Garry Poole, Founder and Lead Evangelism Coach

March 26, 2019
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“Garry Poole’s compassion for souls is contagious. He presents with great enthusiasm a simple and effective way to share the beautiful truth of Jesus Christ with neighbors, colleagues, and friends.”

Chuck Colson
Founder and President, Prison Fellowship

Garry Poole is an evangelism strategist and award-winning author with more than 35 years of in-the-trenches experience equipping Christians to share their faith effectively.

Garry’s specialty is coaching pastors and “average” Christians who don’t see themselves as naturally gifted evangelists, giving them the tools and confidence to reach their non-Christian friends and family for Christ.

He is the author of 22 books on evangelism, including titles that he co-authored with Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, and noted apologist Lee Strobel.

Garry’s major innovations are 3D1 Evangelism, a relationship-based approach that empowers believers to share their faith effectively, and Spiritual Discovery Groups, a highly successful model for giving non-Christians an uplifting, supportive, yet challenging group venue to work through their questions and concerns about the Bible and come to their own conclusion about accepting Christ.

The principles behind these powerful outreach approaches had their genesis in a “trial by fire” experience early in Garry’s life.

In college Garry started up a small group Bible study to provide fellowship and discipleship for fellow Christians on campus.

When the group first gathered, Garry was shocked to find that none of the nine students who showed up were actually Christians. He threw out his carefully prepared lesson plan and instead asked the group:

“If you could ask God one question you knew he would answer right away, what would it be?”

The group spent the next several months exploring the questions and spiritual issues raised during that first meeting.

At the time, Garry had no formal training in evangelism, and no background in apologetics.

Yet he watched in amazement as one by one, six of those students gave their lives to Christ.

After that formative experience, Garry started another group, and another—and each time he saw God work powerfully through the dialog and relationships that resulted.

Garry has personally led dozens of these Spiritual Discovery groups over the years, and these on-going interactions with non-Christians gave him a rare insight into the hearts and minds of spiritual explorers.

He’s had a front row seat to the cultural shifts that have caused the decline of “traditional” evangelism techniques.

Approaches that worked 30 or 40 years ago—knocking on doors, hosting revival events, extending invitations to Sunday worship services, directly engaging strangers in public places—are no longer as effective as they once were, and in many cases may even cause unintended negative consequences.

He’s also observed that, while non-Christians may no longer be receptive to reading tracts or engaging intruders in the mall parking lot, they are open to—even hungry for—conversations about spiritual matters, when those conversations happen in the context of real, authentic relationships.

3D1 Evangelism is the synthesis of Garry’s many years of living side by side with non-believers, listening to their stories, seeing what causes them to open their hearts to God, and what pushes them farther away—and then mentoring other Christians step-by-step as they seek to engage in spiritual conversations, and eventually share the gospel within their own spheres of influence.

Over the last 25 years Garry has inspired and equipped thousands of Christians and church leaders to implement the principles behind 3D1 and Spiritual Discovery Groups.

His approach got its most strenuous “field test” in the 1990s when Garry partnered with Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg to create an evangelism strategy for Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago.

Together Garry, Lee and Mark trained thousands of church members with these tools, and then launched more than 150 Spiritual Discovery Groups. At the peak of this era more than 1,500 non-Christians were attending these groups on a regular basis, and of those who stayed in group, 80 percent crossed the line of faith over time.

Later, Garry took these ideas global when he collaborated with Lee and Mark to develop the Becoming a Contagious Christian video training series. Nearly 2 million Christians around the world have taken this training.

For the last several years, Garry has transitioned to the role of evangelism coach and strategist through the OneLife initiative.

Through OneLife, Garry helps senior pastors and church leaders reignite the passion for evangelism in their members, then set up the vital training and support systems to instill an evangelism focus into every facet of church life.
Books

Seeker Small Groups: Engaging Spiritual Seekers in Life-Changing Discussions
https://www.amazon.com/Seeker-Small-Groups-Life-Changing-Discussions-ebook/dp/B000SF38E2

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Best-selling author and evangelism expert Lee Strobel describes seeker small groups as “One of the most powerful and effective tools in evangelism.” A seeker small group is facilitated by a Christian leader, but group members are non-Christians investigating Christianity. The group provides a safe context for spiritual explorers ask questions and dialogue about faith.This highly transferable model can be implemented by all kinds of ministries with a wide range of evangelistic styles and strategies.

“In this excellent new book, Garry Poole passes on the practical wisdom he has gained from more than 30 years of experience leading small groups in an evangelistic setting. I learned a great deal from Seeker Small Groups and recommend it to others interested in this exciting ministry.”

Nicky Gumbel, Founder and Director, The Alpha Course

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The Complete Book of Questions: 1001 Conversation Starters for Any Occasion

This book is one big compilation of questions—1001 of them you can use to launch great conversations in almost any context. And many of these questions are likely to trigger other questions you may also wish to discuss. Think of this book as a tool to spark interaction—and to know and understand others, and yourself, better.

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> Read More

The Three Habits of Highly Contagious Christians: A Discussion Guide for Small Groups

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A small group discussion guide for equipping Christians to effectively reach seekers by building relationships, sharing a verbal witness, and extending invitations to outreach events. Each session begins with a compelling story that sets the stage for group discussion and sparks ideas for putting into practice each of the three habits. Discussion questions walk participants through the emotional, motivational, and intellectual facets of each step and provide an opportunity to wrestle with the challenges and discoveries they make individually and as a group.

The Faith Participant’s Guide (with Chuck Colson)

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The Faith is a study for our troubled times and for decades to come, for Christians and non-Christians alike. Chuck Colson, Gabe Lyons, and Garry Poole will lead you through six thought-provoking, soul-searching, and powerful sessions on the great, historical central truths of Christianity that have sustained believers through the centuries. Brought to immediacy with vivid, true stories, here is what Christianity is really about and why it is a religion of hope, redemption, and beauty.

Articles
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Endorsements
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Presentations
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