The North American Mission Board is developing a new evangelism initiative to fulfill their 2020 vision of “Every Believer Sharing, Every Person Hearing.”

“God’s Plan for Sharing” is meant to encourage Christians to prayerfully and thoughtfully engage in the most effective approach for making Christ known.

GPS lays out four biblical mileposts to lead your church outward with the gospel in the discipline of evangelism.

1. PRAYING: Every church praying for every lost person.
(Evaluation – How can your church actively pray for lost people?)

2. ENGAGING: Every believer sharing as a trained witness.
(Evaluation – How many believers are trained to share their faith?)

3. SOWING: Every lost person receiving a complete witness.
(Evaluation – How is your church creating intentional opportunities to share the gospel?)

4. HARVESTING: Every church harvesting and celebrating every salvation experience.
(Evaluation – Are people finding Christ through the ministries of your church? Are you celebrating that growth?)

(HT: Ed Stetzer)

When you visit the main page, there are resrouce pages for each of the four initiatives listed above.  Here is a sample from the one on prayer:

Here are some ideas to get your church praying for people in your community.

NAMB Resources for Prayer

1. Prepare God’s people (your congregation) to faithfully pray. Here are some helpful resources.
   • Experienceing God – Henry Blackaby
   • How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life – Greg Frizzell
   • Returning to Holiness – Greg Frizzell
   • Prayer 101 – Elaine Helms
   • Pray in Faith – T.W. Hunt
   • Kingdom Focus Praying – John Franklin
   • Cooperate – Role of Prayer in Spiritual Awakening
   • And the Place Was Shaken – John Franklin
   • If My People…Pray (How to Develop a Local Church Prayer Ministry) – Elaine Helms
2. Mobilize your church to prayer walk your community. Here are some helpful resources.
   • Taking Prayer to the Streets – NAMB
   • Prayer Walking Made Simple – Chris Schofield
3. Continually discover your community and examine their needs. Here are some helpful resources.
   • Mapping Center and Center for Missional Research, both found at http://www.namb.net/cmr
   • Witness to the World (Growing Disciples Series) – Claude King
4. Pray for the people in your community. Here are some helpful resources.
   • Personal Prayer:
     • Study Guide for Evangelism Prayer – Evelyn Christenson
     • Praying Your Friends to Christ – NAMB
     • How to Spend a Day in Prayer – Rick Shepherd
   • Partner prayer (triplets/small groups)
     • Pray for Your Family – NAMB
     • Prayer Triplets – NAMB
   • Prayer gatherings/sacred assembly
     • And the Place Was Shaken – John Franklin
     • Returning to Holiness – Greg Frizzell
5. Praise God continually.
   • Corporate praise
   • Celebrate baptisms
   • Answered prayer testimonies (live or video)
   • Prayer walk testimonies (live or video)

OM Mercy Ship

This weekend, one of my friends shared with  me a first hand story about an evangelistic encounter he had.  

I found myself encouraged as I listened to it.  Here is a one who gets the idea of cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit. 

I’ve retold the story here for your thoughts and for your encouragement.

While passing time in port on the Operation Mobilization mercy ministry trip during a stop in Brazil, I received word that a person wanted to receive a boat tour and to learn about the ministry. 

I agreed to serve as a tour guide.

I took him around the ship, explaining about our ministry, our work, and what we were doing in Brazil.  I wondered if this was a moment to present the gospel to him.  As I pondered these things, he said, “I’m an atheist, so please don’t talk to me about God.”

I respected that boundary, but began to pray daily for an appropriate opportunity.

To my surprise, over the next few weeks, this man kept returning to the ship regularly to visit with me and we began to become friends.

Eventually, he started to spill out about his life — the conversation had moved from impersonal level about work  and life to a  more personal level.

One afternoon, his looked straight into my eyes and he asked me, “Tell me about your life.”

I replied, “I can’t really talk about my life without talking about God’s work in it, and the first day we met you asked me not to talk about God.”

His body language instantly communicated to me that he suddenly realized how I had respected his boundary from the first day we had met.  Then just as quickly as he threw up the boundary, he gave me permission to talk with him God’s involvement in my life.

I began to share about my calling to ministry, how I became a Christian, and why I was willing to give all I had to help other people know and experience God’s love through Jesus Christ

The more I shared, it became clear to me that the Holy Spirit was at work in preparing this heart to start following Jesus. 

As the conversation flowed naturally, it eventually led to me giving him an invitation to start following Jesus, just as I had done years before.

