Part 1: Why Friendship Evangelism?

Let’s begin by defining friendship evangelism. Most people become Christians and join the church because of a friend, a relative or someone they know. In the late 1970s, Dr. Gottfried Oosterwal, director of the Institute for World Mission at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, did a major survey on why people join the church. The study showed that two-thirds to three-fourths of Seventh-day Adventists say the main reason they joined the church is because of a relative, a friend, or a neighbor who told them about the church.