The Outreach Resources of the Year honors the past year’s best books that emphasize outreach-oriented ideas.
Last fall we invited publishers and authors to submit resources that released between Nov. 1, 2022, and Oct. 31, 2023. The Outreach magazine editorial team then placed the qualifying titles into 13 key categories for review by expert panelists in each field. After thoughtful consideration, they selected one or more entries as an Outreach Resource of the Year and spotlighted some titles as “Also Recommended.”
Here you will discover valuable tools that belong on your bookshelf. You will reach for them time and again as they enhance your effectiveness in ministry through the years.
EVANGELISM
Evaluated by R. York Moore, CEO and president of the Coalition for Christian Outreach; co-founder of the EveryCampus movement; and co-author of Seen. Known. Loved.
RESOURCES OF THE YEAR
Evangelism: For the Care of Souls by Sean McGever (Lexham Press)
McGever points us back to the motive for evangelism—the love of God—and then invites us to practice caring for others through evangelism that is powered by that love.
Too often, personal evangelism books overemphasize the care for people at the expense of what McGever refers to as “patient urgency”—an urgency that recognizes the lostness of people and the absolute necessity of Christian witness in their lives to point them to God’s solution of Jesus Christ. This balanced, convicting book, however, reenergizes readers toward authentically walking with those around them with passion and pastoral care.
The Gospel Invitation: Why Publicly Inviting People to Receive Christ Still Matters by O.S. Hawkins and Matt Queen (Thomas Nelson)
Far too often, the church and even leaders in the church diminish the need for public proclamation and question the legitimacy of its impact, but in The Gospel Invitation, we are reminded of God’s promises and power to work through the public declaration of the gospel.
The authors masterfully provide details on how to plan, prepare and extend a public invitation to Christ. Hawkins and Queen remind us not only of the biblical mandate to publicly invite people to Jesus, but also of the contemporary relevance of doing so.
This book is a must-read for any and all who stand at the pulpit or simply want to witness the power of God in a demonstrative way through the proclamation of the gospel.