Evangelism Coach

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?

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?

Mark Driscoll on video explaining the various themes on the Emerging Church. I find this a helpful summary of the ongoing conversation and a fair critique of it.

The Jolly blogger asks: “Why are church plants the most successful at reaching people and does my established church stand any chance of being renewed?”

Five ways to sharpen you evangelistic skills.

A pastor’s conversational encounter in a cafe. Get out of the office my friend and see who you run into.

Take a risk and pray. From a slide show on evangelism full of quotes from books.

Check out this quote on authentic Evangelism at Pentecostal Post-it Notes:

Quote on Conversational Evangelism:

“Actual conversations with other human beings rarely follow a script. So resolve now to be OK with interruptions, awkward pauses, rabbit trails, and even bursts of anger. Keep your agenda to love, but drop your agenda for how the conversation has to play out.” – Walter Henegar Evangelism for Dummies: The surprising gift of stating the obvious.

Next week, I’ll be teaching on Evangelism in Panama at the Youth with a Mission Base.  Pray for the work there.

This weekend, I’ll be preaching 3 services at Centro Cristiano Betania in Panama City.  If you are not in church on Sunday, you can listen to the live stream at http://www.stereoferadio.com/ at 8.30CT or 11:00CT.

Have a great weekend.

A divine appointment?

I was caught off guard.

I was in class, describing my ideal job.

I would be a full time evangelist, working with churches to implement evangelism programs, conduct live  Evangelism Training Seminars and Workshops  in a local church to keep evangelism fires hot, and conduct outreaches with the local church into a neighborhood.

A student asked me: “What is an evangelist?”

I sensed this was one of those moments that God had set up.  A person who was spiritually thirsty had a natural curiosity to know what an evangelist was.  How would I explain this to her without confusing her.  I had to come up with a definition for evangelist right on the spot.

“God, I need your help, now.”  I felt the promptings of the Holy Spirit to share a specific answer.

My answer: “An evangelist is someone who can explain the good news about Jesus Christ, and what He has accomplished for you to help you move into a relationship with God.”

Let me ask you this?
How would you have answered that question to someone who doesn’t know what an evangelist is?

Pray for this fellow student, as last week I was also asked “What is a pastor?” This person is not only unchurched, but familar terms like pastor and evangelist are foreign.

Today I read a post at 9 Marks about the corporate role of the church and its support of personal evangelism.

The writer asks: “What is the role of the local church (i.e., corporate witness) in our personal evangelism (i.e., individual, personal witness)?”

Consider the ethos of your church. Are you proud to invite a non-christian to attend one of your services? Do you love your local church?

Let me give you two examples, one good, another one not so good.

The good:
We attended a little Spanish language church for the last 8 months that welcomed us with open arms. We were adopted quickly by that church family and it was hard to leave when we moved. During my 8 months there, I was always telling people about my church. Christians, non-christians, didn’t matter.

Everybody knew where we were going to Church.

I had these little invitation cards written in Spanish that I could give to people. I knew that my church often explains the gospel as part of every service. I would give away 10 or so a week to people that I met on the street.

The church provided the cards, showed us how to use them, and we used them. The church has grown with people finding faith and joining.

The church supported our personal witness and we were proud to invite people to our church.

The Not So Good
I was embarrased to invite my unchurched friends to a church I loved and served. It was very inward focused and did its own good in its own way, but it was clearly geared towards mature Christians.

We were having a larger number of unchurched people attend our evening service. I was preaching simple biblical messages, and we were providing space for people to explore their faith. People were beginning to belong and build relationships. It was our church’s attempt at getting out of their navel-gazing.

Then they attended a morning service with the “normal” church. Every time, the sermons were inapprorpiate for people seeking faith. I can’t go into the details, but it killed every relationship that had been forming. Every seeker who went to the morning service never returned to our church.

I never invited my friends to retreats, because the topics were for mature Christians. I never invited my friends to the morning service because I was never sure what Pastor would ruminate on.

This church didn’t have an ethos that supported my work of personal evangelism.

Let me ask you this?
Are you proud of your church?
Can you think of someone you could invite to your church this weekend?

I was cleaning out a file cabinet this morning (what a way to spend a day) and came across my notes from a talk by Bill Hybels of Willow Creek given to an evangelism conference. I share them here as a pointed reminder about considering our life and witness.

Three ways to repel:
1. “In your face Christianity” — the pushy Christian forcing spiritual conversations at the wrong time. The conversations tend to be one sided, with the Christian not even listening, but marching through an agenda.

2. “Holier than thou” — holding to “my life is better than yours” “you are a sinner and i can’t hang out with you” “I’m better because i’m not like you” etc. This may manifest itself in all sorts of other ways.

3. “Cosmetic Christians” — skip deep, hypocritical, and unchanged deep down. This is the salt that stings, or the light that glares.

Three ways to attract a seeker:
1. Costly Christianity — you live your faith even when it costs. People see how important your faith is.

2. Compassionate Christianity — love demonstrated. Christianity is not all about right doctrine, but demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ as well.

3. Consistent Christianity — being real, authentic and consistent.

Let me ask you this?
As you spend time with the Lord today, ask Him to show you how your life reflects the gospel. Does your life help or hinder the advancement of the gospel?

While in Nashville, I skipped out the conference worship service to attend The Peoples Church in Franklin TN.

Image from The Peoples Church website