Bill Hybels, Just Walk Across the Room: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith. Zondervan, 2006.
Referenced in: Approaches to Evangelism – Missionally Responsive/Evangelical
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is a follow-up volume to Hybels and Mittleburg’s Contagious Christian Series. The publisher’s description below provides an excellent content summary.
This book is more motivation than method, putting evangelism within the reach of people who might otherwise shy away from involvement. It does present a way of conceiving of evangelism in its 3D model of Developing Friendships, Discovering Stories, and Discerning Appropriate Next Steps. But these are not presented in methodological or formulaic terms. Hybels demonstrates sensitivity to the postmodern ethos. Some of this is in the language, e.g. he refers to the lost as the “unconvinced.” Some of this is in the conversational approach (not unlike many of the current proposals relative to evangelism). The chief contribution of the book is Hybels’ seasoned wisdom, motivation, and anecdotal reservoir on a subject others have written about, but few have actually lived out to his extent. The book is valuable if for that reason alone.
From the Publisher
What if you knew that by simply crossing the room and saying hello to someone, you could change that person’s forever? Just a few steps to make an eternal difference. It has nothing to do with methods and everything to do with taking a genuine interest in another human being. All you need is a heart that’s in tune with the Holy Spirit and a willingness to venture out of your ‘Circle of Comfort’ and into another person’s life.
Just Walk Across the Room brings personal evangelism into the twenty-first century. Building on the solid foundation laid in Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels shows how you can participate in the model first set by Jesus, who stepped down from heaven 2,000 years ago to bring hope and redemption to broken people living in a fallen world. Now it’s your turn. Your journey may not be as dramatic, but it can have a life-changing impact for someone standing a few steps away from you—-and for you as well, as you learn the power of extending care, compassion, and inclusiveness under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The highest value in personal evangelism is cooperating with the Spirit, says Hybels. This means playing only the role you’re meant to play—-walking when the Spirit says to walk, talking when he says to talk, and falling silent when he suggests that you’ve said enough. Hybels encourages you to ‘live in 3D’ – Developing friendships, Discovering stories, Discerning appropriate next steps – as a means of learning to understand the Holy Spirit’s promptings.
With fresh perspectives from his own reflections and experiences collected during his most recent decade of ministry, Bill Hybels shows with convincing and inspiring clarity the power of this personal, richly relational approach to evangelism. The stakes are high. The implications are eternal. And you may be only a conversation away from having an eternal impact on someone’s life—-if you will just walk across the room.
About the Author
Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., and chairman of the board for the Willow Creek Association. The bestselling author of more than twenty books, including Axiom, Holy Discontent, Just Walk Across the Room, The Volunteer Revolution, Courageous Leadership, and classics such as Too Busy Not to Pray and Becoming a Contagious Christian, Hybels is known worldwide as an expert in training Christian leaders to transform individuals and their communities through the local church. Hybels received a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College in Deerfield, Ill. He and his wife, Lynne, have two adult children and one grandson, Henry.
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