The Holy Spirit had worked on this man’s heart through our conversation and friendship that he invited Christ into his life that afternoon. 

By respecting his boundary at the beginning, I earned the right to be heard when it was God’s timing to bring him salvation.

What I appreciate about my friend’s story is that he respected the person’s boundary.  Evangelism is not force feeding the gospel to someone who doesn’t want it. 

Evangelism happens in cooperation between a spiritually thirsty person, the working of the Holy Spirit in that Kairos moment, and the cooperative evangelist who is praying and watching for those moments.

What do you think?

Neither one is evangelism per se (For example see, Is Neighborhood Outreach Evangelism?)

But there is a marked hesitancy to discuss your faith.

That could be for a variety of reasons, many of which have been talked about here (see Fears Category).

How then does an evangelism trainer, pastor, or ministry leader help a person move forward one step in increasing their ability to share their faith?

From Witness to Evangelist

Over 10 years ago, I saw a scale drawn up by Harold Percy, a Canadian Evangelism trainer.

Think of the scale as a level of comfort.  Level may be the wrong word

Level 1

The first level is where a person is comfortable talking about the church and inviting others to come and participate.

There is no active discussion about faith, but about joining your social group.

The church has a meaningful place in your life, your social network at church is safe, and you’d like your friends to participate and connect.

You love “Invite a Friend Sunday” and appreciate your church for offering events where you can invite your friends.

Your church doesn’t embarrass you.

Level 2

This second level is where you feel comfortable talking about your personal relationship with Christ.

You are able to describe God’s current activity in your life.  What is God doing in your life today that makes the gospel Good news?

You are able to describe your testimony, how you came to faith, and what difference that faith commitment has made.

You have moved from being comfortable talking about the church, to your personal faith.

In most of the areas I do evangelism training, sharing your personal Christian testimony is still a challenge for many people. (See Personal Testimony Questionnaire for a download to help you)

Level 3

Being able to explain the gospel simply and clearly.  You are able to articulate in a simple way the main points of the gospel.  Why did Jesus die?  What difference does it make to you?  Perhaps you have practiced and memorized a gospel script (How to Practice a Gospel Presentation). You can do this with strangers, or perhaps only with close friends that you have built a meaningful relationship with.

Level 4

You are comfortable inviting people to start following Jesus, inviting them to make a commitment.  If you are preacher, you may have great skill, or need to develop your skill in giving an invitation to follow Christ (Giving an invitation) as part of your sermons every now and then.

For the Evangelism Trainer

I have found this little tool helpful to offer to people in my seminars.  Here is how to use it:

Take a moment and place yourself on this scale.

1. Where are you most comfortable?
2. What can you do in the next 6 months to move to the next level?

Then offer a sharing time and have people set a goal for their personal growth in evangelism.

Next Step

If you want live coaching on growing in your personal evangelism or developing your personal testimony, see our 1-1 mentoring program or Quick Evangelism Coaching Call. We’ll be glad to provide some ongoing training.

The speaker was Dr. David Murray (lots of sermons at SermonAudio.com), an ordained minister in the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) and a professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed.

He spoke on the subject of evangelism, presenting three lectures to a crowd of roughly 150 attendees. The makeup of the audience was wide, with over 10 denominations and 29 congregations being represented.

They are unedited audio files, so there are some housekeeping and announcements.

See the links to the audio files:

• The definition of evangelism as “bringing the gospel to our neighbors” while missions is “bringing the gospel to those far away.”
• Some people evangelize for the wrong reasons.
  • Assurance of their own faith.
  • Sake of their own reputation (to raise a name as an evangelist).
  • Competitive spirit:  God is with our group over your group.  “We are better” kind of pride.
  • Finances: need more money, need more givers.
  • Guilty conscience.  To assuage their own guilt over their own sin.
• What is biblical motivation for evangelism?
  • The glory of God.  Calvin: “God has created the entire world, that it should be the theatre of His glory by the spread of the gospel.”
• How does the “glory of God” energize our evangelism?
• Fear of God: “Knowing what it is to fear God, we compelled to persuade men.”
• Love God: “The love of Christ compels me. . . . .”
• Election: God calls people to faith, He can use us even if we are inept witnesses.
• Worship: experience the presence of God.
• God’s presence: We are promised the God’s presence as we go.
• Glory of God is the destiny of our evangelism.
• When people come to faith, God gets the glory.
• God is glorified because His name is made known.
• God is glorified through using appointed means of sharing faith.

