Evangelism Coach

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Looking for practical evangelism tips?  Here are a few.  Links will take you to further explanations and articles on these items. 

Evangelistic Prayer

1.  Seek the Father’s Heart — (see Getting Emotionally Worked Up)

2.  Offering yourself for God’s use in sharing your faith.

3.  Regular Prayer for those who don’t know Christ.

See Also:

• Ten Prayer Points For your Friends
• Prayer and Evangelism
• Three Verses on Prayer (in a book review article)
• Take the Risk, Offer to Pray.
  
• Prayer and Evangelism (Acronym to lead your prayer)
• HEART.
• Evangelism PAINS

Position Yourself

4. Find a way to be a blessing to others

5.  Live Authentically in public and in private.

6.  Build genuine relationships

See:

• 10 Ideas To Reach Out To Your Neighborhood

Proclamation:

7.  Choose a gospel script.

• Gospel Scripts Series

8.  Practice the gospel script until you are comfortable with it.

• How To Practice A Gospel Presentation

9.  Discover your story

• Personal Testimony Questionnaire
• Evangelism As Storytelling
• The Power Of Testimony
• A 2 part Questionnaire

10.  Learn how to use questions in a conversation

• 20 Evangelism Questions To Start A Conversation
• Evangelistic Questions For Evangelism

See also:

• Keys For Evangelism Training
• Evangelism Training In The Local Church
• Effective Evangelism Training Lab Time,

For help with any of these through 1-1 coaching, see also Personal Evangelism Mentoring

Personal Evangelism Book

Many of us know people who seem to have a simple time sharing their faith. 

When we think of the successful evangelists we know, many seem like

• easy and out going extroverts,
• who have no problem talking to strangers,
• or causally talking about faith with everyone at the family reunion. 

No fear in them at all. 

However, many of us can be paralyzed by our Evangelism Fears.  There are different Fears of Evangelism

Introvert Evangelism

But what about those who are more introverted?  How do we share our faith?

This is the question that Evangelism for the Rest of Us: Sharing Christ within Your Personality Style, Mike Bechtle, seeks to address.

“God designed us with a specific purpose in mind.

The reason?

So we could do what He wants us to do, in the unique way that nobody else could do it.

Why should we try to do it differently? … When introverts spend time trying to function like extroverts, they’re doing more than just wasting time.

They’re actually robbing themselves of the very tools God gave them to do his work.”

However, most programs designed to teach evangelism assume that a person is outgoing and confident in situations like talking to complete strangers in a public setting.

“I’ve found that when I try to share my faith in unnatural ways, my fear gets larger and tends to stop me from sharing. That kind of fear almost always signals that I’m sharing out of guilt instead of compassion.

But when I share in ways that fit with God’s design for me, a creative tension compels me to look for new ways to move forward.

Compassion drives me to look for unique, appropriate ways to make a spiritual connection.”

Bechtle really seeks to develop a way that those of us are a little more on the introverted side can still feel pretty natural in sharing our faith. 

The book doesn’t really go into the mechanics of sharing your faith (your Personal Testimony, God’s story, any gospel scripts illustrations).

Rather, he seeks to show introverts conversational settings where they can feel comfortable in talking about their faith.

He does seek to show biblical methods of evangelism, and conversational skills that are matched to your personality.

Over all a good read and one that is worthy of your dime.

Order your copy of Evangelism for the Rest of Us: Sharing Christ within Your Personality Style, Mike Bechtle from Amazon and EvangelismBookstore.com

In doing research for this series on gospel scripts, I found another outline called FAITH.  It seems pretty good and could be a simple tool to share your faith.

Scripts are not automatic

The purpose of a script is to provide you an outline to share your faith when the Lord provides the opportunity.  You have the flexibility to adjust it to your conversational context.  As the conversation moves along, you can add details and back off on other points.    The give and take of a conversation.Scripts are not meant to be followed in a legalistic format.  There is no cause and effect as in “get the script right and they will believe, get the script wrong and you messed up their eternity.”  God is charge of the whole evangelism process.The point of a script is to be very familiar with ONE so that you can confidently explain your faith when God provides the opportunity.  It’s got a few choice scriptures, and you can likely pick some of your other favorites that make the same point.

FAITH Script to explain the Gospel

In your personal opinion, what do you think it takes for a person to get to heaven and have eternal life?

Allow room for discussion on this question to help you discern what God is doing in the life of the other person.

F Is for Forgiveness

Everyone has sinned and needs God’s forgiveness.

Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

God’s forgiveness is provided by the work of Christ. 

Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

A Is for Available

God’s forgiveness is available for all.

John 3:16 “God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

God’s forgiveness is available but not automatic.

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

I Is for Impossible

According to the Bible, it is impossible to get to heaven on our own.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “By grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.”

So how can a sinful person have eternal life and enter heaven?

T Is for Turn

If you were going down the road and someone asked you to turn, what would he or she be asking you to do? (Change direction)

Turn means repent. Turn away from sin and self.

Luke 13:3 “Unless you repent, you will all perish as well!”

Turn to Jesus alone as your Savior and Lord.

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

H Is for Heaven

Heaven is a place where we will live with God forever.

John 14:3 “If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.”

Eternal life begins now with Jesus.

John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.”

H can also stand for how.

How can a person have God’s forgiveness, eternal life, and heaven?

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

By trusting Jesus as your Savior and Lord.

