7 Habits for Highly Effective Personal Evangelism

“But I am so afraid to start a conversation,” confessed a pastor.  “I have non-Christian friends, and spend time with them, but I’m so afraid of ruining my friendship.”

Does that describe you, even if you are not a pastor?

From the seminars I give around the US and in Latin America, this is a common fear.

So to this fear, let me through out my list of 7 Habits for Highly Effective Personal Evangelism.

Practicing these habits knock out a lot of fear.

I’m sure the list would be 10 if I thought long and hard, but these are the first 7 that came to mind as practices in my life.

1.  Prayer for those apart from Christ.

Prayer prepares your heart, and God uses prayer to draw people to Christ.

Not sure how to create a prayer list to help you with that?

Action step: Make a prayer list of friends.

When was the last time you prayed through your list of friends?

2.  Regular Assessment of Current Friendships.

Real simple: Do you have someone with whom you can share your faith?

I regularly review how I spend my time and with whom.

I intentionally cultivate authentic relationships with people who don’t know Christ.

If I don’t have enough non-Christian friends, I look for ways to cultivate some new ones.  Always a challenge when a new friend comes to Christ.

3.   Look for spiritual thirst

In all my conversations, I look for spiritual thirst (See What is Spiritual Thirst?).

I have learned to recognize spiritual thirst in how people talk, what they talk about, and how they often initiate discussion with me.

I’ve come across a tool that can help you see a person’s spiritual thirst.  It’s explained at length in Gary Rorhmayer’s book Spiritual Conversations: How to Sustain them without being a jerk.

4.  Regular Devotional Time

Nurture your own relationship with God.  Spend time in worship, prayer, fasting, Bible reading.  Allow God to speak to you and guide your life.

As you spend time in Scriptures, you’ll be growing spiritually.  You’ll be discovering how God is leading you.  And often out of the overflow of the current activity of God in your life, you’ll have fresh content to share.

5.  Intentional Relationship Building

Most effective evangelism to produces discipleship happens between friends.  Thus, one highly effective habit to be intentional in building deep and authentic relationships.

As you look over your list of friends you are praying for, who do you need to “get to know better” or “spend some time with” this coming week?

I often make some notes after wards if there was some significant spiritual thirst shared with me.  I use that in my prayers.  I’m often praying for the next step in my friend’s spiritual journey.

6.  Debriefing Every Evangelism Conversation

Some questions I like to ask myself are:

1. “How did God point out that person to you?  How did you notice that person?”
2. “Where did you notice God was already at work?”
3. “What was their spiritual thirst?”
4. “What would you do or say differently?”
5. “What did you share about Christ?”
6. “How can you help that person along in the next step towards Christ?”

7.  Space in your life for impromptu conversations.

Phillip had margin in his life for a spontaneous conversation with the Eunuch.

Peter and John had margin in the life to heal the lame man at the gate called beautiful.

Most of us pack such a full day that we don’t have time to notice those spiritually thirsty people whom we encounter.

Leave some room in your life to be available during the day.  This happens to me on a regular basis, not all the time.

Let me ask you this?

Do you have a highly effective evangelism habit?

Read Some Others effective evangelism habits at “How to share your faith without freaking out.”

Feel free to share with us in the comment below.