Each runs between 60-90 minutes in length and are downloadable if you wish to throw them on your IPOD.

One thing they are doing a little different this year (2008) is using their small groups to help people grow comfortable in doing evangelism — a place to practice telling their stories –

“stories that testify to why they have put their trust in Jesus Christ.”

To help implement this idea, the senior pastor gave a 10 week sermon series devoted to evangelism as storytelling, which modeled story telling as a way to communicate your faith.  

Some of the sermons used principles found Just Walk Across the Room, by Bill Hybels (get your copy from Amazon), which I have found to be a great current resource for Evangelism.

The small groups become the place where people can grow comfortable talking about their own faith, and then sharing their own stories with friends.

Presumably (but not shared in the PGF article), people report their story telling encounters in their small group.

Two Videos

Living in 3d

See the original article here:

PGF Outbox: ONE CHURCH MAKES MISSIONAL STRIDES THROUGH SMALL GROUPS

[1] These products can be ordered directly from Amazon

• Just Walk Across the Room, Bill Hybels
• Just Walk Across the Room Video Cirriculum, Bill Hybels
• Simplemente acercate a ellos: Pasos Sencillos Para Guiar a Las Personas Hacia La Fe, Bill Hybels

Let me ask you this?

What steps do take to practice telling your faith story?

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.

Evangelism Training Study Course

For a home study course on personal evangelism, consider my course:

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.

Questions help draw people into conversations, and likewise can help further a conversation along rather than me making declarations all the time.

Evangelism Questions and the Engel Scale?

I was looking at an article by Paul Hazelden about The Modified Engel Scale (Complete).

The Engel Scale (use your favorite search engine to find more information) was developed several years ago to help map out evangelism as a process.

It presupposes that conversion is a linear event, that happens after a rational conclusion of examining the evidence that one needs a solution for sin and that Jesus is that solution.

We are a generation that often thinks with its feelings, so I no longer think that the scale is helpful.  While it maps out evangelism as a process, the process is not as linear as it appears.

For example, my own conversion was without any understanding of my sin — I just knew I needed to follow Jesus.

I understood what sin meant when I began reading the Bible later.

But, I digress. At the end of the article, there is a list of questions that can be helpful to the evangelist. I refer you to the article for the larger contex. The Modified Engel Scale (Complete).

14 Questions an Evangelist can use.

These are some possible questions to help determine where a person is on the revised scale.

Is it possible there is a God?
Do you believe God may exist?
Are you certain there is no God?
Is there a purpose to the universe?
Does the human race have a destiny to fulfill?
Do you think you may be mistaken about whether God exists?
Is it possible you may be mistaken in your ideas about God?
Do you think there probably is a God?
Do you think God is a person?
Do you think God gets angry about some things?
Do you think God created the universe?
Do you think a person can know God?
Do you hope it may be possible to get to know God?
Do you believe anyone in the past has known God?

Let me ask you this?
What questions do you like to use in your conversations?

He asks a great question.

We easily talk about the things and people we love, but when it comes to our love for God, we are as quiet as a parking post.

Below is a modified reposting of a prior article Evangelism and Staff Meetings that helps the evangelism avoiders in midst.

In the denominational cirlces I run in, there is a clumsiness, awkwardness, or hesitancy to share about one’s own private faith journey. This could be for a variety of reasons:1. It’s not a part of their local church culture.
2. Faith is a private / personal matter.
3. It’s not a common routine or encouraged.

I’ve put a questionaire together that you can use to help your church members talk about their faith.I like to use this question and to solicit stories:

What is God doing in your today that makes the gospel good news?

Our presbytery
We did a little exercise at our last Presbytery meeting, using that question.After I told a story of what God was doing in my life, I asked the members of the Presbytery to turn to one another and share. The buzz in the room indicated that a lot of sharing was going on.

After about 10 minutes of chatting, I brought the meeting back to order and asked “How many of you felt encouraged hearing about God’s work?” Hands went up.

“How many of you felt a little clumsy talking about your faith?” Several more hands went up.We provided a safe place for people to try talking about their faith.

Feedback we received from many of the presbyters that day indicated that this little exercise was a highlight of the meeting.

Tell your current story.
Sharing stories of God’s current activity in our life is one portion of evangelism as we define it here, “joyfully proclaiming the good news of the sovereign love of God.”

Let me ask you this?
What is God doing in your life today that makes the gospel good news?