Evangelism Coach

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A divine appointment is recognizing God’s prompting a moment that will impact someone’s life in their jourey to faith.  These are kairos moments.

I want to give you examples of how this can play out in real life.

• God’s presence is with us. – My tutor hears the gospel
• Seminar Testimony - a wrong phone number
• Is he a PC USA Pastor? – Divine moment in Cracker Barrell
• What is an Evangelist? – Student wants a definition
• Reflections from Enfield CT - Walmart Stories
• Evangelism Motives: Why bother? – taxi driver shares Jesus

The point is to have developed an intimate relationship with the Lord so that you can be in the right place at the right time.  Listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and see what happens.

Servant Evangelism

Steve Sjogren, in Scattering, Watering, and then…Waiting reminds us about how the role of the evangelist:

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is like the wind – he (not IT – please, never refer to the Holy Spirit as “it” – that is incredibly offensive to him) is not one who can be controlled. We see the effect of wind on the trees when the wind blows, but where it comes from or where it goes, we do not know (John 3).

Lasting conversions are wrought by the power of the Spirit, not by a slick sounding, win-the-argument approach. How many of you have won the argument but lost the battle? Lasting, deep down conversions are very rarely quick.

Don’t fret about the waiting period between scattering your seeds of generosity and what is going to take place once the Holy Spirit begins to shape people’s hearts in a large-scale fashion.

That’s God’s business. You keep on scattering your seeds – ideally with your people living a lifestyle of generosity and kindness. Sooner or later your crops will come in…as Jude writes, “Walk by love.”

Getting into the World

In The Practical to Becoming Worldly & Missional, Heath Watson gives us 10 practical tips on evangelism.  Each item on the list below is explained further at the original article.

1. Build Genuine Relationships
2. Listen
3. It’s Ok to Say I Don’t Know
4. Pray for them
5. Invite them to Church
6. Tomorrow is not promised
7. Know your role in evangelism
8. Seek to Glorify God in your conversation and attitude
9. Meditate on the gospel
10. Review Your conversion Often and Never grow too familiar with it.

Audio Resources from Together for the Gospel:

Heath Watson also gives us links from T4G, free MP3 downloads from this  years conference are already available for all of the sessions. These include the following excellent lectures by some people you may recognize.

(Right click any of the following links and save to your hard drive. )

• Ligon Duncan - Sound Doctrine - Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry (MP3)
• Thabiti Anyabwile - Bearing the Image: Identity, Work of Christ, the Church (MP3)
• John MacArthur - The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: Doctrine Absolute Inability (MP3)
• Mark Dever - Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology (MP3)
• RC Sproul - The Curse Motif of the Atonement (MP3)
• Albert Mohler - Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution (MP3)
• John Piper - How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice (MP3)
• CJ Mahaney - Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul (MP3)

Using Worldview to Share the Gospel

Blogger Glibert Kingsley writes  an article for college students about using worldview to share the gospel.  Ministries like Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org)  use this approach.  Nick Pollard’s book on Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult uses the same approach (see footnote for my reviews).  Being Fluent in worldview issues will help you compare and contrast the world views and to help you see how a Biblical world view is the best option to making sense of reality.

Evangelism Book Review: Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult

Evangelism Book review: Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult Part 2

Another Podcast Resource:

Leonard Sweet’s podcast, “Napkin Scribbles.”  Verbal images that can be drawn on a napkin.  I wish it had the video to see the drawing.

I completed the first of two part evangelism series for a church. 

It was my second workshop in Spanish, and I want to give thanks to God for a growing capacity to teach in Spanish.  While the grammar was not 100% perfect, I was told that I was understandable, and the church gave me great grace.  My family was with me, and we were treated to excellent and warm hospitality.

Part I — focused on our motives for evangelism, (for example: Evangelism Motives) and a brief introduction to the model of Phillip and the Ethiopian. 

As part of the presentation, I explain some of the richness of the Gospel and God’s loving pursuit of us.  The key elements of the gospel are part of the presentation.

I want to follow Jesus

What surprised me however, was a visitor walked up to Pastor afterwards and said he was ready to start following Jesus. 

He had been invited by a friend to come and hear the presentation and somehow with my limited Spanish, the Holy Spirit had convicted him of his need to follow Jesus.

My presentation was but one part of this man’s journey to faith, but last night he was as ready as the eunuch was in the Acts passage to start following Jesus.  There were many other parts and many other people.  It was last night that our paths intersected and he was ready to receive the Lord.

All I can say is wow.

In my previous conversation at the corner McDonald’s where I spent two hours discussing faith, the gospel, and the need for Jesus, my conversation partner brought up

Mathew 7: 13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

She talked about trying to walk the straight and narrow, but that it was difficult and full of problems. 

God has prepared the way

In God’s sovereignty, we talked at a moment where the circumstances of life were overpowering and she’s looking for God’s comfort.  It’s hard to communicate in words the emotional context of her struggle. 

A tired, single mother, working 2 if not 3 jobs, having the cost of living go up substantially, and struggling to keep her little family afloat and raise her infant child in these circumstances.

All of us have moments when we think the world is crashing.  Sometimes those are passing moments, and we get back up on our feet and plow ahead.  Sometimes, we take these anxieties before the Lord and ask him for His peace and move forward.

Other times, those moments are not passing and we remain in a state of anxiety, a restless mind that keeps us awake at night and peace is hard to find.  Though we might even have faith in Christ, the body remains restless.

We talked in a divinely appointed moment where the circumstances of life were crowding in.

Asking Questions

Many of the questions I asked felt inspired in the moment. 

They weren’t scripted, they weren’t part of my morning devotions.  Rather, they were prompted as a result of the kairos moment we were having on the 2nd floor in the corner McDonalds. 

This is God’s working, and being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

“Why is the narrow road better?” I asked.

“It just is what I’ve been taught, I don’t know why.  Because it leads to eternal life?”

“Eternal life is for mañana.  What difference do you think that makes right now?”

“I don’t know.”

God’s presence

She’s right, it does lead to eternal life.

But something I believe God showed me at the moment was that walking along the narrow way with Jesus is just that — he is with us. 

The narrow way is better NOW because God is with us.  

We can face the challenges of today with God’s presence.  No matter what the world throws at us, nor our circumstances, the narrow way is better because we can know and experience God’s presence.

One of the most amazing promises of the bible is this: “Lo, I will be with you until the end of the age.”

My testimony = My experience with God.

We discussed this promise at length.  She invited me to tell stories of how I know this to be true. 

My testimony wasn’t about how I came to know the Lord, but rather I came to know this verse to be true.  How I came to know that the narrow way is better because I can experience God’s presence.

I was the credible witness, a living example of someone who can experience God’s comfort in the midst of struggle.

The more I shared about knowing God’s presence, the deeper the conversation went.  The more evident the spiritual thirst became.  I could see God drawing this person to Himself.

The final question for this conversation

After spending the two hours talking about all sorts of things, this question rose to the surface.  In the relational context we had established, this question was normal, and non-threatening.

“What keeps you from following Jesus today?” I asked.

“Fear.”

“Fear of what? Can you tell me?”

I won’t go into some of the answers as that’s part of the private conversation.  Clearly, my conversation partner wants some more time to think, consider, wrestle, examine, pick your own verb.  She’s counting the cost.

Let me ask you this?

Would you join me in prayer for this person?

Yesterday I had a conversation that simply continued into a 2 hour discussion on how to have a relationship with God.

Relational Context:

I’m translating some of my course material into Spanish, so I have a tutor who is helping me.  My tutor knows that I am a Pastor, evangelism trainer, and has helped me with translations for about 2 months.

The conversation I had was natural, not forced, nor “steered” to try and create one, but it happened naturally in the course of my ordinary life.

We were reviewing my translation of a slide about God’s unfathomable love (try translating that word).  It’s so deep that Paul prays that we might be able to grasp how wide, deep, long, is the love of God for us in Christ (Ephesians 2).

Poets, song writers, and artists have sought to explore the riches of God’s love.  I used a Spanish song quote that simply moves me to tears sometimes.

What would I be if you had not reached me?

Where would I be if you had not forgiven me? . . . .

If it wasn’t for your grace and for your love. . . . .

My tutor asks: “Why does that song move you so?”

That question opened up a 2 hour conversation about relating to God, having our sin forgiven, having his presence in our life, and all sorts of stuff.  I use the bridge illustration as my script (even if there are some shortcomings in it).

She’s not yet ready to receive Christ because of some fear, but she’s getting closer. 

Let me ask you this?

What was the last evangelistic conversation that you had?  Are you actively sharing your faith when natural opportunities occur?

Do you want one-to-one help with your personal evangelism?  Consider our Evangelism Training and Mentoring services.

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