Making Evangelism Accessible Again
Jim Murphy grew up in a home where faith and daily life didn't touch. Church was for Sundays, and God was an idea. Then, slowly, through friendships and small conversations, and finally a stadium full of men worshiping Jesus, that changed.
This is the story of a man who found Jesus through a web of personal evangelism, and has spent the last 25 years making that same web visible for others. Jim is now a pastor, church planter, and evangelist who has helped shape churches from Florida to New York to rural Iowa. But his passion has remained laser-focused: helping ordinary people share Jesus in ways that are real, relational, and repeatable.
Why Evangelism Feels Out of Reach (and What to Do About It)
In today’s Western church, evangelism often feels like something for someone else. The gifted. The extroverted. The confident. Jim challenges that head-on.
What if evangelism is a calling the Spirit gives every believer, instead of a gift for a few? What if churches built outreach into their culture instead of around events? And what if an evangelist's main job is to equip the whole church to live as people sent?
This episode offers a practical, hopeful way to think about evangelism: as part of how the church lives every day, instead of a script.
The Five Rhythms of Everyday Mission
Jim shares the framework that has helped hundreds of believers start gospel conversations with clarity and without pressure:
Embrace God’s mission personally
Identify your "MyCircle": the people in your life who don't know Jesus yet
Pray for them daily (and pray for boldness in you)
Engage weekly in real-life relationship
Share monthly in honest, hope-filled ways
For some, that will mean open gospel conversations. For others, it starts with showing up, staying curious, and creating space.
“Evangelism doesn’t have to be flashy to be faithful,” Jim says. “God honors the slow burn.”
Why the church needs evangelists who equip
Jim also names a tension many feel but few articulate: evangelistically wired people often feel like they don’t fit in the local church. They’re passionate. They move fast. They see the lost everywhere. And when no one else seems to share that urgency, frustration grows.
Jim has stayed in the church and chosen to equip it instead of walking away.
“We don’t need more evangelists who go rogue. We need evangelists who are committed to the church, to shepherding people toward mission with patience, love, and conviction.”
If you have ever felt out of place because of your burden for people who don't know Jesus, this conversation will give you words for it and a way forward.
For the 86-Year-Old and the 18-Year-Old
One story in this episode stands out: a friend's 86-year-old father recently started praying for his neighbors and sharing the gospel with them, boldly and with childlike joy.
Evangelism is for anyone who is willing, whatever their age, training or platform.
Resources + Tools
📘 Alone at the Top by Dwight Smith A book that shaped Jim’s philosophy of equipping leaders for the long haul.
📘 God Dwells Among Us by G.K. Beale & Mitchell Kim A compelling look at God’s redemptive presence throughout Scripture.
🔗 Explore the MyCircle framework mycircletraining.com | learn.doleadcma.org/product/mycircle
One Last Word
If you feel unsure of how to share your faith… If you’re tired of evangelism feeling like a performance… If you want to be part of a church that sees the mission as everyone’s job…
This episode is for you.
Jim says it's all worth it.
Guests & resources
Meet the guest
- Jim Murphy
MyCircle founder