Which Gospel Tracts Do You Use?
As the Pastor of Local Outreach Ministries, I’m often asked what tracts and other resources we use in our evangelism efforts. Tracts can be a very helpful way of getting the Gospel message into the hands of someone who doesn’t have the time or inclination to have a conversation at the moment. They can also be a helpful follow-up to a good conversation—reinforcing the main themes of the Gospel long after you’ve both moved on to the next part of your day.
The following list is a selection of some of the tracts, Bibles, New Testaments, and other books that we use at Grace Church and make available to our church family.
* * * * *
What It Means to Be a Christian – This one is probably my favorite. It’s a single 3×5 card, portrait orientation, with this content on it. It’s simple, not flashy, to the point, and accurate. You can order these here.
God-Man-Christ-Sinners Card – This is basically a training-version of the previous. It serves more to equip Christians with a basic four-step rubric to proclaim the Gospel: (1) God is Holy Creator; (2) Man is sinful and faces the penalty for sin; (3) Christ has paid the penalty, and (4) the sinner’s response must be to repent and believe. You can order these here.
“Stop! Who do you think that I am?” – This is a tract written by John MacArthur and produced by Grace to You. It’s a bit longer, but not too long, and it goes through the Gospel clearly and faithfully. You can also get it in Spanish (“Alto!”). You can browse the content and print it yourself here, and can order print copies here.
What is the Gospel? – This is a condensed version of Greg Gilbert’s excellent book by the same title. It’s a helpful progression of the “God–Man–Christ–Response” outline. You can preview the content and order them here.
The Story – This is a flashier, artsier tract, along the rubric of Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. It’s definitely got a different flavor and doesn’t put everything exactly how I’d put it, but I believe it’s faithful to the Gospel. We’ve found it to be often well-received among college students. Check here for these.
Are You a Good Person? (Living Waters) – This very small 15-page booklet can be very effective. Most Westerners regard the Ten Commandments as an accepted standard of morality and everyone thinks they’re a good person, so these make a great conversation starter. You can order them here.
For Your Joy (Desiring God) – This is great. It’s more like a booklet than a tract, which can be good or bad depending on what you’re shooting for. It works great as something to leave with the person you’ve evangelized as a follow-up to your conversation. The content is spot on. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can get the little booklet from DG anymore, as they’ve stopped doing a lot of printing. But you can download the PDF for free and distribute as it works. If you have a media-savvy person in your church, you can request permission from Desiring God to print them and give them away for free.
10 Reasons Jesus Came to Die (Desiring God) – Another DG tract that picks 10 of Piper’s 50 Reasons, and works out into a nice trifold tract. You can get them at Crossway or CBD.
Don’t Waste Your Life – Yet another DG tract that summarizes the message from Piper’s excellent book in the form of a Gospel presentation. You can browse the content and print a PDF here, and purchase the physical tracts here.
A recent addition has been a tract from SBTS called, “Experiencing God’s G.R.A.C.E.” This is longer, and so wouldn’t be good to go through with someone in a cold evangelism situation, but it’s a great thing to leave someone after your conversation. You can see it here, and need to call Southern Seminary about ordering a bunch.
We also make outreach Bibles (NAS, ESV, Spanish) and New Testaments (NAS, ESV, Spanish) available.
And in an effort to equip the congregation, we offer Dever’s The Gospel and Personal Evangelism (see the Cripplegate’s review), Packer’s Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (see here for an excellent excerpt), and Gilbert’s What is the Gospel? for free or for a small donation at our Sunday outreach table. You may be able to get reduced prices for greater quantities by contacting the publishers directly.
* * * * *
Are there any other good resources that you’ve found to be helpful in your evangelism ministry?