Evangelism Coach

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I remember a model of evangelism that felt like a sales pitch.

I would attend a seminar and learn the newest script for evangelism.  The idea is that I would learn a series of conversational steps that would help people

• See their need for Jesus
• Make a decision to follow Christ
• Repeat a prayer after me.
• Sign here for follow up.
• All in less than 30 minutes.

The script was “the powerful new tool,” and it was meant to help you “share your faith” and confidently prepare you to “lead people to Christ.”

If we were truly honest with ourselves, in the practice of your life did it ever work?

Not in my life.

I never really latched onto that sales pitch.  Most of the readers of this blog never latched on to that model as it felt forced, maybe dishonest and turned Jesus in a product marketing.

Life doesn’t fit the script.

In the last few days I’ve had to deal with customer service people in various businesses. 

In each case, my need was not “in their script.” 

• Company A sent me to at least 4 departments today on the telephone, because no one could answer my question.  That was after going to 3 different departments yesterday.  I wasn’t permitted to speak to a supervisor because they didn’t have the  power to get out of their script.
• Company B simply said “I don’t cover that situation — you can’t be our customer anymore.”  I’ve been their customer for 11 years and now they don’t want me anymore.

I did not fit their script.  They didn’t have an answer for my questions.  They didn’t have a solution for my need.  Their scripts didn’t have a place for me.

This is the problem with scripts when they are positioned as the “one true way” of doing evangelism. 

Human beings and life conversations can’t all fit into a one size fits all  scripted evangelism presentation.  Humans have so many different needs, so many different starting points, so many different questions.

I don’t teach complicated scripts in any of my evangelism seminars. 

Rather, I help people learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit for the right place, right time, right words.   I don’t have a script I follow because each person and each conversation is unique.

What then are the role of Gospel Scripts?

I’ve written on gospel scripts before and will do so in the future (grab my feed to get these future posts).   They are handy little tools and I’m not throwing them out.

The gospel scripts that I like are all simple presentations of the gospel that are useful at an appropriate point in a relationship.  They address different needs but ultimately get at the Need to Follow Jesus.

In my life, I haven’t found that any of my conversation partners are at the same starting point the gospel script is at. 

The scripts assume

• that a person recognizes the consequences of sin. 
• that the person is ready to deal with a spiritual need. 
• that a person is seeking for a relationship with God.

Phillip and the Eunuch

Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch had a ‘chance’ conversational encounter.  Yet in that encounter, the text says that

“Beginning from that point [where the Eunuch was reading], Phillip went on to explain the good news about Jesus.”

Notice that Phillip began where the eunuch was. 

The eunuch was dealing with grammar issues with pronouns, frustrations with reading a foreign language, and perhaps his own disappointment in not finding what he was searching for in Jerusalem.

Phillip spent time talking with the eunuch at that point.  A point unique to the eunuch’s spiritual journey.

So many scripts want to “begin from their own point.” 

Yet not every conversation is at that starting point.

• It often takes a series of conversations to get there.
• It takes listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit
• It takes good questions that open new conversational lines.
• It takes some skill in noticing life themes and linking them to spiritual needs. 

Evangelism Scripts such as the Four Spiritual Laws, Bridge, or others are handy once a person has gotten to the starting point of the scripts. 

Being familiar with an evangelism script can help you comfortably explain the gospel when the moment presents itself in a natural manner.

Getting to that point?  There is no script for that.

From Golf to God

This week, I was listening to Michael Spencer’s Coffee Cup Apologetics at Podcast 46.  In these 15 minutes (listen on line at Podcast 46) Spencer discusses issues with scripted evangelism.

He refers to a great article called Gospel Connections in Suburbia. 

It deals with how to bridge a conversation from the subject at hand to the subject of the gospel. 

Can  you go from golf to God? 

There is a list of 8 topics that are great conversational topics and an example of a conversational bridge is given for each (I encourage you to read the whole entry).

1. Corruption, evil and sin.
2. Community.
3. Politics.
4. Environment.
5. War.
6. Family.
7. Church.
8. Art/pop-culture

Spencer’s podcast picks this up and points out that to make such transitions, one requires three skills

1. Relational Conversations — Casual life conversations with friends
2. Ability to see connections between the mundane and the spiritual
3. Make the transition from the mundane to spiritual in a natural way.

Part of doing this is developing the skills of

1. Making use of good questions
2. Making use of good observations.

Start to Notice

In your own conversations, start to ponder how the mundane can be bridged towards the spiritual.  I’m not talking about ketchup on fries representing the blood of Jesus.  Rather, listen to the heart cry in the culture.

