "system" to use. I really like that it includes everything from getting to know someone all the way through how to follow up on any questions that come up. With this, I now have a method of going from "start to finish". All of this gives me confidence that I (and anyone else) can take a person through a process for them to hear, evaluate, and respond to the gospel. Good stuff. Thanks! I now have an effective method to introduce, stay on track, and present the gospel in a way that allows the other person to evaluate it. I don't think I had doubts, fears, or concerns... I was simply not equipped. Now I am.

7. "Evangelism when considered from the perspective of these Lessons, offers us the tool we can successfully use because of the orderly, logical steps involved, plus the beauty of all the supporting scripture verses....... The information is laid out with all the necessary supportive scriptures....It walks us through steps that allow us to interact with the people we are presenting to.... This gives us an opportunity to share the steps to restore a relationship/covenant...The lessons also allows us the opportunity to check where the person is in the process of accepting Christ in their life. I love the fact that we are accepted through Christ sacrifice on the cross that we do not have to work for acceptance, that sin is forgiven and we are saved by Grace. The examples that you use, the hitting the bow and arrow target, the line example (saved/lost) are all things we go through as we grow in Christ. The pencil example in continuously asking God for forgiveness. With God on our side who and what can ever be against us. Thank you for the It's All About Relationship Lessons. It is as I stated in the beginning; now I'm waiting for Christ to bring someone to all of your students to allow us to share the Good News."

8. These are comments from Steve Edwards; preacher, church planter, user of the Peace Treaty for decades. He trained 300 years ago when starting Rainier Christian Church. He is leading a church planting organization now. He is an Expert and fan of IAAR. Here is what ONE week has done to him already. He is responding “It is tragic for the church that the average follower of Christ in my circle of influence has been abandoned by me and other leaders of the church who have been called to equip the saints of God. will no longer remain dormant. Not only do I commit my life to this class, but I commit my life to every person around me. I will be more greatly engaged in looking for opportunities to share the gospel. And I will be alive with intensity when it comes to encouraging others to learn how to personally share their faith with the people around them - in their natural context. 

9. How could it all be stated any more orderly than IAAR? Man has a problem. Jesus offers an expensive remedy. He invites us to accept that offer. He makes his prescribed response crystal clear. Wow! Each lesson builds on the previous one. It is all logical, Biblical and easy to follow. Add to this the dynamic of God's immense love...and there it is...Good News. No wonder Peter had such success on the day of Pentecost. He followed this same outline. And (yikes!) 3000 die-hard adherents of the Jewish faith crossed the line and ran to the waters of baptixm. We have the opportunity to help others see their need, Jesus' solution and God's prescribed path to forgiveness, redemption and hew life. Thanks for making it all so clear, John.

10. After reading this chapter I realize I need to repent of not loving God enough to obey Him in this area, I don't love my fellow men enough to share the Good News with them. I am not breaking a sweat making disciples. In part because the tools I was using were not the best, but mostly because I do not want to work hard, don't want to sacrifice, don't want to pour my life out as an ambassador of Christ. This chapter and this whole class have brought conviction to my heart about this area of negligence. It is now clear in my mind that I need to make a U-turn. Thanks to IAAR I now have a good tool to go out into the world with the desire to love God and love people enough to engage them into conversations, trusting that by the Holy Spirit grace I will be able to share the Gospel with many of them.

11. For the first time, I feel prepared to share the Gospel!

12. Another benefit of using the IAAR as a disciple-making tool is that you’re always prepared to make a disciple! It can be shared with the many people you already know (family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, associates, acquaintances, and many others) and our relational approach has been very effective at creating opportunities with people you’ve just met and may have known for less than an hour." This is the most important statement to remove any excuses we may have. It is almost effortless: we don't have to memorize anything, we don't have to sell anything, we don't have to press them on to make a decision, we don't have to be intimidated thinking this stranger is going to reject me. Now our only responsibility is to offer the opportunity. So it comes down to love, do I love people around me enough to share with them the best news ever? I don't have excuses anymore. 

