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Phillip

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DVD: Effective Evangelism Conversations

I remember a model of evangelism that felt like a sales pitch.

I would attend a seminar and learn the newest script for evangelism.  The idea is that I would learn a series of conversational steps that would help people

  • See their need for Jesus
  • Make a decision to follow Christ
  • Repeat a prayer after me.
  • Sign here for follow up.
  • All in less than 30 minutes.

The script was “the powerful new tool,” and it was meant to help you “share your faith” and confidently prepare you to “lead people to Christ.”

If we were truly honest with ourselves, in the practice of your life did it ever work?

[Read more…] about DVD: Effective Evangelism Conversations

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The Art of Noticing People

BlurryCrowdonBusyStreetA moment with strangers

Have you ever been with a group of people and felt like you just needed to talk to that person over there?

A sense that God was pointing out that particular person?

Phillip (in the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch) was prompted to “Go Stand next to THAT chariot.”

Of all the chariots on the road that day, he was prompted to go next to one.

A moment with Friends

Maybe been with a friend, visiting in the coffee shop, and you have this unmistakable sense that they want to talk with you about their faith or yours?

Or maybe a friend has surprised you and started opening up about their faith struggle and search for God?

What are these moments?

These moments have the potential to become kairos moments, moments where we as Christians are aware of the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit to pay attention and likely talk about faith.

The are moments that are full of possibilities for a persons spiritual journey towards Christ, where the person who are talking with may make more steps closer in their relationship with Jesus.

Some might call these divine appointments.

I call them kairos moments.

Here are some examples:

Each conversation moment has been prepared and thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit another person makes another step forward towards discovering their relationship with Christ.

Some people search for God

Luke 19:1-10, the familiar story of Zacchaeus shows that noticing people and these divine appointments turns out to be more art than science.

Verse one says; “Jesus entered and walked through Jericho.”

Luke transitions from story to story with phrases letting you know that Christ was on the move.

On this particular day he came across a shunned tax collector named Zacchaeus whom we would place in the category of lost.

Nevertheless, verse 3 says that Zacchaeus “wanted desperately to see Jesus” (The Message).

The Greek rendering of the word “desperately” is zateo.

Zateo carries with it a meaning of a frantic pursuit. This is a very dramatic and passionate verb that Luke uses.

If you lost your child in a crowded public space, “zateo” describes the desperate search.

If your passport is missing the night before your international flight, zateo is the word to express the intensity of searching.

Do we believe that some people zateo Jesus?

They have been prepared and are so full of spiritual thirst they will do anything to find the water of life?

Jesus looks for them, rewarding their search.

Here’s what’s remarkable about Jesus. As he’s traveling along, he comes upon an ordinary tree and then does something extraordinary; he stops and notices! Jesus is busy, the religious crowd wants his attention and yet he stops and stares up at a tree. Go figure!

With all the travel language in the book of Luke, when Jesus stops it’s a big deal. What really happened at that tree could not be seen, the beauty is in the unseen.

When Jesus stopped at the tree of Zacchaeus, he ascribed worth to him and said that Zacchaeus mattered.

This was Jesus’ paradigm for letting people know that he cared about them—he stopped and noticed them. It wasn’t what Jesus said that was so compelling but what he did. In the economy of Jesus, Zaccheus had high value.

Others may grumble because you don’t do it right.

Verse 7 says, “Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, ‘What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?’ ”

Jesus was not playing the part correctly.

He was supposed to let Zacchaeus know how much he didn’t approve of his sin and share “the gospel” with him, which starts with an explanation of his failures.

Instead, Jesus stopped, noticed, called him by name and had a conversation with him on his turf.

The story ends with Jesus making this statement, “For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”

The Greek verb that is translated ‘find and restore’ is none other than zateo.

The art of Noticing People

Apparently, Jesus is passionately pursuing the people formerly known as lost. Pursuing Jesus was his business, his passion, his reason for existence.

Jesus profoundly impacted Zacchaeus not by sharing good news with him, but by being good news to him on that day. He stopped and noticed.