• What is being looked for? 
• Why are people passionate about politics and what does that say about order in the world? 
• Why are people willing to sacrifice their marriage for a moment of personal pleasure? 
• Can you hear the spiritual need behind the conversation?
• What is the question behind the question?

Let me ask you this?

Taking a cue from the original blog post: Do you have some useful conversational bridges?  I invite you to elaborate in the comments.

In our personal evangelism seminars, I have found that most participants have heard of a particular gospel script and think they know how to use it.

The practice

Since I use the Bridge Illustration as my default setting, I use it in training others with a little practice exercise

I  use a whiteboard to draw the pictures, go through the script as if I was with a live person. 

Then I ask participants to break up into groups of two, and repeat the process.

Then I coach through the process and we debrief the exercise together.

I thought I knew how

This hands on experience reveals to most participants that they don’t really know how to present the Bridge Illustration, nor are they initially comfortable with the script.

This practical group exercise

• Helps you practice your presentation
• Reveals gaps in your own understanding
• Increases comfort when the kairos moment comes.
• Reveals your use of Christianeese (words that only make sense to Christians).

Consider this

• Have you picked a gospel script to use as your default setting? 
• Are you so familiar with it that you can go through it with ease and flexibility?

Let me suggest this

Find a good friend and ask permission to practice going through your default setting. 

• Where do you need to improve your presentation? 
• What Christianeese do you need to remove?
• What was clear as mud?
• What was clear as crystal?
• What part do you need to remember more clearly?

If you speak with a non-Christian, let them know you are practicing — that helps alleviate some of the inherent tension in a religious conversation.  God can still use it however in bringing a person to faith, but you’ve shared your motive ahead of time.

Got questions about how to do this?  Feel free to send me your questions via email (Contact us).

I was recently asked about the use of questions in spiritual conversations.  How do you get an evangelistic conversation started?  Check out the questions category for some articles that have a free download.

I found this article from That Guy with the Nametag about 62 types of questions and why they work. 

Randy Newman wrote a great book called:  Questioning Evangelism.  Here is an free form excerpt from the section on Responding to the charge: “Christians are Hypocrites.”

This question comes in a variety of ways:

• Why is history littered with such hatred by Christians (e.g, Crusades)?
• Why do some non-Christians I know behave better than Christians?
• Why are they so full of self-righteousness, and full of hatred (e.g., homophobic)?
• I thought Christians were to be _____________ (fill in the blank).

Listen for the question behind  the question

‘If this is what Christianity is all about, why should I want any part of it?”

Jesus railed against hypocrisy (see Matt 23), so He, too, is against it. 

But we might need to remind people that profession (what people say) often doesn’t line up 100% of the time with what they do.  It’s a lack of authenticity that people are reacting against.  The Christian experience is not about perfection, but a journey towards perfection, where our character is being transformed.

Possible questions to defuse the tension of the charge:

• Do you think ALL Christians are hypocrites?  Why do you think that?
• Are you saying that the church is FULL of hypocrites, or some?
• Do you think hypocritical behavior is the NORM for all Christians?  Why or why not?
• Do you think hypocritical behavior is the kind of behavior that Christianity teaches?

Possible statements when the conversation brings up personal experiences:

• If given an example of a hypocritical Christian, we can certainly agree it was and explore it a little.
• If the example was personal, we could “see why that’s so painful for you, I don’t blame you for being upset.”
• Some agreements that can pave the way for questions
• Your right, church is full of hypocrites.
• Well, sometimes I can be a hypocrite as well.
• We’re all hypocrites if we think hard about it.

Turn the tables

• Aren’t you a hypocrite some of the time?
• Don’t you fail to live up to your own standard at times?
• Don’t you, on occasion, say one thing and do another?

Some questions to explore

• Why does hypocrisy bother us so much?
• What is it about hypocrisy that makes you want to scream?
• Why are you bothered about hypocrisy?

A possible question to lead into further discussion

• I think that hypocrisy bothers us because it points to some sense of right and wrong, you think?
• If we hate it so much, could be be a sign that there are some other way to be?  What do you think?
• The fact that we are all hypocrites points to the hardness / evil / deceptions  in our own hearts (the sinful nature).
• The fact that it bothers us points to a sense of morality and judgement.
• Following Christ can help us deal with our hypocrisy, find forgiveness for it, and find the Spirit’s help to overcome that failing.