13. I am an old man. I have previously represented God as his ambassador, making his peace offer known to hundreds if not thousands. I cannot live off the past. I am being called by this course to 'up my game' - to aggressively seek opportunities in the Present to share THE PRESENT, all the while being more determined to encourage additional family members in Christ to 'up their game'. May God use my life to assist in the equipping of a few others in learning to be effective in personal evangelism. Once there are a few others, may there be dozens. Once there are dozens, may there be hundreds. Once there are hundreds, may there be thousands.

14. Why do you suppose so few churches are doing any training in effective personal evangelism? Simple question. Complex issues involved. My primary observation within the larger framework is this: the great percentage of leaders in our churches have never personally experienced the joy and wonder of being thoroughly trained (equipped) to be effective in personal evangelism. These same leaders are the ones who are making 'final decisions' for the overall direction of the church. Therein lies a huge problem (disadvantage) for the leader and for the church. More often than not, that lack of personal training and experience leads directly to the understandable hesitancy to initiate a church wide emphasis in an area where the leaders feel fairly clueless and ineffective themselves. The issue above is symptomatic of a larger failure in our churches. Few of our leaders have at any time in their lives experienced what it means to have his/her own personal mentor; that is, a mentor who is primarily known as a Jesus follower; a person who has loved them, trained them, 'lived' with them, walked with them intimately in following Jesus, challenged them quietly and privately, shown them by example how to be a disciple maker, invited them on assignment with them, sent them out on assignments, debriefed and evaluated the assignment, etc. Here is the heart of the issue: what we have NEVER experienced on a first hand basis will become a most difficult thing to champion for someone else. Leaders who have never been loved and trained by a mentor will assuredly have a difficult time being the mentor to someone else.

15. Even in church everybody needs to hear these presentations. The fact that people go to church for years doesn’t mean they are Christians or know how to share their faith.

16.  Churches are often times lost in their growth mode, as ….shown in the Life Saving lesson, living in their barns and not reaching out, they get so busy with the people that come to them, to worship, the easy prey for Evangelizing, that they have stopped training their people to reach out.  Many Churches grow tremendously, without ever going outside. The focus becomes one of offering more events, programs to satisfy the growth of their congregation that they omit the opportunities that are presenting themselves.  The Church needs to evangelize with its congregation, but also it needs to train its congregation to reach those that have not heard the Gospel message...the Good News.  Another reason is our fear of getting outside our comfort zone and approaching those in the world who are outside of our/their peer group. As Ambassadors for Christ we and Churches need to get over our hang ups and learn the lessons of Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:9-12 and 1 Corinthians 9:19 (to win as many as possible). Churches and people need to move in different groups and remember that Jesus said "I did not come into the world to condemn everyone, I came to save them". Churches…. need to train their people with the tools of IAAR so that they can truly become the body of Christ as His Ambassadors.

17. This course is ‘light years’ beyond any class, group or training I’ve received in all my years in the church.

18. I look back and wish I had this tool over the past 23 years, since I became a Christian. There have been 100's of people that I wanted to share my faith with, but didn't know how. Then, when I figured out that it was just a process of talking with them and having a relationship, I still didn't have this calm and casual tool to use. My approach to some was harsh and others may have seemed insincere. I have family, friends, church members, divine encounters to share with and now I have the IAAR/PT to use.

19. The youth pastor of a large church told me of his experience near the end of the course. He said he started out totally negative. He didn't want to take it, he didn't know why he had to take it (his preacher made the whole staff take it.) He didn't understand how 4 printed lessons could be effective. Before the class was even finished he told me he was finishing very positive. In fact he had SEVEN IAAR going at that time. He said “It is starting to inter with my job.”