If we want to be on mission with Jesus, we’ll need to relearn the lost art of noticing.

Some of those conversations will go deep.

Some of those conversations that happen will go deep.  Others will remain shallow.

I have experienced lots of moments where after noticing people as in the Zaccheus text, the opportunity to offer a piece of the gospel happens.

Sometimes I get to harvest what others have sown, other times I get to water what was already there.  Sometimes I get to plant a seed for the first time.

It all starts with noticing those promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Evangelism Coaching corner

For a 5 CD audio set that will help you with this, click on the banner below.

If you want more personalized coaching for you or your team over a 3-4 month period, see our

Image credit: xiaohuan / 123RF Stock Photo

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11 Steps on How to Lead a Prayer Meeting Focused on Evangelism

Leading your church to pray for their personal evangelism efforts may not be as easy as you think.    I have found that people bring their own agendas to the prayer meeting and it becomes easy for the prayer meeting to be hi-jacked.  Here,  I want to offer to you a simple guideline for an evangelistic prayer meeting.

How to Lead an Evangelistic Prayer Meeting

1. In the name of Jesus Christ invite the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer group.

We are Christian believers who pray in Jesus name.  We need to remind ourselves of this regularly.

Asking the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer group helps us from keeping our agenda from taking control.

2. Offer a time of praise and worship of Jesus Christ.

Worship is where we connect with the Father’s heart.

Praising God for his works, thanking God for making a relationship with Him possible, and declaring one to another the marvelous works of the Lord strengthens our faith and reminds us to always be watching for God’s activity in our life.

3. Lead in a time of confession and prayer ministry with one another.

This may be a time to deal with any issues in the group.

Confession of sins or burdens clears the way to receiving guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Conclude with prayers for one another, absolution and passing the peace.

4. Report on what God is doing.

Here the members of the team will briefly share any evangelism conversations they may have experienced or opportunities they may have missed.

Reflect upon and give thanks for these.

It may be that the Spirit will lead the team to pray for each one of your group and those to whom they have been given the opportunity to share the gospel.

5. Move into Intercession

The following may be helpful:

Pray according to Jesus’ commands: Pray thy Kingdom come.

In addition, pray that God the Father will send laborers. Ask God to show you specifically where His Kingdom is to come. Ask God specifically who the laborers are whom He is raising up. Be ready to be one of them!

Go through Paul’s list of ways of praying for evangelism. Linger on any of these that seem especially important for your situation.

One by one, with the whole group agreeing in prayer, lift up the names of those who have been given to the individuals in the group to be prayed into salvation. (A list should be kept by the leader of who these people are – this could be done by the whole group or in small groups.)

6. Discern open doors for the gospel.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the open doors in the community, the church, the world and in individuals for the gospel.

7. Ask God to reveal any blocks to the gospel message in these situations or people.

8. Ask the Lord what you or the team are being called to do.

9. Discern together what God is saying

God speaks to us through Scripture.  For those of us who believe in the ongoing work of Spiritual gifts and the guidance given by the holy Spirit, we may need to talk about impressions, leadings, visions, prophetic words, or by consensus of the group as part of that discernment. Keep a record of this guidance.

10. Pray for this guidance

Ask God for steps in implementation. Write these down as they are revealed for further discernment, prayer and implementation. These may later be taken to the church leadership for approval and implementation.

11. Conclude the meeting with praise and giving glory to Jesus Christ.

Note: The eleven steps above were first presented in a manual on personal evangelism through PRMI’s Phillip Endeavor.

That has been further refined and developed in the Evangelism Dunamis.

Photo Credit: I’m not sure where I got the original photo.  I’d like to give credit when I find the photo.

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What is the Question Behind the Question?

CoffeeConversationsOff and on over a period of two years, I met a friend for coffee at the local Starbucks.

During that season of life where our lives intersected, he and I had a long ongoing discussion about faith.

When I first met him, he was very angry about all things Christian, the church, God, Jesus, and the Bible etc.  He didn’t want to have anything to do with any of it.

Yet, he showed up at one of my bible study small groups, invited by a friend.

His presence was an attempt to stop the invitations rather than a sincere desire to seek the truth.

He actively described himself as an ex-Christian.

What is the question behind the question?

During that Bible Study, I quietly began to pray while leading the group.

I felt the Holy Spirit “nudge me” to pay attention.  I felt the Holy Spirit “underline” him that night in the Bible study (as Phillip was nudged: Go stand next to THAT chariot, Acts 8).

I began to quietly pray to receive some guidance from the Lord, and I received some.

I asked the group

“What would you ask God if He would answer one question to your satisfaction?”

The group wrote down their anonymous answers on pieces of paper and turned them in.  I knew my group pretty well, so this visitor’s answer stood out.  His question:

Why do your people behave the way they do?

Our visitor’s objections to faith were not logical at all.

They are an outgrowth of bad personal experiences with the church. At the root of his hostility was emotional hurt.

By asking a question of the whole group that I felt the Lord give me, I was able to discover my friend’s real question behind his hostile questions about Christianity.  His objections are not questions of truth.

Apologetics have their place

Apologetics have their place.

One needs a reasonable faith, and by all means, seek to have a rational foundation for that faith.  As a good student of evangelism, it’s a good practice to study worldview, to study the reasonable foundation of the Christian faith and be aware of what other worldviews teach and practice.

Yet a logical defense of the faith (apologetics) was not the real information being asked by my friend.

The questions of my friend had nothing to do with reason or apologetics.

Rather, they were a smoke screen for his real question — why had professed Christians treated him so bad?

If I had started answering his initial questions with answers from my apologetics class, I would have missed the point and engaged in a conversation that likely would have been heated (because of his hurt) and perhaps embarrassing for the rest of the Bible Study members.

Moving to the Coffee Shop

This question opened the door to more conversations in the coffee shop.

My friend had the venue to vent his anger at Christians to me, and by God’s grace, I was able to simply listen.  When the venting was over, I asked him two questions.

  • “Do you think you can come to the place of forgiving those who have hurt you?” and
  • “Do you think God can help you forgive those people?”

His answer, now that his hostility had been poured out and he was empty: “Perhaps.”  He was willing to give God a try.

The next time we met, a few months later, he informed me of how he had come to the place of forgiving the church.  The details are too personal to share here, but the fruit is that we can now have intelligent discussions about faith.  He continues to explore Christianity and the claims of Christ on his life.

By getting at the question behind the question, I received some discernment from the Lord about how and what to share of Christ with this friend.  Continue to pray his journey towards faith towards Christ.

Evangelism Coaching

One service that I offer in the US and Canada is evangelism coaching.  A coach can help you think through some of these issues of practical evangelism training and can help you improve your conversation skills.

See Do you Need Evangelism coaching?

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3 Evangelism Tips for Pastors

3 Evangelism Tips for PastorsI keep adding to the list.

If you have found some tips helpful for pastors to keep their personal evangelism passion high, please send them to me via email, contact us form, or simply give me a call at 804-335-1445.

See these prior posts:

1.  Obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit

God opens the doors to evangelistic conversations.

The Lord might point out someone to you, as he did in the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch.  “Go and stand next to THAT chariot.”

As you go through the day, can you recognize the promptings of the Lord?

We need to respond to those promptings and seize the moments that He gives us.  He’ll use us to touch the hearts of others, and it is my experience that our own life will be changed as well.

Sitting on an airplane (what evangelist doesn’t have an airplane story?) I notice those that start a conversation with me.

On one of my last trips, my seat mate and I had a long spiritual discussion over why he is not a Christian.

I had the chance to discuss my faith, help him to explore his own lack of faith, in the process explaining why following Jesus is the greatest thing on earth.

For 150 minutes, we talked about faith, about life, and about Jesus.

I make it a habit of praying for those that I will sit next to, that God may use me in their journey to faith.

2.  Review God’s work in your life

I have found that the more I explore my testimony, and the more I recall God’s current activity in my life, I find a wellspring of gratefulness bubbling out of my heart.

I see God’s active grace in my life.  I see God’s care, I see His concern.

The more I look over it, my motivation to share my faith rises.  The more grateful I become, the more passionate I am to help others find this faith.

This is the inebriation of grace.  The mystery of being part of God’s kingdom.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude, perhaps melting in gratitude, and that inspires me to share with others.

Take the time to reflect on God’s activity in your life.  What is God doing in your life now that makes the gospel good news?

3.  Keep your evangelistic edge

Passion For Evangelism
Keep the fires lit

These kinds of things can help you keep your evangelistic passion high.   Making the intentional effort to keep your passion high.

I find that when I attend a conference, I get excited once again about seeing lives changed.

I find that when I teach a conference I get excited when I see some newly trained evangelists jazzed up to change the world.

Right now, as I’m doing personal evangelism coaching for a few people, I get excited as they share with me their evangelistic conversations that have occurred between our conversations over the phone.

They are excited that they can do this, and I am excited knowing that perhaps destinies are being changed.

Let me ask you this?

What tips have you found helpful in your own life to keep the evangelism passion high?

Share them with us.

My own Evangelism Teaching on DVD

DVD Evangelism Conversations

I have a DVD set that focuses on a conversational style evangelism that would be effective in:

  • casual conversation between friends
  • causal conversation between strangers

Read more about the Effective Evangelism Conversations in the store

It is a recording of a live seminar I gave in 2012.

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The Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism

Acts 1:8 Holy Spirit Evangelism, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in personal evangelism?

We know that God’s Spirit is at work in us as believers.

The Holy Spirit:

  • Renews us
  • Regenerates us
  • Trains us,
  • Teaches us, and
  • Transforms us.

But, I also want to point out the role of the Holy Spirit to prepares the way for your personal evangelism.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism

Consider Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts Chapter 8.

Clearly the Spirit of God was at work in the life of the Eunuch.

  • The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship.
  • He was reading Scripture on the way back.
  • He wanted someone to explain Scripture to him.

The eunuch had a spiritual thirst, created by the Holy Spirit.  The man was busy searching to quench that thirst.

Easy Conversation

This was an easy conversation to for Phillip to participate in.

Phillip didn’t have to

  • argue with a loud voice
  • apologetically stand up for his faith
  • use the 10 commandments as a hammer.
  • verbally convince the eunuch of his sinfulness.
  • spend 10,000 words arguing God’s existence.
  • rationally defend against opposite worldviews.

Phillip asked a simple question.

Do you understand what you are reading?

The Holy Spirit had prepared the way.

The Holy Spirit had gone ahead of Phillip to prepare a spiritually thirst person for him to speak about Jesus.

The Holy Spirit had prepared Phillip ahead of time with his own stories of faith.

The Holy Spirit had placed Phillip there at just the right time.

The Holy Spirit prompted Phillip to stand next to that chariot.

The Holy Spirit Works Both Sides

There are two individuals involved in this one story.

One person seeking faith, on his own faith awakening journey.

The other obediently positioning himself to share his faith.

It is two sides of an equation, two sides of the same coin.

The evangelistic conversation would not have happened that day if both parties were not in the same GPS location at the same time, an encounter brought about in the sovereignty of God.

MathEquation
Both Sides of the Equation

The Holy Spirit was at work in Phillip and the Eunuch.

To borrow a phrase from my algebra teacher, the role of the Holy Spirit in personal evangelism is to work

“Both sides of the equation.”

As you do personal evangelism, notice how God is already at work in preparing the harvest field for you.

He has gone ahead of you!

Let me ask you this?

In your personal evangelism efforts, are you aware of God going ahead of you?

Are you noticing that when you are attentive to the Holy Spirit that you find those people where He is already at work?

Want to learn more?

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Role of the Holy Spirit in Evangelism, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

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