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

As part of our 5 week road trip, we are collecting stories of evangelistic outreach ideas, and learning what some churches are doing successfully or not.

Meeting a Community Need

One community church had heard that a local city council banned people from walking their dogs in the local park. 

If you owned a dog and wanted to take the dog for a walk, you were not allowed to legally take your dog for a walk in the city park.

The church took a different action. 

Seeing the need in a community, they fenced in their front yard and set up a dog park for the community.  Of course, some rules were in place to keep it clean and pet friendly.  Benches were provided for people to sit on and visit while their dogs played.

Over the few years, this park has become a vital spot for the community to gather, even though the local council has changed it laws. 

People have formed clubs around the type of dog: beagle club, poodle club etc.

Between 5-7pm, when the owners get home, the dog park is very busy with lots of community members gathering.

Sounds like a great outreach idea: it serves the need of the community, allows the church to be more visible.

Does the church connect?

This sounds like a great idea to help a church connect with it’s community, to build relationships with people in it.

• Perhaps the pastor can get a dog and join the club for that breed.
• Perhaps church members can get dogs and start visiting and connecting with people.
• The church can "do life" with the community, providing the grounds for great discussions about faith, for opportunities to invite people to church.
• The church can connect with its neighbors.
• Imagine having hundreds of people and their dogs on your church’s front yard each week.

From the second hand conversations I have had, it appears that people in this particular church do not visit the dog park in their front yard. 

A few folks were asked if church members are connecting with people, and no one knew of any. 

Perhaps the church is missing a great outreach opportunity that is meeting regularly in their front yard.

Let me ask you this?

Consider how the general public uses your building outside of worship service times: dog park, AA or NA meetings, day care, after school tutoring, etc.

How are church members connecting with people already visiting your church on a regular basis outside of Sunday morning?

Are church members inviting these people to your worship services?  Are church members talking about their faith?

Do you know your Neighbor?

Something I experienced when I lived in the suburbs of Richmond VA was the lack of a sense of community in our neighborhood. 

Sure we all bought nice houses, but with the exception of one family, we didn’t know any of the neighbors. 

What a contrast to our former subdivision where we knew everyone on the cul-de-sac, and had regular time with them all.  Over the course of 5 years there, we prayed with many of them, and several eventually came to faith in Christ and got connected with a church.

Jesus says that we are the light of the world, yet how many of us commute more than 10 miles to go to church, bypassing 40 homes in our same subdivision? 

How can we live out the notion of “every house a lighthouse” or “every house a church?” 

How can we break through the bubble of not knowing our neighbors?

If God has appointed the time and season of where you live, how can you be a tool in God’s use to impact your neighborhood with the Gospel?

TEN ideas for building neighborhood relationships.

1. Host a neighborhood block party on your street.
2. Host marriage enrichment seminars in your home for neighbors.
3. Start a playgroup with other stay at home parents.   Don’t forget the stay at home dads.   I was a stay at home dad so I know how important this is.
4. Distribute homemade gifts to your neighbors at Christmastime.  Include a tactful card that points to Christ.
5. Invite those without nearby family over for a holiday meal (for example: singles, internationals, divorced or widowed).
6. Conduct a Backyard Bible Club during the summer for neighborhood kids.
7. Host a baby shower for a neighbor who is expecting. Make sure you include their friends not just yours(!)
8. Offer to host a weekly discussion group or Bible Study. Invite Christian and non-Christian friends to participate.
9. Coordinate a Bring your Own Main Course night. You supply the grill, and everyone brings their own meat or veggie dish.   Have some families bring side dishes while others bring drinks or dessert.
10. Invite the neighbors over to watch a ball game or the mother of all sporting events-the Super Bowl. 

For that last one, no matter where in the world we personally live, we are American that Super Bowl Sunday and will invite the neighbors over.  Other times, we’ll join them for the World Cup soccer games, even  though I still don’t know the rules.  

Build genuine relationship that allows room for spiritual conversation.  Once a good relationship is built, look for opportunity to share your faith in Christ in a manner that is appropriate and real.

Let me ask you this:

What do you do to build relationship with your neighbors?  When was the last time you actually spent time with your neighbor?

Below is an article I wrote for a men’s publication, coming out later in May. 

Mac and Susan (*) were new neighbors that moved into our cul-de-sac. A few days after the trucks left and friends stopped dropping by, my wife and I prepared some welcome cookies (fresh baked oatmeal raisin, still warm from the oven) then went over and introduced ourselves, to give a warm welcome to our community.

We made lots of small talk about the community, about life, and shared a little of our personal backgrounds. Eventually, Mac asked me: “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a pastor.”

Often, that kills the conversation.

But this time, Mac wanted to know more.

He asked me all sorts of questions, and began to reveal much about his spiritual journey. In college, he had been involved with a campus ministry, was busying talking to others about his faith in Christ.

