Evangelism Coach

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I’m not the first to point this out, but I’ve heard the expression: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” Perhaps you’ve heard it too. Perhaps it’s a cliche that is beyond trendy.

But, when one person is excited about evangelism, and doing it, sharing their experiences, and reflections, other people begin to get the idea that perhaps “I can do this too. ”

When you are causing the evangelistic tide to rise, others will rise up and do evangelism.

You keep your evangelistic passion high, other’s will increase as well.

It just pours out.

When I preached every Sunday, I always had a new evangelism story — a book I was reading, a conversation I had, a prayer that I had with somebody. People around me began to feel more comfortable doing evangelism, and within a few months, people were telling me their own stories of conversations.

That’s where I learned to love evangelism coaching. Asking folks to recall the conversation, explore it a little more, think about how to do the conversation differently the next time a similar topic came about — just like a debriefing. Asking questions to help sharpen the skills.

As long as my evangelistic temperature was hot, the people around me warmed up to evangelism.

Stoking the Fires

How does one keep the fires hot? Let me give you 15 right off the bat. It’s not a linear list and not exhaustive, but here goes:

1. Keep your relationship with God strong.
2. Read the Scriptures, meditate on them as your day goes on.
3. Enjoy noticing God’s activity around you.
4. Regularly tell others about God’s work in your life.
5. Regularly engage in evangelistic conversations
6. Review them as part of your devotional life.
7. Read evangelism books.
8. Read and comment on evangelism blogs.
9. Participate in the evangelism activity of your local church
10. Share your evangelism stories with others.
11. Join an evangelism coaching group that meets regularly to review conversations.
12. Worship deeply.
13. Pray regularly.
14. Notice the people around you and pray for them.
15. Practice explaining the gospel clearly and simply.

Let me ask you this

What would you add to this list?

In some of our weekend Evangelism Training Seminars, we often can build in a practical exercise in personal evangelism, a “lab time,” where people can leave the retreat setting and venture out to do evangelism in the style that we teach.  It is modeled after Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. 

The basic premise is that we ask God to show us in whom he is working to draw unto Himself and then ask God how to participate in that work.  Phillip was sensitive to the Lord’s leading to “Go stand next to that Chariot.”  Likewise, we listen for those promptings.

The conversation that follows develops out of the context and the direction that the Lord gives.

“On the way to Gaza”

So we spend time in prayer and then give about 5 hours for people to find their “desert road on the way to Gaza” to see who they will encounter.

“Go stand next to that chariot”

When the people go out with a simple task of asking God to point out where he is working, I’m always personally amazed at the ease of conversation.  Sometimes we plant, we water, or we harvest. 

We always find people who are easily talkative about spiritual things, about their life, and in some cases, have pretty open questions.  Conversations that follow are not forced, but natural.

Lab time

Its a great exercise and over the years, the stories that have come back have been encouraging to see God at work.

So how can one provide effective practice sessions in a local evangelism training session?

1. Provide time for practical evangelism experience.
2. Build in time for feedback after each evangelism activity.
3. Include positive and constructive feedback for each encounter.
4. Help groups monitor their time (some feedback discussions chase theological rabbit trails)
5. Do it again.

When the people return from their outing, we have a debriefing time.  We allow people to share their stories and we ask questions to help evaluate each encounter. 

Some questions I like to ask are:

1. “How did God point out that person to you?”
2. “Where did you notice God was already at work?”
3. “What was their spiritual thirst?”
4. “What would you do differently?”
5. “What did you share about Christ?”

Let me ask you this?

Think about your last encounter where you engaged a person in a spiritual conversation.  Answer the questions above.  If you would like help discussing your encounters, we provide 1-1Evangelism Coaching

If you’d like to have Evangelism Training workshops or seminars locally, see our various options at our Live Evangelism Training page.  

I attended a conference nearly 10 years ago by Mark Miller that gave away these secrets to Evangelism Training.

