[We are clipping quotes from John Stott’s Christian Mission in the Modern World. These come from his second chapter where he wrestles with the nature of evangelism itself.]

Evangelism is the announcement of the good news, irrespective of the results. (38)

Now it is comparatively easy to be faithful if we do not care about being contemporary, and easy also to be contemporary if we do not bother to be faithful. It is the search for a combination of truth and relevance which is exacting. (43)

But Christ offers more than the forgiveness of our past. He offers too a new life in the present through the regeneration and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is also the guarantee of our future inheritance in heaven. We must not separate the two gospel promises which God has joined together, forgiveness and the Spirit. (52)

There can be no evangelism without the church. The message comes from a community which embodies it and which welcomes into its fellowship those who receive it. (56)