Tips and training for effectively sharing the gospel

   this page is designed for people who feel God has placed a burden on their heart for the lost. As I have gone out and spoke to many people in many different situations I have picked up a few things that I've found to really help me when I'm sharing my faith, I have also in watching film of myself speaking to different people been able to learn from my mistakes.

   It is important to state that there is no formula for preaching the gospel, and God will use different people in different ways. There are also many different types of evangelism, the main two types that I will be talking about are intentional (going out with the intention of sharing your faith in the malls, on the streets, in parks, ect...) and the second is relational (sharing the gospel with people you have relationships with (coworkers, friends, family, any body you see or talk to on a semi-regularly basis). There are actually many similarities in these two different types of evangelism. No matter what type of evangelism you are doing the most important thing is that you are relying on God. Pray in advance that God will go before you and that God will work through you. Remember it is not about us and its not about the people we are reaching out too, it’s all about God!!!

Training

Before I began to talk about the different types of evangelism let me talk about the basics that are important for any type of evangelism. First you need to have a clear gospel presentation. That is you need to be able to clearly present the gospel in a way that can be easily understood by those without the slightest bit of knowledge of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the church, etc... It is best to have a story to explain it that people can easily picture and understand, I like to use a courtroom story/scenario:                                                                                                                                                             the courtroom scenario                                   (say I was to kill two people in cold blood and I did in public in front of witness’s and it was caught on camera. so I’m arrested and brought before the judge, the judge listens to whiteness after whiteness and then watches me on tape killing these two people. Now the judge looks at me and says the just penalty for these crime you have committed is $1,000,000,000 or life in prison and he looks at me and says but I'm in a particularly good mood today so I will let you go free. Now that judge is not being a very just judge is he, he also is not doing his Job he was appointed to do. In order for the judge to be a good and just judge he would have to sentence me to the due punishment witch in this case would be $1,000,000,000 or life in prison. Now say the judge dose sentence me to the just punishment for my crime and I am up getting ready to go off to life in prison until the Judge stands up takes off his robe walks out from behind the stand walks up to me and says “here is a check for $1,000,000,000 it is a free gift you can take it and be free.” Of course I would take that free gift but would you?, you see God has done the same thing for us because he is a just God he must sentence us to our just punishment for our sins which is death eternity cut off from God hell, but because of his great love for us he has taken off his robe come off his thrown and wrote the check, when Jesus died on the cross for our sins the check was wrote now we must chose wither or not we are going to accept that free gift or not.)                           

this story has always worked well for me no matter who I have told it to, I change it around a little here and there sometimes but the basic idea stays the same, we are guilty of sin, we are going to die and face judgment, the punishment for our sin is death hell, God has offered us forgiveness through the blood of his son Jesus Christ. First your gospel presentation second your testimony, your testimony is the story of how you came to faith in Jesus Christ. What you where like before you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior what brought you to the point where you accepted Jesus and how you have changed or what’s been different since. My testimony is rather long but I have managed to cut it down to a short version when I'm pressed for time and I can always give the long version when I have time to spend with people. I always share the gospel but I don’t always share my testimony with everyone, I only share it when I feel it is something God has put on my heart to do or if someone asks about me and how I became a Christian, however it is always good to have ready in any circumstance a testimony of how you came to faith in Jesus can be extremely powerful and moving for others even if you don’t think it is. When you talk to people many times they are going to want to know about the person talking to them, and they will also want to let you know about themselves, we need to be better listeners then talkers because listening to the people you are trying to share with is one of the most important parts of your conversation, and if you will not listen to them then why should they listen to you. I will get more into the importance of listening latter. Once we have a clear gospel presentation and a short ready to fire testimony of how we came to faith in Jesus then we are almost ready. Third it is good to know God’s law (the ten commandments) the law is important to know because if we can’t show people there need for forgiveness then are message of forgiveness is going to seem useless and foolish to them. It is also good to spend a lot of time in God’s word (the bible) God will often remind us of scripture as we are talking to people but if we are not reading scripture then there will no scripture for him to remind us of. And the last thing before we get into the different kinds of evangelism we need prayer lots and lots of prayer, we need to be praying and we need to have other people praying for us. Pray every morning that God will give you opportunities to share your faith and that he will speak through you in those opportunities, if you are going out with the intention of evangelizing then pray that God fills you with his Holy Spirit and that he goes out with you. once you have covered all these then you are ready to get started.