Yet he was always troubled by the problem of evil.

If God is love, then why did Hitler even exist?

Since he couldn’t come to a satisfactory answer, he set his faith aside and decided it was better not to be certain of anything. He stopped going to church, changed his social networks over time, and became a pleasant agnostic. He was quite happy with his choice, and his life was fine without an active faith.

My current neighbor, an Australian wine maker, is simply “on his journey.”

Many of us likely know men who are in the same place: a place where faith is not important, and men whose life is fine without an active faith. Men, like my former neighbor, who might label themselves ex-Christian; men who might take on the label agnostic, or atheist.

Many of us know first hand that it is not easy to reach men with the gospel. Giving up is not an option, and just one man turning to Christ can revolutionize an entire church or community.

The power of a shared life
Effective evangelism to men begins with genuine male friendships, sharing common experiences, and doing life together. In that relational context, men develop the security to share what’s really on their minds.

It is this type of relationship that leads to success with men in evangelism. In all the reading I have done, all the ministry I’ve been a part of, many men’s leaders unanimously agree that building long-term relationships is the best way to lead a man to Christ.

Swinging a hammer together on Habitat for Humanity, crewing on a sailboat, disaster relief, feeding programs, and even golf tournaments some of the ways that I’ve been involved in doing shared life ministry. In the context of doing life together, many men find the liberty to talk deeply.

Talking about grace in a quiet space

Jorge (*) was an architect. He stopped going to church nearly 30 years prior simply because it didn’t make sense. One afternoon, I served as the crew on his racing sailboat, joining him for the best of three in the afternoon. It wasn’t a very windy day, so the skill was catching the mild breeze correctly to move forward. With lulls in the breeze, we had nothing to do except talk.

Jorge shared his life with me, shared with me his struggles of faith, and I shared some of the answers that I have found in Christ. We talked about the definition of grace, and how I discovered an amazing grace. The conversation was genuine, not preachy. The tone was polite and respectful. The breeze picked up and we raced on.

Months later, during another race, we experienced another lull in the wind, Jorge picked up the conversation from before. My comments had intrigued him and we continued to talk deep.

Reaching Men
If you want to reach men, consider how you can help the men of your congregation do life together. Help your men see the value of inviting others to something besides a church service.

• Service projects for housing or disaster relief efforts
• Golf tournaments, Fishing events, or other sports events
• Cookouts, BBQs, Block parties and other such social events
• Retreats around practical life, such as how to love your family, or not to marry a jerk.

As church leaders, our goal is to help provide the space for men to connect and do life together. We can encourage them to notice the moments when talking about faith is appropriate. We can model how to do that with our own lives.

Let me ask you this?

What does your church do for men’s outreach?

Some church outreaches:

A church in Iowa has a growing impact by serving its neighbors.  The Harvest Vineyard has a Spirit of Recovery on Mondays, Fighting Eating Disorders Spiritually every second and fourth Wednesday, Moms Off Meth support group on Fridays and Come Broken Hearted on Saturdays.  The church is located where over 60 percent of its attendees can walk to it.  Read about the Heartland Vineyard.

Noticing People

David Foster writes a post on Noticing People.  Noting the countless people who cross his path each day, he wonders: “What do you see when you really see the people around you?”  Just last week in the food court of the busy mall, I noticed a wife standing with her husband.  She was crying quietly over some news she had just received.  Her husband was busy consoling her and being present with her.

Part of the art of listening evangelism is to notice the people around you.  Who is God underlining for you?  To whom might the Spirit of God prompt you, (as He did to Phillip for the Eunuch) to “Go stand next to them” and perhaps minister some aspect of God’s grace?

Other links

Johnathan Mason writes up “The Ethics of Evangelism.”  It’s a good post to remind us about making sure we treat our conversation partners with respect.

Seminarian Alan Reynolds kicks around the whole subject of “Good Evangelism” and “Bad Evangelism“.  I like the collection of scripts in the Good evangelism article, pointing out

Later, as a senior in high school, I learned the F.I.R.E. (Family, Interests, Religion, Evangelize) method of evangelization. I learned Sharing Jesus Without Fear–which is basically the Romans Road on crack–and later went on a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ, where we memorized and used the 4 Spiritual Laws (which is now called “Would You Like to Know God Personally?”).

Speaking of scripts . . . .

The Bridge Illustration

David Fitch opens a great discussion about the shortcomings and strengths of the script for the Bridge.  The comments are just as valuable as the post.  He asks in his comments: “How do you all feel about the Bridge Illustration? Do you see any of the above weaknesses in it? Do you have a tool for initiating new converts into the basics of Life in Christ and His Mission?” 

Do you want to see friends and family come to know Christ as Savior?

Then review these suggestions taken from “Praying Your Friends to Christ.”