1. Challenge the conventional wisdom — Evangelism is a process not an event (see: Evangelism: Process or Event?), so one size doesn’t fit every context.
2. Make Evangelism Personal — Who do you know that does not know Jesus Christ?  They are people with names, stories, and hopes, and fears.  Pray, Engage.
3. Focus on Fundamentals — How to Build Relationships, How to Present the Gospel, and How to Invite People to Faith.
4. Practice, Practice, and Practice — To build both skills and confidence. (How to Practice a Gospel Presentation)
5. Create Multiple Training Opportunities — People will never learn from training they do not attend.  A church could offer day long workshops, 4-6 week courses, self study, weekend retreats.  One time is not sufficient.  Offer multiple training events during the year.
6. Pray — Don’t Forget that any evangelism work is preceded by prayer.  Encourage workshop participants to pray for people they know.  take the time to do it.
7. Model it — Make evangelism your own priority and follow your own steps.

I found in my own story that all of these are vitally important.  Seeing evangelism as a process rather than an event shifted my thinking towards seeing the sovereignty of God in bringing people to faith. 

Practice, Practice, and Practice — After every encounter, I examine the conversation to see what I can learn from, what would I do differently, and how can I pray for that person.  Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does increase confidence in sharing my faith.

Modeling — I found that when I was preaching weekly, nearly every week I would have a fresh encounter story to share with the congregation about a conversation that I had with a person.  I modeled evangelism conversations in my sermons, and one could tell it was such a part of my life.  The congregation grew in its own confidence and ability to do personal evangelism.

Tomorrows post will be on prayer and evangelism.

Do you want a facilitator to conduct your evangelism training?  See our Seminars / Workshops or sign up to receive notification of our next Online Webinar.  If you need someone to coach you through your conversations, we also provide 1-1 Evangelism Coaching.

Here is an outreach idea that a church is doing, in response to their local situation:

Church offers free coffee on Mondays.

The idea is to provide a gathering spot, a relational context where evangelism can naturally happen. Visitors do get a card with church information.

While not strictly evangelism as we define it here, it is one way that a church can connect to the neighborhood and learn of its needs. A church can raise awareness of its presence in the community. Personal evangelism can be an outgrowth of this.

Here is a great article about Jesus doing evangelism from Baptist Press. No formulas, no methodologies, and never a “sinner’s prayer.” Jesus spoke to all kinds of people, and treated each as a real person.

Speaking of conversations, Darrell Davis points out how many conversations that Jesus had.

Out of 132 contacts that Jesus had with people recorded in the New Testament, 6 were in the temple, 4 were in the synagogue, and 122 were out in the mainstream of life. (Adapted from Why Christians Sin, by J.K Johnson, Discovery House, 1992)

As evangelists, we need to make sure that we are regularly engaging people outside of the church. Most of us freely admit that after being a Christian for a few years, we find our social circles have changed to mostly Christians.

Be Blessed. . .. .

I came across an entry at www.jumpstartchurch.com that has a great exercise, and it is similar to one we use in our workshops. Try it some time. Quoted directly.

Assignment for today: Go to the nearest mall. If the nearest mall is more than a 30 minute drive from your church, then send me an email and I will give you further instructions. Purchase a large cup of coffee. Have it filled nearly to the brim. Do not put cream or sugar in it. Do not drink it. Holding it in your hand, walk through the mall and take the time to notice people. While you are doing this, pray, “Come Holy Spirit, show me the hurts and hearts of these people, show me how I might help.” Walk slowly enough that you don’t spill the coffee. Do this until the coffee is cold or until you can’t stand it any longer! Then, go back to the coffee vendor and buy a cup of your favorite factor and with pen and paper in hand jot down the whisperings of the Holy Spirit and your observations and insights on your “coffee walk.”

We have done this exercise as part of workshops, and encourage people to notice God’s activity.

One of our participants once despised taking his kids to the mall because it was wasted time for him waiting around. But after doing this exercise, he was excited about going to the mall. He described his experience with these two words: “Antennas Up.” An exercise like this keeps our spiritual antennas up, sensitive to what God is doing.

Sometimes this activity does lead into spiritual conversations on the spot, other times not. But it is a good way to practice looking for the working activity of God.

Let me ask you this:
How often do you listen to cries of your community?