Source:

Randy Newman wrote a great book called, Questioning Evangelism  Order your copy from Amazon.

Saturday, I attended Eric Hoey’s (photo to right, link goes to Eric’s Blog) workshop on Evangelism and Church growth at the Multi-Cultural Church Conference this past weekend in San Antonio. 

Among other things, Eric reminded our group about different styles of evangelism connected with your personality.  The material came from Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg.

Peter’s Confrontational Approach — Acts 2:22-41

If Peter was convinced he was right, there was almost no stopping him. He was direct, he was bold, and he was to the point. 

Many of you know Peter’s in your face approach.  Instead of complying, he defied.  Instead of being quiet, he proclaimed.  He was very direct. 

Eric told of a friend who would walk up to bikers outside a bar and say:

“Hey, How is it going?  Have you read your bible today?”

Paul’s Intellectual Approach — Acts 17:15-34

Paul was a thinker.  He wrote the awesome book of Romans.  He thought through how to present the gospel to Greeks, Jews, Romans, and others in a contextually appropriate way. 

His treatment of the Altar to the Unknown God at Athens is a testimony to one who can present a rational case, and debate philiosophers in a way that they want to know more.

CS Lewis might be a modern day example of this.  I am not.  I have a hard time reading a CS Lewis book beyond the first chapter because it is at such lofty heights that he writes.  Yet I know people who came to faith because of a little book called “Mere Christianity.”

Blind Man’s Testimonial Approach — John 9:1-15,25

This man, born blind, could only speak from his experience.  He confidently declared: “One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” That’s hard to argue with, isn’t it? 

Many folk can only talk about the radical change in the life that has happened since they started following Jesus.  They may not have the boldness like Peter, or the intellect to defend the rationality of faith like Paul, but what you have is a testimony of a changed life. 

You may not know all that you believe, but your life has been transformed and it’s worth talking about.

Matthew’s Relational Approach — Luke 5:27-29

Instead of inviting people to church right off the bat, Matthew invited fellow tax collectors and sinners to his home. 

Do you enjoy having people into your home, sharing a meal, and spending time in conversation? Many people will never be reached until someone takes the time to build that kind of closeness with them.

He was allowing himself to get close first and spend time outside of “the church.”

Samaritan Women’s Invitational Approach — John 4

When Jesus encountered this woman, and transformed her life, she ran back to town and started inviting people: Come and See. 

She immediately went to her town and brought her friends to the well to hear Jesus for themselves. This simple invitation resulted in His staying in their town for two days. Many of these men and women became His followers. 

Many people are excited about what God is doing in their church, and in their own life.  Instead of feeling confident about sharing their own faith story, they are eager to invite people to their church to see what God is doing and to hear others proclaiming the news.

Come and see, is a great invitation to give.

Dorcas’ Servant approach — Acts 9.

Gifts of Hospitality, the welcoming of strangers, acts of service to those in need are all viable forms of evangelism.  Its a tangible way of expressing the love of Jesus.

Closing comments

• Mark Mittleburg published a whole chapter excerpt from NavPress. 
• Order Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg, direct from Amazon.

Eric wrapped up his session with a reminder about how to present the gospel simply using various gospel scripts, such as the bridge illustration, the moral ladder, do vs. done.

Let me ask you this?

What style do you see yourself fitting into best?

As mentioned in Saturday’s post I just finished reading Nick Pollard’s Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult: How to Interest People who Aren’t Already Interested (order your copy direct from Amazon). 

The goal of his book is to help you get uninterested people interested in Jesus, to reach people “who are simply not interested in hearing about Jesus because they are quite happy with their own views” (p. 31). 

The subtitle makes it clear:

How to Interest People who aren’t Already Interested.

In other words, this book is offering to help you reach a specific category of people: those who doing fine in life without Jesus, and therefore don’t see the need.

To reach them, “we must help them become uncomfortable with their current worldview and then perhaps they will be” (p. 42).

Our job, as the evangelist then, is to conversationally help a person get uncomfortable with their current world view.  This is done in a dialogue about worldview (which all of Ch 2 is about). 

Side Note: The best book on world view that I have read is Discipling the Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures, by Darrow Miller.  Follow the link to get your copy from Amazon.

Conversational Evangelism

Pollard’s approach is what he calls “Positive deconstruction”, (all of chapter 3) which means that through the use of questions, you can help a person analyze their world view, take it apart, and examine it. 

