Two Ways To Live (2WTL) is the main gospel tract that we use as a local church. It certainly isn’t the only gospel tract, but it is a theologically sound, relevant, and easy tract to use. It was developed by Matthias Media out of Sidney, Australia. Matthias Media carries on-line, children’s, Old Testament, and DVD versions of 2WTL and much more. We also carry 2WTL at the CrossWay Book Store. The button on the right bar will bring you to the online presentaion of 2WTL.Let me outline for you seven reasons why we use 2WTL.
1. 2WTL assumes the person you are talking with has no knowledge of the God of the Bible. Tracts like The Four Spiritual Laws assume the person you are talking with has a prior knowledge of the God of the Bible with statements like “God loves you.” For those who don’t know the God of the Bible it leaves them with questions like; Who loves me? Which God loves me? Who is God?
2. 2WTL captures the Bible’s storyline in six logical narrative frames. This helps us present the gospel from a redemptive historical framework and it, again, assumes the person you are sharing with has no knowledge of the Bible. D.A. Carson says,
“At the risk of oversimplification, most evangelistic tools in the Western world are subsets of systematic theology. By this I mean that they ten to ask atemporal questions, and give atemporal answers…There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this patter, as long as the people to whom it is presented have already bought into the Judeo-Christian heritage…But if you present these atemporal outlines of the gospel to those who know nothing about the Bible’s plotline, and who have bought into one form or another of New Age theosophy, how will they hear you?...In short, the good news of Jesus Christ is virtually incoherent unless it is securely set into a biblical worldview…In the last few years, several evangelistic tools have been created that are far more sensitive to the Bible’s ‘storyline’. The first of these to be prepared is still one of the most effective: Two Ways To Live presents Christ in six steps, the six steps offering, in contemporary English, something of the Bible’s plot-line as the necessary framework in which to understand the gospel.” –The Gagging of God, pp. 501-504.3. 2WTL presents the gospel in story form and it is therefore memorable to those sharing and listening. You are basically telling the story of creation, fall, and redemption; there is a Biblical and logical progression to the gospel.
4. 2WTL incorporates drawings that help the Christian to remember and personalize the gospel. The benefit of 2WTL is that you don’t need a physical copy of the tract to share the gospel. If you remember the pictures, you can draw the gospel out in six narrative boxes on the back of any piece of paper, on a napkin, or a whiteboard. If you draw the gospel out and give it to the person you are sharing with, it makes it very personal.
5. 2WTL captures the theological framework of the gospel. It speaks of God’s sovereignty over all things, man’s depravity, God’s justice, Christ’s redemption and resurrection, and the need for repentance and faith. But, it does this without using theologically weighty words.
6. 2WTL can be adapted to your own style of presenting the gospel. There is no need to memorize the words of the tract, you just need to remember the pictures or the storyline of the tract and then present it in your own words. In addition, 2WTL allows you to add personal touches by including different verses of the Bible or adding your own gospel illustrations.
7. 2WTL is interactive and allows the gospel to presented in dialogue with the person you are talking with. It allows you to have a conversation about the gospel, and draw them out, and see if they understand, and answer their questions.
Over the next six posts I am going to present the six different narrative frames of 2WTL. As I present 2WTL, why don’t you rehearse this gospel presentation so that by the end of six days you will have learned another useful tool with which to share the gospel.