20. The IAAR material is actually an answer to prayer. Let me explain. For the past several years I have made it my prayer to invest in things that will allow me to help make disciples who make disciples. This is a crucial part of church planting (evangelizing in places where there are not a lot of Christian Churches [under- churched], or that lack ethnic opportunities [most of our congregations in the Christian Church are Caucasian, middle to upper class, suburban], and places that are strategically ready for rapid community growth and development. In this ministry environment it is imperative that one has a systematic, reproducible, easily transferable teaching instrument. The It's All about Relationship material meets the needs that I have to be more effective in personal evangelism plus help others do the same thing. I foresee these studies having a huge impact in our ministry as we equip others to share their faith.

21. 2 Timothy 2:2 talks of taking what you have learned (gospel and being a disciple) and giving it to others who will be faithful to do it and pass it along also. This course has challenged me in that I have not made teaching a priority. I have not shared with another believer how to have conversations, how to explain the gospel or what Christianity is really about, and how to lead someone in becoming a disciple of Jesus. I feel that this is something God wants me to make a priority. I feel silly and embarrassed saying it because one would think that this is a standard requirement for anyone in the pastor role.

22. IAAR is a great study that both stands on it's own, but also is just the entry point into the Kingdom for people. Because of this it is more than just a seminar to satisfy the intellectual, or educational needs of a congregation. On the other hand, it is not an event that ends with session four. The IAAR must become a piece of the entire relational discipleship process in our ministry. Therefore, I would like to train a number of apprentices who in turn can take people through the IAAR, and then help them to take the next steps as they become fully assimilated into the ministry of the congregation. In other words, we are praying for workers who will not only be capable of sharing their faith, but also serve as mentors who help people to become fully mature followers of Jesus. The ultimate goal is for mature believers to reproduce themselves !

23. One of the best parts of the IAAR is the fact that it truly is a concentrated vaccination of good doctrine. The awesome thing about vaccinations is that they are equally good for both adults and infants. The It’s All About Relationships study can help anyone to have clarity in their understanding of what Christianity is all about.

24. One of the videos that impressed me the most was the first one. "It's a Calling, not a Course". I have associated with any number of people who want to reduce evangelism to an event, and who do not see it as a process. In other words, the goal seems to lead people to the water and then drop them and go get another. One of my minister friends even named his evangelistic team "The Cherokee Scalping Party." Yes, he was hugely successful in getting decisions. He was not so good at making disciples! As a matter of fact, due to attrition, the church actually never grew very much. But they sure had a lot of baptisms! The reminder that evangelism isn't a program, it's a lifestyle. It's not an event, it's a process. It's not measured by wet robes on Sunday afternoon, but by transformed lives on Thursday afternoon. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. We are not allowed the indulgence to be off again, on again! We must always be ready to give whomever asks us, an answer for the hope that we have within us! My gift is not evangelism.. In today's politically polarized climate I learned to be hesitant when expressing Christianity. I am usually wary of "pushing" my faith on people. This course has helped me understand that that the great commission is for everyone; regardless of culture or gifting. It has started in me, a desire to see others know Jesus.

25. I consider my countless hours as a Sunday School Teacher to Fifth graders through High School age children and teens to be a definite form of evangelism. I presented the Good News and many were baptized as a result over the thirty plus years I taught. As a missionary, I also taught Sunday School in Spanish and led various women’s groups through different studies. I also witnessed to young ladies that had been sexually abused, and helped them to get back into a good relationship with Jesus. In hind sight, I wish that I had taken this college class before I went to the field, for I would have been much better prepared to be an efficient missionary evangelist. Without the IAAR course I just finished I would not even be thinking of reaching out so boldly to our neighbors. I was into the Bible a lot daily for decades, was a Sunday School teacher half of my life and a missionary for twelve years, but all of that did not prepare me to share the way these sessions have.

26. This course has certainly changed my view about personal evangelism. I was never trained in a church even though I have been a Christian for most of my life. My personal evangelism is not what it could have been or should have been. I have always been interested in it but never equipped.

