How Greg Laurie Went From Partying to Evangelizing

No one would have expected Greg Laurie to grow up to be an evangelist. Conceived out of wedlock with a mother who married and divorced seven times, he was a confused teenager who sought meaning in partying and drugs. But that’s the point of his new book, Tell Someone: You Can Share the Good News.

No matter who you are or what you have done, you can share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tell Someone will equip and inspire readers to do just that. 

Laurie is now the pastor of one of the largest churches in the U.S., Harvest Christian Fellowship in the greater Los Angeles area, and has been in ministry for 40 years. As the featured speaker at the Harvest Crusades, he has presented the gospel at arenas and stadiums in front of crowds as large as 50,000. 

Tell Someone is full of biblical principles drawn from the life and witness of Jesus that anyone can apply, as well as several of Laurie’s own personal examples—both successes and failures. 

Sadly, the vast majority of Christians in this country have never led someone to Christ. In fact, Laurie says the Great Commission, Jesus’ call to His followers to make disciples of all nations, has instead become the Great Omission, largely because evangelism can make Christians and unbelievers uncomfortable. 

But those Christians are missing something. 

“It should be a joyful, happy thing to tell others about your relationship with God and explain how they can have one, too,” Laurie writes. “I have found that the happiest Christians are the evangelistic ones.” 

Laurie urges Christians to use the “Jesus style” of evangelism—”be friendly, engaging and caring.” Jesus never dealt with any two people the same way, but he engaged in a dialogue with each of them. 

Laurie uses Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John as “the template for one-on-one evangelism.” Instead of confronting her with her sin, He begins a conversation by asking her for a drink of water. Instead of following a prepared script, He listened to what she had to say and responded in kind. 

Once she expressed her faith in Jesus, she began sharing her new-found belief with others. Her personal story had power because others could see the change in her life. 

In much the same way, Laurie says, “one of the most effective tools in your evangelistic toolbox” is your personal story. “A person can argue all day with you about certain facts. But they cannot argue with your personal story of how you came to faith.”