• Ask God to open their spiritual eyes (2 Cor. 4:4).
• Ask God to give them ears to hear (Matt. 13:15),
• Ask God to give them faith to believe (Acts 20:21).\
• Ask God to give them the will to respond (Rom. 10:9).
• Ask God to send people into their lives to witness to them (Matt. 9:38).
• Ask God for ways to build caring relationships ((I Cor. 9:22).
• Ask God for opportunities to witness (Col. 4:3).
• Ask God for boldness to witness (Acts 4:29).
• Ask God for an opportunity to invite them (Luke 14:23).
• Ask God to set them free from spiritual captivity (2 Tim. 2:25-26).

Order info:
NAMB # 1-866-407-6262
ISBN #0840067283

See our other entries on prayer

While I’m away in Nicaragua, I’ve asked my good friend and sister in Christ, Susan Finck-Lockhart to write up an article for EvangelismCoach.  Susan and I have the privilege of teaching on Evangelism regularly at various workshops for www.prmi.org around the States.  I’ve known Susan for over 10 years and am grateful that she has given us this article.

A Paradigm Shift

After I came to faith in Jesus during my high school years, I absorbed the message that it was my responsibility to ‘witness’ to everyone who happened to be next to me — on a subway, in a checkout line, or in English class.

It was my responsibility to figure out how to witness to as many people as possible.

If I didn’t, “they might get-in-a-car-wreck-and-die-and-go-to-hell-and-it-would-be-my-fault-because-I-had-been-too-chicken.”

I lived with a residual guilt after every conversation; every encounter with quasi-strangers at the grocery store or or hair salon, where I just couldn’t figure out how to bring Jesus into the conversation.

I remember feeling like a failure; like I just couldn’t “do” evangelism.

Something changed . . . . .

Something changed when I did my student teaching in the early 80s at the University of Texas at Austin.

My supervising teacher, Helen (not her real name), and I really connected.

She was a counter-culture, earth-loving, free-thinking, warm and winsome woman about 10 years my senior. She owned a home with a guy she wasn’t married to. We both loved the kids we taught, and found ourselves intensely immersed in their lives.

I found myself not wanting to try to “save” her or “witness to” her. I found myself intrigued with her and wanting to be her friend.

I didn’t hide my church or para-church involvement, but she didn’t ask any questions and I didn’t push it. We ate lunch together in her classroom. She taught me about teaching writing; about how to call forth words from the heads of high schoolers, how to urge them toward journalistic and linguistic excellence.

She invited me to her home for dinner. We talked about music, movies and men. She showed me her freezer full of marijuana, neatly packaged in baggies. I was fascinated. She couldn’t believe I’d never seen packaged, frozen marijuana.

Present in the midst of pain.

The phone rang late one night, and it was Helen, sobbing. The man she lived with, her boyfriend of nine years, had moved out. Came with a U-Haul. Took furniture. All his clothes. She could barely talk. She hadn’t seen it coming.

“Helen — Just hang on. I’m on my way, “ I said.

As I sped towards South Austin, I was overcome with Helen’s situation. It hit me that she had no anchor, no foundation. Her boyfriend had been her world.

I realized how much I loved Jesus. He was my anchor, my foundation, my Lord, my Best Friend. However, I believe God let me feel what Helen must have been feeling. During that dark drive, I realized how badly I wanted Helen to meet Christ.

She was in the yard waiting for me. We embraced, and she shook, taken over by the grief.

Intuitively I knew that all this had to do with God’s drawing Helen unto Jesus.

I don’t remember much of the conversation. I remember hurting for her. I remember being shaken by the depth of her despair. I also remember saying, “Helen, I need to tell you something. I need to tell you that people are always going to let us down. They will bring their Uhauls and move out; they will get cancer and die: they will get tired of us and move on.

But Helen, there is One Person who will never leave us….”

And then I told her about Christ.

Right there in the yard in front of the house they owned together with the marijuana in the freezer.

She listened.

I got my first taste of what it’s like to be obedient to God’s loving initiative in the life of a not-yet-believer. To love someone like Jesus might love them.

Helen didn’t “pray the prayer” that night, or during the course of our friendship.

But I trust that God in his sovereignty will bring her to Himself (He may have already.)

It’s been 27 years since that night.

But I’m grateful to Helen– and eternally grateful to Jesus —for showing me what it’s like to participate with Him in loving lost people and to let Him be in charge of creating the moment for speaking of faith.

About Susan:

Susan currently serves as full-time mom to four amazing teens, and part time pastor at El Calvario Presbtyerian Church in Waco, Texas.  In addition she leads retreats & conferences for Presbyterian-Reformed Ministries, International (www.prmi.org), usually on Evangelism and Cooperating with the Holy Spirit.  In her free time, she likes to run, read & get together with friends.  Susan, her husband Bill and the kids are active at Central Presbyterian Church, Waco.