One to One: How to Share Your Faith with a Friend. By Michael Green. Nashville: Moorings, 1995. 118 pp. (Cloth), $9.99.

This is an attractive book. And it on an important topic: evangelism.

The author clearly has a heart for personal evangelism. He urges that we take the initiative in sharing our faith with our friends. He told a story of a man whose golf buddy lay dying in the hospital. When he started to witness, his friend put him off saying that if it had been that important surely he would have said something during their many rounds of golf together.

Green suggests the ABCD approach: There is something…to Admit, to Believe, to Consider, and to Do. While it might be possible to affirm faith as the sole condition of eternal life with such an approach, Green does not.

For example, the something to Consider is the high cost of discipleship! Green says: “I often summarize this aspect of becoming a Christian by posing three questions. Are you willing to let Christ clean up the wrong things in your life, many of which will have become old friends by now? Are you willing to put Jesus in the number one slot? And are you wiling to be known as a Christian and join the Christian community? (p. 69). He then concludes, “That is about as far as he will be able to see, for the present. But you owe it to him to put this matter of the cost of discipleship fairly and squarely before him.” (See also page 111, for another area in which he speaks of the need of stressing the cost of discipleship.)

On another occasion he says one needs to repent, believe, and be baptized (pp. 58-59), with baptism signifying both what Christ has done for us and what we are committing to do for him.

This book should be avoided by new or untaught believers. I can only recommend it for those who are looking for illustrations of unclear evangelistic methods.

Robert N. Wilkin
Editor
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Irving, TX