 

 

The “Do vs Done” Gospel Evangelism Script is one of those scripts that is very well known and has a long history.  It is very simple to think through, and gets at one focus of the gospel message. 

However, it’s so common that actually finding the evangelism script on the Internet was difficult.  I guess “everyone” knows it. 

I tried several keywords to locate it, but it never rose to the surface.  Many entries make reference to this gospel script, yet there is no real explanation of how to use it. 

Do vs. Done

I actually had to turn to print.  I found this in Becoming a Contagious Christian, Hybels and Mittleberg.  

Religion is spelled D-O, and is all about trying to DO enough to please God.

The trouble is we don’t know if we ever do enough, and the Bible tells us we never can do enough (Romans 3.23).

But Christianity is spelt D-O-N-E.

Jesus has done what we could never do. He lived the perfect life and died on the cross to pay for all the wrong stuff
we have done.

But it’s not enough just to know this; we have to receive what he has done; we have to ask Jesus to forgive us and to be the leader of our lives.

Then you could ask them what they think, whether they understand the difference, and if they see the need for Jesus.

Of course, the six sentences above are basic. It focuses on one aspect of the atonement.

The point is not to memorize it, but to become so comfortable with it that you can fill in the gaps, linger on conversational points, use scripture to fill out parts that are meaningful in the conversation that you are having. 

The above is an outline to help you remember where you are in the conversational flow.

By the way, this script works in Spanish as well, Hace vs. Hecho.

Let me ask you this?

Have you used this script?  What kinds of questions do people bring up in response to it?  Tell us your stories in the comments.

James Choung has written a few books on explaining the Christian Faith. On of the issues that he tackles is updating or improving the Bridge Illustration.  The whole article is here at The Big Story | Tell It Slant .

“Choung’s ‘napkin theology’ and its ‘four-worlds’ diagram promise to be for evangelism in the twenty-first century what the ‘Four Spiritual Laws’ were for the twentieth century.”
— Leonard Sweet, author of The Church of the Perfect Storm, podcaster of the weekly “Napkin Scribbles” podcast

Check out these videos to see the telling of the story.  There are two here.

It comes with it’s own training document and a complete write-up of this diagram.

Here is what I like about the illustration:

• It’s much less individual in it’s focus. 
• It adds in that we follow Christ to join in God’s redemptive story.
• It talks about worldviews
• It’s simple and can be reproduced on a napkin.
• It incorporates some of the social aspects of the gospel.

After sharing this video on his blog, Choung received lots of feedback and suggestions and created version 2, which continues from the prior video

Let me ask you this?

What do you think of Choung’s improvement?  What do you make of how he explains sin, righteousness, eternity, kingdom?  Join the conversation below and comment.

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).

Gospel scripts have their role to play in helping to explain the gospel simply and clearly.  Over the years, various scripts have been developed, such as

• Four Spiritual Laws
• The Bridge (see How to Use the Bridge Illustration)
• Evangecube (see Evangecube video)
• Way of the Master
• Romans Road
• Do vs. Done (see Do versus Done)
• the Four Rs
• Evangelism Explosion
• Wordless Book and the Bead Bracelet
• The Good Person Test (a setup for the Way of the Master)
• FAITH

Some of these have even launched a whole ministry surrounding it’s training, distribution, and development.  During this week, we’ll take a look at a few of them.

The Key to Using Gospel Scripts

The key to using gospel scripts is to know ONE “inside out”so that your explanation is crystal clear.  (That point developed in this article on knowing a script and at this article on Scripts on evangelism).

Meaning that you can use it at any given moment, can “do it in your sleep” (a phrase meaning that you can explain the script without having to think too hard because you are so familiar with it).  Meaning that at any given moment, you can focus on an aspect of the script that is appropriate for the conversational context you are in.

Once you are deeply familiar with one, then add another one to your skill set.

Lesson learned the hard way

A self declared non-Christian friend asked me one time:

“Chris, what is the Gospel?” 

I had the perfect opportunity to explain the gospel simply and clearly.

Instead, my explanation was a clear as the muddy Mississippi River during a flood.

After that moment, I decided that I needed to learn a script so that I’d not be caught unprepared again.  In God’s sovereignty, my friend eventually came to faith, but certainly not because of my eloquently clear presentation.

Theological Issues

Each script is focused an aspect of the gospel. 

By the very nature of the focus of a gospel script, there will be some shortcoming.  Theological websites are abundant in ripping apart scripts for lack of some feature, or instead of ripping a script apart, suggest some additive to make the script more complete.

What is clear in almost every script I’ve seen is the fundamental agreement that we are separated from God because of our sin, that God has provided Jesus Christ as the solution for our sin, and that we need to start following Jesus and receive this gift from God.

Flexibility in the Script

The role of the evangelist is not to follow the script like a cake recipe.  Gospel scripts are not designed that way.  Rather, they provide a foundational outline for your conversation.

This suggests that your conversation partner may want to linger on a certain point a little longer, which in turn suggests the evangelist takes the time to develop a particular point a whole lot further. 

This is where knowing the Script inside and out helps the evangelist from getting lost. 

Take the freedom to go off script to develop a particular theme appropriate in the context, then return to the script outline.

Let me ask you this

Which script of those listed above do you know inside and out?  If you don’t know one, commit this week to learn one.

 

If you want live coaching on using gospel scripts, see our 1-1 mentoring program.  We’ll be glad to provide some training.

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