Evangelism is a process that includes many conversations with a person on their spiritual journey to Christ.
They might happen with a stranger in one conversation (like Phillip had an encounter with the eunuch), or with a close friend where you can have multiple spiritual conversations that shape that person’s journey to Christ.
As an evangelist and church planter, I have learned some ways to have more spiritual conversation opportunities than simply waiting for them to happen.
If you were to look back at the last 7 days of your life, how many times did you get to share something about your relationship with Christ with a non-believing friend?
If your answer is zero, then what can you do to change that?
Let me share one tip with you.
The Starting Point for More Faith Conversations is Prayer
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. – 1 Samuel 3.7
As I read this a few mornings ago, I simply began to think:
- Who am I praying for to know the Lord?
- Who am I praying for God to reveal His word?
I can think of several people today in the reach of my life who do not yet know the Lord.
Many of you know that prayer precedes personal evangelism.
Yet I encounter more and more people that still feel somewhat clumsy in actually praying for people who don’t know the Lord.
Start with a Prayer List
A prayer list is a great exercise as it forces us to pay attention to the number of relationships with non-Christians.
Take a moment to look at your significant relationships. Think of people you choose to spend time with on somewhat of a regular basis.
On a scratch sheet of paper, make a list of friends who immediately come to mind. Try to name as many as possible in the next 60 seconds.
Write those names down.
Now look over the list.
- Who goes to church with you? Cross them off this list.
- Who attends another church regularly? Cross them off.
- Who shows evidence of a relationship with Christ? Cross them off.
- Who is left?
- Do you have anyone left on the list?
You may find that you know some people who go to church with you, yet have no evidence of a relationship with Christ. Feel free to add them or keep them on your list.
Once you have that list, then pray regularly for them by name.
Here are a few ways to pray for them:
- Give me eyes to see their spiritual thirst.
- Give me opportunity to speak with them.
- Give them a thirst, help me to see it.
- Help them move another step closer to you.
- Reveal yourself to them in undeniable ways.
What about you? Who are you praying for today?
As you pray for them by name, obey any guidance the Lord gives you:
- Is God inviting me to spend a little more time with them?
- What is the next “do” with them? Call? Coffee? Cookout?
Next Steps:
For the next 30 days, ask God each day to give you more spiritual conversations.
Take our free Evangelism Course
This Self-Study Dunamis Video course presents our approach to evangelism and listening to the Holy Spirit, working in cooperation with Jesus Christ to share the Good News of the Gospel with others.
The course is offered on an offering basis.
Keep foremost; Listening evangelicals
Thanks Chic, listening is the best way to find the friendliest conversations. It is usually accompanied by a nudge from the Holy Spirit to “pay attention here” as well
Thanks Alan for adding to the discussion. One of the driving phrases of PRMI is “Advancing the Kingdom of God.” Blessings.
This is all good. Let’s just promote a savior who wants all facets of daily life to be developed in a way that honors the practical wisdom of His Word and Spirit Its a kingdom gospel we have been en-grafted into. Jesus did not call for a salvation treadmill where we seek to get people saved and in church so that they too could get people saved and in church ad infinitude.. Treadmill Christianity is not Kingdom oriented unless knowing Jesus is about escaping personal responsibility for the obedient, God-honoring development of life in one’s culture. Jesus ever talked about “the gospel of individual soul salvation.” The only two times he referred to “the gospel” he used the phrase “gospel of the kingdom.” When, after His resurrection, he said, “All power is mine n both heaven and earth” He was not just talking about power over death and Satan’s undoing He was recasting the developmental vision of Genesis 1:28 by recovering our place and task in a good structuring of life’s potentials so that people could simultaneously grasp that being in Him meant being in the wisdom of His rule. Its this living, developmental wisdom that He incarnates with physical miracles being the more obvious manifestation of His rule. The “greater things” of John 14:12 point to the less obvious components of daily life that require analysis and reconditioning. This is caught by Paul when he tells us to “work out our salvation, expose evil and make every thought captive to Jesus Christ.” This underscores the two core problems in much of today”s Christianity.
One is the separation of Matthew 28:18-20 (the missionary mandate) from Genesis 1:28 (the cultural mandate) Here Jesus gives the first command of the bible and its about both our PLACE as God’s earthly representatives and our TASK as agents of its responsible development. When you separate redemption from this broad originating command you engineer converts who are what I would call proponents of Churchianity (preaching, missions, evangelism, singing in the choir, tithing, Sunday school, and the like) not Christianity. The rest of life is seen as secular and outside any redemptive impact. But there is nothing secular in Jesus’ redemption because nothing escapes the all-encompassing rule of God incarnated by Jesus resurrection… The second core issue is service without power. Here converts get their redemption sealed by the Holy Spirit but are never inspired to surrender to the anointing power of the Spirit to empower and embolden service of all kinds not just church stuff. So what is needed is both an “air war”(spiritual warfare prayer) and a “ground war” (analyses and other actions that expose inconsistencies and holes in secular versions of how we should live followed by what we offer as an alternative. But keep in mind that what we offer, though tentative, does not have to be perfect as we have just as much of a right to make mistakes as any other people group..
Lastly you cannot lay hands on a culture and cast out its demons but one can engage a culture via spiritual warfare and simultaneously work to figure out what a Christian version of anything might look like. Its the culture forming work that puts flesh on what the Kingdom rule of God in Christ “might” look like. What this suggests is a more full and complete download of Jesus rule over all of life. It also suggests being tentative about our responses to the wisdom of the Word and Spirit. Tentativeness is required because we are in process and our redemptive work will be evaluated. We are only offering a response to the Word not its final rendition so we don’t have to be completely right and can’t be because we “see” through dark glasses.” This is the indirect witness that peppers the cultural air and gives people clues about what a redeemer God is like; This becomes another way to lift Christ up and draw others into His orbit.
So yes to listening evangelism and no to any version of this that makes cultural acts of obedient service to God into an add on after salvation. It is not an add on. It is part and parcel of a kingdom gospel, another side of the salvation coin…so to speak. Work at this. In doing so you will make some mistakes but as in other facets of life where one makes mistakes and learns from them these then become stepping stones to greater and more complete service. This is part of what it means to walk in Christian freedom and it is meant to fuel the sanctification process of the entire Body of Christ. Anything short of this invites the judgments of both God and “the world.” Unfortunately the people of this world have a keen eye for our failures and inconsistencies, so we have to own our humanity and accept accountability for our actions and/or lack of them. I hope this generates more hunger for the fullness of redemption.