Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel is an excellent shot in the arm for Christians like me who struggle with sharing the good news deliberately and intentionally. This is a short book that can be easily read in two or three hours, which is what I did but found myself underlining and re-reading numerous sections.
Stiles is essentially trying to lay out the marks of a healthy evangelist. In the first chapter he starts by identifying the unhealthy trend of pragmatic evangelism - doing evangelism before taking the short time to think who we are meant to be as evangelists. In chapter 2 Stiles begins to explain what a healthy evangelist is - someone who does not add to or subtract from the Gospel. Chapter 3 is very challenging - don't assume the Gospel. He notes a generational pattern - the Gospel is accepted -> the Gospel is assumed -> the Gospel is confused -> the Gospel is lost. Sobering indeed.
In subsequent chapters Stiles discusses: Living the implications of the Gospel; The Gospel and social change; Understanding true biblical conversion (pages 77-79 are contain profound lessons for pastors, Sunday school teachers, youth club leaders etc.); Handling fear when sharing the Gospel; Understanding what true love for the world is; The Gospel and the local church; A manifesto for healthy evangelism. This last chapter is really encouraging and should really be made available to every church congregation.
All in all, this is an excellent book that has given me more confidence. It is easily worthy of your time.
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