27. What at first seemed like something that was too structured for me is actually freeing. I can become so excited by certain topics when taking with people that I often wander off into tangent land and never get to the Gospel. These presentation keep me on point. Elder in a congregation; worship team member While I knew that the body of Christ should be active in taking the Gospel to the lost, I now see our failure to do so in an organized, trained, and effective way. While well meaning, our efforts are too sporadic and look like an ‘everyman for himself’ approach. Our church events that invite the community may show them that we are nice people but fail to give the gospel message in a personal way to each individual. We need to show them why they need a restored relationship with God. This is much better accomplished one on one rather than a group setting.

28. Personal evangelism is something every believer should know how to do, and the IAAR course and presentations are the best way I know of to effectively present the Gospel to unbelievers in a low pressure, easily understood form. I have never felt any opposition to an evangelistic program in our leadership, but we have not been faithful in providing a meaningful, user friendly evangelistic process for our body of believers. We have also not been clear enough that evangelism is EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY. To quote John Hendee; “But the commission we have been given by Jesus exhorts us all to be disciple makers”. It is NOT just the job of hired church staff. (Hendee 2013 (P.50).

29. Everyone needs to hear the same message - the Gospel - and no matter who you share the Gospel with, you're ultimately going to share the very same information... that is, if you're sharing the Gospel! Why not, then, take the time to organize that message in the most effective means of sharing it and being prepared with it? If you have personally developed a method for sharing the Gospel --- put your thoughts in order, your message into organization, selected specific scriptures and an order to share those scriptures --- what you've done is created a "canned" presentation, even if you haven't written it down (and chances are, you have it written down somewhere). I think the greater issue is, when we go so far as to be trained in something like how to use the IAAR, there's a greater feeling of responsibility to share the Gospel because we are now irrefutably equipped. And if we're equipped, there just are no excuses left for not sharing the Good News.

30. I believe that IAAR is the most precise yet full presentation of the good news that God has for us. I am very excited to study this, practice it, and use it in my discussion with others. I look forward to becoming more involved in the process of making disciples with this IAAR material.

31. I agree that this would be a game changer at any church, or in a community. What I hear from this class though, and what I am spending more time on here in Germany, more out of necessity and circumstance than anything, is that we are expecting people to congregate at church. When we really should be focusing on our neighborhoods and the people we daily interact with. People who will never make it in to a "normal" church atmosphere to here the Good News. Most non-believers will never darken the door, unless they are already in love with Christ. If a church taught its members this, and they could use outside of the walls, it would be revolutionary. It would turn people from not knowing what to say, into having the clear cut answers to give someone, when they want to hear it. You are showing something interesting here too; and it is powerful. Most all evangelism programs or training end up sending us to the 'streets' to do the presentation with strangers. But we know most of those methods won't work with friends, family and others we already know. What about them. The IAAR at least gives us a respectful, patient way to share with those we know if they are interested. I've done the IAAR with my inlaws, parents, children, grandchildren, cousins, etc.

32. Looking to the future, I would just like to get more comfortable with the material. I think the more I read through it, the more I can practice it and prepare, the more second nature it will become. When preaching in Alaska for three services, I always believed my 3 rd was my best. Why? I was able to work out the kinks. I was able to see a reaction to see what joke may work, and what fell flat. See what point hit home, and which one was lost in translation. My hope is to continue practicing so that I can make this second nature and let it flow with more ease and reduce the nervousness which is hiding below the surface. My hope is to just reach as many people as possible with IAAR. Do I really have a number in mind? Not really. What I can confidently say is that the idea of a number has risen dramatically by going through this course. What would have been maybe 50-100 people saved over a lifetime, now seems like a reasonable goal for the first few years, and hundreds to thousands over the next 30-40 years (God willing) is more doable, as it will just get easier with time. My hope is that God will just place people in my life to reach out to and when the time comes, to act. Stop being scared. Stop ignoring the Lord’s call. Stop letting Satan and the insecurities I’ve allowed him to fester inside get the best of me. I want to be driven and determined to go where God wants me and speak when He needs me.