Evangelism Tip: What’s behind the question?
For a conversational evangelism tip, here is one I use on a frequent basis: I look for the question that is behind the question, emotion, or statement.
7 Habits for Highly Effective Personal Evangelism
"But I am so afraid to start a conversation," confessed a pastor. "I have non-Christian friends, and spend time with them, but I'm so afraid of ruining my friendship."
Does that describe you, even if you are not a pastor? From the seminars I give around the US and in Latin America, this is a common fear. So to address this fear, let me throw out my list of 7 Habits for Highly Effective Personal Evangelism (updated post).
Faith Story Number 1: What’s New Story
God is at work in my life. I’m learning new things from reading in Scripture. I’m seeing God’s hand of provision for this ministry and our work in Latin America. I’m being challenged by God’s Word to make some specific changes in my life. Specific examples of each one of these would be the first …
Overcome Your Evangelism Fears: “I don’t know what to say”
People have all sorts of fears when it comes to personal evangelism.
At the top of th list in my anecdotal research is this one:
I don’t know what to say.
How I Handle “Jesus was a Good Teacher”
I have a friend who doesn’t believe in having a personal relationship God, but does believe that Jesus was a good teacher. My friend, like many people who are not followers of Jesus, hold this view: Jesus was a good teacher. His principles are worth following. He taught was other religions taught. He was a …
Obnoxious Habits in Personal Evangelism – Aggressive Pitches
A freaky thing happened to me today that reminds me of another obnoxious habit in personal evangelism. I got a phone call today offering to show me how to make $3500 a day, and would I be interested? I don’t know this person. The gentleman was polite. He quickly introduced himself and told me how …
10 ways to kickstart your Personal Evangelism this Summer
Check out this list of ways to Jump Start your personal evangelism this summer
Book Review: God Behaving Badly
Ever been stumped by: The God of the Old Testament is of wrath, and the God of the New Testament is Love. How could God kill two ministers protecting the ark of the covenant. If God doesn’t change, how does he “relent”? I was on a bus coming down a Nicaragua mountain after a camp …
How do you talk to a . . . .
Imagine you are at a dinner party one night. Someone shifts the conversation and drops a bomb like this one: Who are we to say Christianity is any better than any other religion? I think the essence of Jesus’ teaching is love, the same as all religions. It’s not our job to tell other people …
2 Reactions to Spiritual Thirst
I was not hostile to Jesus, just indifferent. Before I met Jesus personally, I didn't know much about Him. I was not hostile to Him. I was not opposed to him. I was pretty indifferent. My spiritual thrist was indifference
That's because our family only attended church on Christmas Eve and Easter.
I tried to put the facts together every now and then, but the reality is, I had no clue.
I was not hostile to faith. I was just indifferent.
That was my level of spiritual thirst.
Obnoxious Habits in Personal Evangelism – The out of place transition
Yesterday, I enjoyed a personal day with my family and a few friends. We checked out of life, drove to the beach, and stared at the ocean for hours, while our children dug the proverbial hole to China. The conversation among the adults was awesome, as relationships were being strengthened as our families continued to …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 22 – Tell of His Love
My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed; I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me. — Hymn, My Faith has found a resting place …
MP3: 4 Growth Steps in Personal Evangelism
Where can I start in my growth in personal evangelism? What if I’m too scared to talk with strangers? Or better yet, where can I start? In this 60 minute recording on personal evangelism you will learn: How church invitations are part of evangelism How to discover and share your own journey to faith What …
Small Talk Questions for Church Greeters
Consider these small talk questions as icebreakers your church greeters, ushers or volunteers could use to open the doors to a potentially deeper conversation and connection with your first-time church visitor.
7 Detours in Evangelistic Conversation
In a recent Outreach Magazine article (Nov/Dec 2012), Larry Osborne put together a list of 7 detours in evangelistic conversations. Detours are conversational rabbit trails that are deflect significant evangelistic conversation elsewhere, rather than at the true spiritual need of others. We often step into those rabbit trails, thinking that we might have to: defend …
Appropriate Silence in Personal Witnessing
I’ve got a few friends who have always been hostile to talking about faith. Their level of spiritual thirst has been low. In fact, it’s downright hostile. We remain friends, but talking about Jesus provokes emotional hostility or an evasive awkward silence.
Tim Keller’s 10 Personal Evangelism Tips
Let people around you know you are a Christian (in a natural, unforced way) Ask friends about their faith – and just listen! Listen to your friends problems – maybe offer to pray for them Share your problems with others – testify to how your faith helps you Give them a book to read Share …
Do you make these 3 personal evangelism mistakes?
Evangelism is a spiritual work. When we make it a human work, we feel pressure to get a decision. feel unprepared to handle every possible objection. feel insecure in presenting what we personally know about Jesus. Rather, Evangelism is the work of the Holy Spirit. But even with that in mind, we are prone to …
Book Review: Coffee Shop Conversations
In my personal evangelism training, I focus on evangelistic conversation based on Noticing the prompting of the Holy Spirit Listening for Spiritual Thirst Using great questions to help a person discover their thirst and need for Christ. So I’m always on the lookout for great conversational tools and training to help Christians grow more comfortable with …
4 Reasons Relational Evangelism Works
Without a doubt personal relationships are the most effective way to share the gospel in a meaningful way. I’ve had deeply personal conversations with strangers, and have led strangers to Christ. But those conversations were the results of months of spiritual preparation by their friends who were already speaking into their life – I just …
Contact Evangelism Gone Wild
As I mentioned in my previous post on contact evangelism as a evangelism method, I share my thoughts on how to train people and evangelists who are scared of this methodology. How do I help such people improve their personal evangelism skills? By far, when I ask people about their evangelism fears at personal evangelism training …
10 Practical Evangelism Tips for Pastors
I get to talk alot with pastors at conferences I give or attend, and often on the telephone as well about some of their challenges with personal evangelism. As mentioned in the last post, this is what I hear from pastors about their personal evangelism “I don’t have time for personal evangelism.” “I’m not good …
Novel Evangelism: Build Bridges through Books
Evangelism Conversations through Popular Novels, or Novel Evangelism. Its an evangelistic bridge building strategy to help the believers in your church recognize and participate in more conversational opportunities about people’s spiritual journey. I’m familiar with using the same ideas in popular music, and movies, so the idea isn’t new. Listen to my friend Bill Feree talk …
Personal Evangelism for the 21st Century
After the miraculous catch of fish (in Luke’s order), Jesus Says to Peter and Andrew, James and John: I will make you fishers of men. I listened to Andy Stanley’s podcast last week where he said: “Followers are Fishers.” This got me to thinking about how do we do personal evangelism in the 21st century …