Helpful hints             

When I say training really its only tips and hints the only real training you will get will come from walking with God and stepping out in faith that when you do he will meet you. Will you run into some hard people, more then likely but don’t be discouraged that’s all part of the training process. So as far as tips and hints go I can only speak from experience and what has worked for me and what hasn’t.     lets start with intentional evangelism, there will be some overlap between the two types of evangelism I am going to be talking about, but I will try not to sound to repetitive.

Intentional evangelism- is going out with the intention of preaching the gospel.                                 I have found this to be much more fruitful and a lot easier then relational evangelism, probably because I come across a lot more strangers then I do people I have relationships with, and its probably easier for me because I don’t have a relationship with them. Here are some tips for intentional evangelism:

                                             Tips

1) do not stop people who are in the middle of doing something else or are on their way somewhere else. Look for people that are just kind of hanging out. I look for people who are just sitting around talking or resting, I try and stay away from people on the move or eating unless I really feel God putting them on my heart.

2) Spark a little general conversation and then ask them if you can ask them a couple questions. (most people will have no problem with answering questions some people will say no then just say thank you and walk away.)

3) Listen, ask strategic questions that will tell you a lot about what the person your talking to believes and doesn’t believe, then listen. (I will usually ask people “Do you believe there is a heaven and a hell? How do you think we get to heaven? If they don’t believe in heaven and hell I'll ask what happens to us after we die? and different questions like this to find out what they believe and how I should share the gospel with them. If they already believe that there is a heaven and hell I am not going to spend time talking about different reasons that they should believe that after we die we either go to heaven or hell I will focus my time on the areas where they are struggling with believing

4) Remind them of there sin with out coming off like your judging or condemning them and then remind then of there need for a savior. (I will usually after asking someone how they believe they can get to heaven ask them if they where being judged by God right now would they go to heaven or hell, then I will remind them that we are all sinners and we will all be guilty before God unless we accept the free gift of God’s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ then I usually go into the gospel presentation.)

5) Make sure that people know that there is something that they need to do and that is to repent and believe the good news. they need to turn away from there sins and follow Jesus Christ as there lord and savior.

6) Always offer people the opportunity to make a commitment to repent and follow Jesus. (walk them through a salvation prayer having them repeat it after you, its good if you have it in writing so they can read it as they say it and then just leave it with them. I will have some tools and different materials available later that you can use and give to people, but for now you can make up your own cards with the salvation prayer on it to give people. you can write the prayer yourself or you can copy it off the salvation page of this site.)

7) Try to make a way of following up with the people who say the salvation prayer maybe put your e-mail on the card you give them with the salvation prayer on it or give them some way of contacting you. e-mail is probably best. I would just ask them to write you and tell you how they are doing.          

     We will never have all the answers and we will never convince all the people, but God will use what we do know to open the eyes of those he has called.  We should stay in the word of God so that we can be daily sharpened to do Gods work. I have also included some links on this site to help you to learn how to answer other difficult questions people might ask. When speaking with people I always feared that they would say, “I don’t believe the bible is true, its just a fancy story.” I feared people making that statement because I really just didn’t know how to respond. everything that I preached was from the bible and if someone didn’t believe the bible was true then how could I convince them that what I was saying was true. One day I heard Ray Comfort say “If you hold a sword to someone’s throat and say this sword is razor sharp and can cut your head off, and the person whose throat you are holding the sword to laughs and says “ha, I don’t believe in swords” that dose not mean that the sword you are holding is any less real because they don’t believe in it. the word of God is a double edged sword and it is razor sharp able to pierce even the hardest hearts if it is Gods will that it do so. However some times Gods will is to speak to people in other ways, like science or experience, maybe intellectualism. you see the more we know the more ways God is able to use us. The links to the right are helpful links with info. on the reliability of the bible and how science and God work. the answer a lot of tough questions that maybe even you have.