Interview with Frank Viola: Beyond Awkward

I did an in depth interview on my book, Beyond Awkward,  over on Frank Viola’s blog.

Here is the first question from the interview:

Instead of asking, “what is your book about,” I’m going to ask the question that’s behind that question. And that unspoken question is, “how are readers going to benefit from reading your book?”

Beau Crosetto: Readers are going to benefit from reading my book in three main ways.

1) I am going to help them understand that awkwardness is part of evangelism no matter how gifted you are. I like to say, “awkwardness precedes breakthrough in evangelism.” Most breakthroughs come after some tension that most of us run from. So in this book I help us name the tensions and then move through and beyond them.

All of us have people around us that are open to Jesus but we aren’t talking to them because we are nervous about the tensions (what if I am pushy? What if I don’t have the right words? What if they actually want Jesus and I don’t know how to lead them?). Instead of just telling you it will be ok, I help you name them, move through them and then beyond into breakthrough.

2) One fourth of the book is on the role of the Holy Spirit in witness. So many evangelism books focus on what we need to do, but so much of effective evangelism is about the Holy Spirit and how we interact with him. He is the sender. I think you’ll find a refreshing, yet challenging push to press into the Spirit further.

3) I actually show you how to navigate the conversation. One pastor has told me that this book is one of his favorites on evangelism because I actually show you how to have the conversation – from beginning to end. I don’t just tell you the right words, or the proper mechanics, I actually walk you through step by step from beginning to end of having the conversation about Jesus. How do you start one, how do you navigate the tensions, how do you get to Jesus and how do you actually lead someone to faith – in your authentic way without being cookie cutter with the gospel.

If you want to read the whole interview, you can do so here.

About Beau Crosetto

Beau is the author of "Beyond Awkward: when talking about Jesus is outside your comfort zone". He is called by God is to raise up and release people that want to start new ministries (apostolic) as well as people that want to share their faith (evangelists). He currently is the Director of Louisiana for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Beau is married to Kristina and they have three kids: Noah (12), Sophia (10) and Wesley (8).

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