Evangelism Coach

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I was reading a thread on one of the Bible Forums I belong to, and came across a great post answering the question "How do you start witnessing to somebody?" 

That’s a great question.

I’ve been a Christian for nearly 20 years and witnessing simply seems natural to me.  It is the overflow of my heart — I have a vibrant relationship with Christ and that spills out of me.  But how does one start when you are a young Christian?

Here is a partial list from one of the responses:

1. Make known that you are a Christian. (2 Corinthians 3.2)
2. Be blameless as you are an ambassador for Christ (2 Peter 3.14)
3. Pray for opportunities (1 Thess 5.17 and 1 Peter 3.15)

To that list, I would add the following.

1. Notice when the Holy Spirit "underlines" the moment for a conversation.

Noticing when God prompts you for a conversation is a skill that is learned as you grow in your relationship with Christ.  There is no script for that.

Let me ask you this?

Have you developed the art of noticing whom God is underlining for you?

Paul writes: "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Cor 9.16)

Compelled: Do I have to?

I’ve seen people write about this verse as if being a witness is a necessity, as if it’s a obligation.  Since we are Christians, we are obligated to share.  God requires it of us.  We are forced to do it.

The connotation often is negative. 

I think of a dictator compelling people to agree with him.  It doesn’t matter what you think, you must do this.

I think of a parent compelling a child to clean his/her room.  The child doesn’t want to, but eventually bends the will and grudgingly complies.

The association is that we are to do evangelism because God requires it of us.

On the one hand, Evangelism is a Christian duty and obligation.  But should we fulfill our obligation because we HAVE TO or because we WANT TO?

Compelled: I want to.

I think there is a different sense in the word "compel."

Something I’ve noticed over my Christian life, the more vibrant my relationship with Jesus, the more vibrant and vocal my evangelism is. 

Out of the overflow of my heart my mouth speaks.  Evangelism — sharing good news — simply spills out of me.  It’s not something I do.  It’s part of who I am.  I am a witness.  I’m excited about what God is doing in my life, and I’m excited to share.  

I am compelled to share because I’m deeply grateful for what God has done for me.

I can’t help but to talk about God’s activity in my life. 

It becomes easy to invite others to "Come and See."  It becomes easy to point out the activity of God.  It becomes easy to talk about my faith in respectful conversations with my friends who do not follow Jesus.

Greek Speak: a divine necessity

The Greek word translated "compel" has a wide range of meaning found in the NT, including the sense of coercion. 

But in this verse, it’s a divinely ordered necessity in the purposes of God.  It is an action of our free will that we can’t help but to do.  By the calling laid on Paul, he can’t help but to preach the gospel.  The desire of his heart is so strong that out of its overflow, he freely speaks.

Let me ask you this?

What do you feel when you read Paul’s line in 1 Cor 9.16?  How vibrant is your relationship with Christ?

I had the privilege this week of preaching at a church in Marietta Georgia.  It was a church in the Pentecostal stream of the Body of Christ.  It was ok with them my ordination is with the Presbyterian Church. 

I’m a Presbyterian that’s been "tampered with,"  meaning I don’t fit a stereo-typical Presbyterian pastor.

I enjoy being with the people of God during my evangelism coaching travels. I enjoy the diversity of the body of Christ and it’s multi-cultural aspect — truly the body of Christ is made up of people from all nations.  The Atlanta Metro area is truly rich in ethnic and cultural diversity.  I see more and more multi-ethnic churches and that’s a beautiful thing.

It’s a reminder to me that one day, all the nations, tribes, and tongues will gather to worship Jesus (Rev. 7.9) 

The fruit of our evangelism should be a multi-cultural body of Christ, not just one flavor of humanity.

As we sang songs during our worship time, I felt the Lord give me a question to ask at the beginning of sermon.

1. How many of you have been a follower of Jesus for less than a year?
2. How many of you have been a follower of Jesus for less than 5 years?  1 hand.
3. Less than 10 years?
4. Less than 20 years?
5. Over 20 years?  All the rest of the hands were raised.

The next question set the rest of the sermon:

Where are the new believers? 

Where are the people not yet followers of Jesus but in the process of discovering their faith?

Now the question gets personal. 

1. Do you have friends who are not yet following Jesus?
2. Do you have liberty to discuss faith and perhaps be used of God to influence them for God’s kingdom? 

Let me ask you this?

If you have such friends, what are you doing to help them move closer to discovering Jesus? 
If you don’t have such friends, what can you do today that will change that?

Yesterday, I met with fellow blogger Jimmy Kinnaird here in Atlanta to discuss personal evangelism.  We had a great meeting at Starbucks, and it was awesome putting a real face on a real person that I first met because of our blogging interest on personal evangelism.

An idea we kicked around is about an evangelism coaching group. 

It is a a group that meets somewhat regularly, for people who are passionate and excited about evangelism.  The group meeting has a simple structure to discuss questions of evangelism practice.  It’s meant to keep the personal evangelistic temperature high, and an accountability group to make sure we are doing personal evangelism.

Questions:

1. What has Jesus done with you or for you since we last met? (Noticing the current activity of God).
2. Who did you have a spiritual conversation with this week?

The follow-up questions are all to debrief a conversation

1. How did you notice that it was time to have a spiritual conversation?
2. How did it start?
3. Where is that person’s spiritual thirst?
4. What questions were raised?W
5. What questions did you ask?
6. In hindsight, what would you have done differently?
7. What do you think is the persons next step spiritually?
8. How can we pray for you in that endeavor?

By having a coaching group, we can continue to sharpen our skills in personal evangelism.

I’ve started an online version of this as an experiment.  Click to go to the post about the Evangelism Encounter Discussion Group.  It might work, might not, don’t know but thought we’d try.

It’s always a privilege to do Evangelism Training Seminars in local churches over the course of a couple of days and to watch churches get excited about doing evangelism.  It’s our mission to help you find your evangelism passion and provide training to help you express your faith.

It’s Sunday and I sit in the Branson airport, with some downtime to reflect on this week’s Dunamis Project on Listening Evangelism.  

This airport is so small, there is no person yet at the Delta counter to check-in and the flight is supposed to leave in about 90 minutes.

I’ve been with some fine folk at 1st Presbyterian Branson doing the Evangelism Training Workshop on Listening Evangelism.  It covers so many of the topics we cover at EvangeilsmCoach.  I picked up some great ideas that will find their way into the next evangelism training seminar in Enfield CT this coming weekend.

Is he a PC USA Pastor?

I did the children’s sermon this morning, using illusions with cards to offer a gospel explanation.  After the worship service, the pastor was asked by some visitors if I was a PC USA pastor, with the emphasis placed on the right brand. 

I don’t know why that was important to them, but pastor tells me they breathed a sigh of relief when he affirmed my credentialing in the PCUSA. 

A divine appointment?

After church, we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, and we asked the waitress, “We’re about to give thanks for our food in a few moments, is there anything we can pray for you about?” 

Thinking of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, this was a moment where we felt God drew our attention to this waitress — “Offer to Pray with her.”  We took the step to obey the prompting of the Spirit and took the risk.   The reward was a deep conversation and a chance to minister to a woman in great need.  I can’t go into her whole story but suffice it to say that it was a divine appointment.

Let me ask you this:

Who can you pray for this week?

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.