The goal of such conversations is to expose the internal contradictions in the world view. Seems negative, but the goal is to search for truth.

The destination of the conversation is meant to wind up at the place where a person says “I’m not so sure that what I believe is right after all.  I want to find out more about Jesus” (p.44)

“We’ve got a major job to do if we are to help people want to find out about Jesus.”

Is this less difficult?

The rest of Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult goes on to examine worldviews, and help you think about potential conversations.  There is no script offered, but a general analysis of conversational points.

To engage in this style of evangelism conversation, you

• have to be able to think philosophically,
• have to be able to examine all sorts of worldviews, and
• have to be able to reasonably dialogue about them.

I took entire courses in seminary on world views, read several books on world views.  (A good example of an evangelist who understands world view is Ravi Zacharias of www.rzim.org.). 

Does worldview research and philosophical analysis come easy to you? Or, does it overwhelm and confuse you?  This is where one needs to find a evangelism style to fit your personality.

Preparing for Conversational Evangelism

The starting point is to find out what a person believes. 

Conversationally, this can be done through the use of questions and sincere inquiries that are genuine.

Then, after finding out what a person believes, make efforts at understanding their worldview (such as read books about it). 

With these two things, you are then prepared to know what kinds of questions to raise — to help the other person examine their worldview.

Chapters 4 looks at principles involved in researching worldviews, preparing your self for worldview conversations, and then creating questions to examine a world view.  See a chapter excerpt at “Where do I start?”

1. Identify the world view.
2. Analyze the world view — Is it true?
   a.  Does it cohere?
   b.  Does it correspond to reality?
   c.  Does it work?
3. Affirm the truth in that worldview
4. Discover the error.

Pollard gives a worksheet to help you analyze a world view (p.57)

	Affirm the Truth	Discover the Error
1. Cohere?
2. Correspond?
3. Does it work?

You can see an except of Chapter 5, where he walks through a case study of the principles.  “It’s Not for Me” from bethinking.org

Let me ask you this?

What approach would you use to engage this particular subset of people: those who are not interested?

I take Spanish classes, and in preparation for an upcoming mission in Nicaragua in a few weeks, I’m reviewing the teaching material with my professor.  The material is on prayer, and has been translated from English to Spanish.

I’ve spent 4 hours going over the material with my professor, reviewing it for punctuation, grammar, gender agreement (Spanish uses gender forms in their language, like Latin and Greek do).

I got to explain the concept of Christian prayer to someone who not only isn’t Christian, but doesn’t even have the vocabulary we Christians so loosely throw around in church. 

Prayer is the vital key to experiencing our relationship with God through Christ.  Prayer is a love relationship with God.  Prayer can shape the future (we’ll let the theologians figure out how that works with God’s sovereignty). 

I faced a few challenges, for example

1. Christianese:  What is a "prayer burden?"
2. Spanish translation: The Spanish word I chose for burden gave my professor the image of me carrying a 20lb sack of potatoes on my shoulder.

So not only was prayer burden a foreign concept, so the mental image my word choice gave my listener.

In trying to explain such terms, I would have the opportunity to tell stories of God’s activity in my life. 

I got to describe a prayer burden that I had for a missionary team in China, and then explain how I saw God’s hand in that. 

I’ve gotten to explain about my relationship with Christ because I have to explain prayer to someone who doesn’t know how to pray. 

In reviewing my material with my professor, I’ve had many opportunities to share stories of God’s activity in my life.  The questions that I’m being asked to explain, the concepts all give material for God’s spirit to draw my professor into a relationship with Him.

Let me ask you this?

When you share your faith, what kind of Christianese do you use?

Who wouldn’t be "more comfortable inviting a Starbuck’s Barista to a manure shoveling party than to church?"

So write this blogger in God Answered My Prayer Within Hours.

All of us have fears of sharing our faith, which he describes pretty well. 

One key to breaking through that fear is prayer.  When we pray, we seem to notice more opportunities to share our faith, we notice better the people around us, and we see witnessing opportunities fall right into our lap.  Prayer softens us, and prepares us to see God’s activity.

Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch gives us a model of noticing who God is underlining for us.  The Spirit told Phillip: "Go, stand next to that chariot."  Praying prepares us to notice who God brings in our path.

Perhaps you’ve had a recent evangelism conversation.  Share it here with us in our Evangelism Encounter Discussion Group.

Let me ask you this?

Take a moment and pray for the people that you will encounter today.  Ask the Lord to make it clear when He points out where He is at work.

Chris

EvangelismCoach.org