Having a stockpile of evangelism starter questions can help you overcome one of the biggest hurdles to having gospel centered conversation.
There are times when the Holy Spirit will prompt you to raise a spiritual question to help you detect a person’s level of spiritual thirst.
There are other times when a question will open the door to next steps a person might take in their journey to Jesus.
[Read more…] about The Power of Questions in Conversational Evangelism
In my personal evangelism training, I focus on evangelistic conversation based on
So I’m always on the lookout for great conversational tools and training to help Christians grow more comfortable with sharing their faith.
I’ve personally shifted from seeing evangelism as only a one way proclamation event to a multifaceted process of a series of events that add up to a person’s decision to surrender to Christ.
Many conversations are a key element in a person’s journey to Christ.
New ideas change us slowly, like water on a rock, imperceptibly reshaping grooves and contours. We rarely change our minds in the heat of discussion and usually need several opportunities to hear new ideas before we adapt a new position. (p. 48)
In Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk, authors Dale and Jonalyn Fincher intend to help Christians gain the right to be heard through genuine care and concern for those God places in our lives as we go about our daily activities.
How does a Christian have normal conversations about Jesus without accidentally sounding offensive, bigoted or intolerant?
Part 1: Making Spiritual Small Talk
The first section of Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk focuses mostly on principles of spiritual conversation.
Principal #7 was a great one: Allow people to remain unconvinced.
Learn to ask more questions and not be afraid to learn from the person you are talking to since questions open up the possibility of meaningful conversation and honest engagement.
The authors also point out conversation stoppers that have killed their own conversations (chapter 3).
Part 2: Restocking Your Tools
The second section includes chapters on discussing our faith in particular in contrast with spiritual themes in our culture.
This will date Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk as they tackle four popular books from the last few years, like The Secret.
But the principles they lift out will remain valid for having conversations. They provide more examples of ways to engage others in dialogue about faith.
Part 3: Helping Friends Home
This final part of Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk deals with common questions and topics that might arise in spiritual conversations. For example, the problem of pain and suffering is one that different religions handle with vastly different ideas on the solution. They raise the question of evolution and other red herrings that distract people from focus on Jesus.
Some of these are attributed to a particular “brand of Christianity” rather than basic foundation truths about following Jesus. Some theological streams will take issue over what issues the authors molehills and mountains.
Overall, the book was a decent read.
At times I felt like Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk drifted, allowing quick skimming of certain sections.
As a strength, it focuses on conversational principles and points the reader on skills to grow your spiritual conversations.
This is not a book on how to memorize and present a gospel formula – its goal is not to teach you a script or presentation.
Rather, their stated goal is to help you have more conversations that can open the doors to that gospel sharing down the road.
For those that believe in proclamation via monologue presentation before relationship – Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk won’t work.
For those that want to grow in their conversation skills, Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk gives several suggested ways to grow more comfortable in your conversations.
Order your copy of Coffee Shop Conversations: Making the Most of Spiritual Small Talk from Amazon (affiliate link).
If you are
you may be trying to figure out how to ask effective questions to have deeper conversations.
[Read more…] about Resource: 52 Questions for Bible Teachers
Thanksgiving weekend in the United States America typically involves
For others, thanksgiving weekend might be a time to
No matter what your participation is, look for ways to talk about how thankful you are for what Christ as done for you. Use moments that are appropriate to share what God has done in your life. Here are 4 tips to being intentional in personal evangelism this thanksgiving.
Here are some things to consider ahead of time about sharing your faith during this Thanksgiving Holiday.
Ask God to make you sensitive to His leading about when and what to share during Thanksgiving.
Approach thanksgiving with the idea that you’ll have opportunity to share with family and friends what you are truly thankful for: the outrageous grace offered to you in Christ Jesus.
When you pray, you’ll be ready to notice when God underlines a moment for you.
Read: Pray First then Watch
It may seem that discussions of Christmas shopping plans, the weather, football, are meaningless and dull.
Retelling old family stories can be an embarrassing rehashing of events that would better left to the dustbin of history, or they could be a good part of family identity and bonding.
But as a commenter on my prior post pointed out, these things may be valuable to your family and friends. They are points of connection and it is important to value what your friends and family value.
However, during the course of discussions, you might find a natural time to talk about your faith, or raise questions that could move a conversation in that direction.
Brainstorm some possible door opening questions ahead of time. For example,
As conversations unfold, a person might share a spiritual need, which is an expression of spiritual thirst.
You might not even need to ask questions to find it.
Or, questions like the ones above could open conversation paths into spiritual needs.
These can naturally go on to deeper things about your relationship with Christ and the gospel.
You might hear of a person’s spiritual thirst and can appropriately point them to the water of life.
The key is to look and listen.
You’ve been praying. Watch for how God will answer that.
Read: What is Spiritual Thirst?
If you are noticing people, spiritual thirst can lead to moments of conversation in divine appointments. (Read: Divine Appointments).
Take the time to share your experience of God’s working in your life.
Feel free to tell appropriate stories of God’s current activity in your life, particularly where you are thankful.
Look for those moments to talk about your thankfulness for what God has done for you in bringing you salvation.
Look for those “natural” conversational opportunities.
Some evangelism practitioners will not only look for conversational openings, but will create them or cause them to happen. Go for it.
You might still be learning how to confidently talk about their faith and need other people to start the conversation.
Either way, look for those opportunities to share and go for it.
Have fun this Thanksgiving.
I have a DVD (or digital download) set that focuses on a conversational style evangelism that would be effective this Thanksgiving:
Read more about the Effective Evangelism Conversations in the store
It is a recording of a live seminar I gave in 2012.
One church, Solana Beach Presbyterian in Solana Beach California, has an effective small group ministry.
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.
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
What steps do take to practice telling your faith story?
The goal of Nick Pollard’s Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult: How to Interest People who Aren’t Already Interested is to
help you get uninterested people interested in Jesus, to reach people “who are simply not interested in hearing about Jesus because they are quite happy with their own views” (p. 31).
The subtitle makes it clear: How to Interest People who aren’t Already Interested.
[Read more…] about Evangelism Book Review: Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult
