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Are you prepared to tell me the story?

ManThinkingbyPicnicTableI love it when I get asked a question about my journey to faith.

It is an interest to hear my story.

It is a desire to understand who I am.

It is a desire to understand what make me so committed to following Jesus.

A few days ago, it was a cool evening to enjoy the outdoors.  I took my son to a meeting and to pass the time, I stood outside with another father who sat in his luxury SUV and talked with me through the open window.  The crisp evening air and light breeze made for a wonderful conversational setting.

As we talked, the conversation took a personal shift.

Tell me the story

My friend asked to tell my story of how I decided to become a preacher of the gospel versus an architect or some other profession.

This was a chance to tell the story of how I discovered God’s grace and how I came to faith.

It was the chance to talk about how I discovered God’s leading and how that got refined over the past twenty years.

I had been praying for a chance to share my faith with my friend, and this gave me a chance to tell one of my formative stories.

Standing there next to his car, I began to tell my story.

4 Elements I included in this story

I faced a choice.

  • How would I tell the story?
  • How would I tell the story in a way that showed the activity and initiative of God?
  • How would I tell the story that showed how a follower of Christ lives out that commitment when making decisions?

I quickly asked the Holy Spirit to help me, and then told my story.

1.   I mentioned that I BECAME a follower of Jesus.

I made a point to tell my friend that I was once not a follower of Jesus, but when I was a teenager, I became a follower of Jesus.

I had a journey of faith awakening and experienced a conversion.

I was clear that I had not always been a follower of Christ.

2.  I mentioned that I had a devotional life centered around Bible reading and Prayer.

I talked about the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and prayer, and how I would experience hearing God’s voice.

I was allowing the word of God to shape me and cultivating the ability to recognize God’s activity in my life.

I shared a few sentences about my desire to please the Lord with a life of obedience to His purpose.

3.  I shared two or three formative experiences to the story of my ministry calling.

Having setup the foundation of my relationship with Christ, I then told my story of answering the call to ministry.

I told of the life changing question my friend asked me.

I told of the dream that the Sunday school teacher had.

I told of the struggle in my own young soul as I wrestled with a sense of calling while I was a young teen.

At each part of the story, I kept the focus on God’s activity and my response.

4.  I shared how I’ve seen that calling get played out and refined over the last 25 years.

I shared a few observations over how that sense of calling developed during key transitions in my life.

At each stage, I got to share a little of what God was doing to clarify my sense of life purpose and direction.

God's been good to me

You need God action in your story.

When you are asked to share a story, you need God action moments: Moment where God intervened.

I could have told the story without all the details of what God did and was doing.

I could have told the story in a purely secular way and left out dreams, signs, and spiritual guidance.

However, I chose to tell the story in a way that normalized my walk with God and told of his works.

I was ready.

Each of us should know our own story of how we came to faith, and be able to tell it at a moment’s notice.  (Read more at 8 Tips to Effective Personal Testimonies).

We should also know current stories of God’s activity in our life.

But we should also be able to tell of God’s activity in transformational stories – stories where being a follower of Jesus made a difference in our life.

What is God working in your life right now that makes the gospel Good News?

Transformational stories occur all the time during our walk with the Lord. These stories go beyond your conversion moment and into today.

Transformational stories show that God is relevant to us today and still at work.

I loved the opportunity to tell my friend the story of how I became minister of the gospel.

Do you need help in Personal Evangelism?

Grow in Personal EvangelismStart here with this MP3 Download on Evangelism Training from the store to help you see where you need to grow.

In this 70 minute MP3 AUDIO 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 you can say about the gospel message.
  • How to personally lead someone to faith in Christ.

It’s a 70 minute audio file that takes just a few minutes to download, but it may help you answer the question:

What can you do in the next 90 days to grow in your evangelism skills?

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Video: Personal Evangelism Tip – Current Stories

Today’s tip is focused on one type of personal testimony story to tell:

[Read more…] about Video: Personal Evangelism Tip – Current Stories

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5 ways to tell your stories of God’s activity

Stories capture the heart and mind like nothing else can.

People listen to operas, watch movies, read novels, and attend plays to get lost in the story.

My son played Pinocchio in the school play (he’s in the red hat). [Read more…] about 5 ways to tell your stories of God’s activity

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Postmodern Evangelism–Find Your Story

Part of the art of post-modern evangelism is story telling, in particular, telling your own story of how you came to discover your faith.

The Christian Testimony

Shortly after I became a Christian in the late 80s, I learned a phrase “Your Testimony.”

Your Christian testimony describes

  • How you came to start following Christ in a conversion experience,
  • The process of your faith in Christ becoming your own.
  • The life transformation God worked in your life.
  • How you came to recognize your personal need for Jesus.
  • How you responded to an invitation or nudging or calling
  • Story of how you met Jesus

One story ingredient

A good story would also share your process or the mechanics of how you became a Christian.   What did you do (the mechanics)?

  • Pray to receive Jesus?
  • Believe?
  • Make a commitment?
  • Answer an altar call?
  • Pray in the middle of the night?

I’ve encountered lots of people that want to know what they need to do.  How does one surrender a life to Jesus?

A second story

But a second story is about God’s current activity in your life.  What is God doing in your life today that still makes the gospel good news?  How has he brought healing, restoration, forgiveness to your life this year?  How has he answered prayer this year?

Telling your story turns the information into experience.

Telling your story shows your experience with God and people may question it, dismiss it, but not argue with it.

My story

I became a Christian while I was a teenager in the late 1980s.

I grew up in an irrelgious home, didn’t attend church.  My family of origin was stable, loving, and clearly middle class.  No trauma, no abuse, no drug use, etc. I lived with might be a typical clean and moral suburban life.

As a teenager, I began to feel a yearning to know God, if God even existed.

The extent of my Christian knowledge was that Jesus was born in December, died in April, and did again every year.

I didn’t even have a Bible.

I discovered the reality of God through an answered prayer.  I won’t take the time to write it out here, but after taking a risk and praying, and then seeing the answer to that prayer a few hours later, was enough to convince me that God was real.

The Lord even spoke to me (though I didn’t hear audible words).

That was enough to convince me that God existed.

But I didn’t know what to do with that.

A few months later, after listening to some people talk about knowing God better through a relationship with Christ, it was simple for me to make the connection:

To know God personally,

I need to start following Jesus.

Therefore, I will.

That evening I made a commitment in my heart that I still live out this day.  That was the extent of my conversion experience.

Two major movements that started with a quest to know who God is: discovery that He existed, and a commitment to follow Jesus.

Other pieces associated with conversion came later, like understanding repentance, beginning to read the Bible, attending church.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve discovered more of God’s faithfulness, the power of the Holy Spirit using me, and the faithfulness of his word.

I can’t really say how my life is dramatically different.  After all, I was only 15.   I wasn’t addicted to anything, no major change in lifestyle.

What was different is that I began a discovery of the love of God found for me in Christ Jesus that has captured me these last 25 years.  That is how my life is different.

Developing Your Testimony

There are two types of story for conversion testimonies:

Your conversion experience

Your gradual acceptance of it as your own (grew up in the faith).

Think about your life before you met the Lord or before you knew that the faith of your parents was now yours.

  1. What was going on in your life leading up to your conversion?
  2. What problems or needs were you facing at the time?
  3. How did your life change after that?
  4. What was the spiritual need that propelled you to seek after God?
  5. What made the offer of salvation attractive enough to repent?

You may not have had a conversion experience like mine or the Apostle Paul’s.

You may have always grown up knowing that you were a follower of Christ, but perhaps there was a season where you tried to set that faith aside and it didn’t work.  This is how my friend describes owning his own faith.

He grew up in a Christian family, lots of Christian influences, and always remembers having a relationship with Christ.  But in college, he tried to set aside that part of his life and it became a mess.  He saw the descent that he was making and put a stop to it.  He evaluated that experience and decided that life with Christ is much better.

Coaching Corner:

Action 1: If you haven’t done so already, set aside a few moments to think back to how you became a Christian or owned your own faith.  Spend some time journaling your story so that you can get very familiar with it.

The goal is not to tell every aspect of your story every time.  Rather the goal is to get familiar with it so that you can share the appropriate details at the right time.

Action 2: Ask permission of a non-Christian friend to have a listen to your story.  Ask them what they didn’t understand so that you know where you need to clarify.  They may point out some wholes that you need to fill in.

Read more:


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Statistics on PC USA Membership Loss 2008

Since the PC USA is where I hold my ordination as pastor, these statistics are of interest to me, and I know that many of the EvangelismCoach.org subscribers are in that same tribe.

Source: PC(USA) – Presbyterian News Service – PC(USA) records steepest membership loss since reunion in 1983.

Membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) fell by 69,381 in 2008, the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) has announced in its annual statistical report, continuing a trend that began in the mid-1960s.

Total membership of the denomination is now 2,140,165.

According to the Research Services office of the General Assembly Council (GAC), the 2008 decline was the PC(USA)’s largest numerical and percentage net membership loss since Presbyterian reunion in 1983.

Almost 104,000 people joined the PC(USA) last year, but that good news was more than offset by the 34,101 Presbyterians who died, the 34,340 who were members of the 25 congregations that left the PC(USA) for other denominations, and the staggering 104,428 who were removed from the rolls by their sessions without apparently joining any other church.

Can a positive spin be put on this?   The General Assembly Stated Clerk announces

Parsons insisted that “Presbyterians can be evangelists!”

“But we often stumble over the words. Can we not challenge one another to be able to answer these basic questions,” he said. “Why do I believe in God? Why do I go to church? Why do I go to that particular church?”

Fewer congregations were dissolved in 2008 than in 2007 — 65 vs. 71 the previous year. And 40 new churches were organized last year, 23 more than the previous year. The PC(USA) currently comprises 10,751 congregations.

This suggests the need for

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The Rabbit and the Elephant Review

rabbitandelephantcoverToday, I’m participating in a blog book tour for The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small Is the New Big for Today’s Church Tony and Felicity Dale.

Others have published their entry ahead of me (see below), and a few others will follow behind.

The Rabbit and the Elephant

A movement of house churches is reaching the tipping point in North America.  Some claim it’s a second Reformation.

How could we change the world if our Christian faith began multiplying at a rapid pace — through a way of life that is explosive and transformational?

We can grow, can we reproduce?

pic_lg_dale_tonyx100Fleicity Dale

As Christians, we are the church—whether we meet in office buildings, college dorm rooms, coffee shops, factories, or homes—and the Holy Spirit uses us to expand that church to the far reaches of the globe.

By practicing “simple church,” we’ll find that a small gathering of friends loving Jesus together and reaching out to the community around them can help us to be the church, the way God intended.

The Rabbit and the Elephant Synopsis:

If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, in 22 months you may get one baby elephant. But two rabbits together for the same amount of time will result in thousands of baby rabbits!

In The Rabbit and the Elephant, “micro church” planters Tony and Felicity Dale use the “rabbit” illustration to show the pace at which the Christian faith can (and should) be growing—through evangelism that is explosive and transformational. The Rabbit and the Elephant contains the key to 21st century evangelism—taking the Gospel to where the pain and the people are.

My take on the Rabbit and the Elephant

If you are familiar with Neil Cole (Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens and Organic Leadership: Leading Naturally Right Where You Are) you are likely familiar with the simple church movement.

This book by Tony and Felicity Dale adds to the body of literature about the house church / simple church  movement.

The Rabbit and Elephant can serve as a great introductory book for Christians looking into this model of church planting.  The entire book is written so that one can grab a good introductory level concept of what a house church might look like, how it might multiply, and how a house church can rapidly do the work of personal evangelism.

Overall, I found it to be an easy read, easily digestible, and full of personal stories that model what a house church might do, including some of the messiness of spectacular failures.

Because every house church is unique, The Rabbit and Elephant can’t get into every single detail or challenge presented by one house church, so the authors have to stay at a generic overview level.

But they do provide enough information that one could follow a few practical steps and launch a house church in their own area.

Included are some sample meeting outlines, a FAQ appendix, and a good review of common pitfalls in a simple church.

Worldview

The writers are well seeped in a charismatic worldview, which believes in the ongoing operation of the spiritual gifts and the realty of spiritual warfare.  They firmly believe in God’s miraculous activity and the guidance of the Holy Spirit about how and where to share the gospel.

I share their worldview, so much of this text and examples were easily digestable.  For those that don’t share that worldview (such as dispensational cessationists, or people who aren’t even aware of their worldview), some of the stories and principles may be a stretch, a sticking point, or even heretical in your worldview.

Yet the Dales are clear to say that not all simple churches share their worldview with regards to the spiritual gifts and spiritual warfare.

As another part of their worldview, there is a nice mixing of relational evangelism, which means their church meetings might have more non-believers than believers in them.  If this makes one uncomfortable, then this model of doing church might not work for you.

The best chapter in the Rabbit and the Elephant

Chapter 13, called Luke 10 Principles, outlines their entire church planting methodology.  This chapter alone is worth the price of the book, whether you want to plant a church or simply learn about small group expansions through networks.  In my estimation this chapter is the crux of the entire book so let me give you the basic outline.

1.  Trust God to provide the strategy and workers (Luke 10:1-2)

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

The disciples were sent out as “church planting” teams and directed where to go.  The job of the disciples were to obey His instructions, and go to places where He was to visit.

The root of this is prayer.  They recommend prayer walking (webinar, resources) where you sense Jesus is sending you.

2.  Trust in God’s protection (Luke 10:3)

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves

As you go places you may very well confront demonic powers (which exposes a worldview claim in the text).  We are to bind the strong man (Luke 11:21-22) and cooperate with God’s rescue.  Ed Silvoso writes much more about this in That None Should Perish.

3.  Trust God to provide Resources (Luke 10:4)

Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road

4.  Trust God to lead you to the Person of Peace (Luke 10:5)

When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.

This is the most crucial insight into the methodology.  Look for the person of peace who will invite you into their home to start a house church within their social network.

This is a person who has some kind of reputation (good or bad) and has a wide circle of influence.  The church is usually started in that person’s home (p. 105).

New Testament examples would be Cornelius (Acts 10), or Lydia (Acts 16), or perhaps the woman at the well (John 4).

5.  Enjoy the Hospitality that God provides (Luke 10:7-8)

Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you.

Don’t move from home to home, but stay in the home of the person of peace.  House churches celebrate meals together as part of their practice.  Eating with people creates relationship.  At this point, you’ve only become a friend.  There has been no proclamation to this point.

6.  Trust God to Answer Your Prayers (Luke 10:9)

Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’

Look for opportunities to pray with and for people.  You’re looking for opportunity to bring people face to face with God’s activity.  Once you identify needs you can put your faith on the line and pray.

Then watch God respond.  In their experience, this often happens in connection with one of the spiritual gifts, such as prophecy or word of knowledge, as a demonstration of the kingdom of God.  When people experience the power of God in this way, word of mouth causes more people to gather to start studying and learning from God.

The Rabbit and the Elephant For Legacy Churches

They use the term Legacy churches to speak of what most of us think as church:  a gathering of believers in a building, led by one or more pastors, with a worship service that follows some kind of liturgy.  Mainline denominations, evangelical denominations, all of these have what we would consider traditional churches.

For legacy churches thinking about migrating to simple church, this book hints at such a transition, but doesn’t serve as a how to manual to make that transition.  It also doesn’t get into helping one re-frame their current way of doing church into this model.  It doesn’t get into issues like 501c3 status, record keeping, membership, articles of organization, paying a full time pastor, and stuff like that.

It doesn’t deal with some of the confessional theology of legacy churches (such as what are the marks of the church, Westminster confession of faith, ch 25.4).  I think this direction is outside the scope of the book.

However, legacy churches that want to expand their small group structure, this book can have a lot to say in terms of launching new small groups, and empowering people to launch small groups in their areas of influence.  The Luke 10 principles above are, I think, equally applicable there as well.

I also commend the Dales for not ripping the legacy churches as they present an alternative model.

Order your copy of The Rabbit and Elephant from Amazon. (affiliate link)

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