I Peter 3:15-16
I just met with a young couple who are getting married soon. We spent a lot of our time in this session talking about the importance of communication. I ask couples who want to get married to take the Taylor Johnson Temperament Analysis. It is a helpful tool to initiate conversation about a couple’s relationship.
Even couples who are passionately in love and have cultivated an intentional relationship discover there are many things they have not communicated with each other. And sometimes, they are the simplest things.
How much more that is true among friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. We may be good teammates with the other parents on our kids’ soccer teams and we may be caring neighbors when the electricity goes off, but when do we share our faith in Jesus Christ?
The last couple of blogs talked about some do’s and don’ts for sharing our faith without offending our friends. If you have not read them, you might want to scroll through them before going any further.
This blog is about what we do share when it is the right time to speak about our faith in God.
Several years ago I was subpoenaed to testify in a child custody hearing. When I met with the attorney, she advised me to only tell what I know. Even though I had worked as a counselor for a psychologist, I did not have the credentials the court would consider needed to be considered an expert. As the pastor of the family involved, I had some perspectives the attorney wanted included in the judge’s consideration.
That is good advice for sharing our faith, too. Tell what we know. Don’t worry about what you do not know.
Here are several ways to organize your sharing of what you do know. First, take one minute to share what your life was like before God changed you. The purpose of this “before” picture is to acknowledge to your friend that you are a real person with real problems. Keep it brief and to the point. The goal is not to make the person pity you, but to illustrate the change God has worked in your life. All of us have heard dramatic conversions, but most of us do not have such high intensity stories. That is okay. That is the real world. Be honest, truthful, and authentic.
Second, take one minute to briefly describe how you encountered God’s grace and chose to accept Jesus Christ. Everyone’s story and experience is different. The important point is not that we have the same details, but that we make the same choice. Share your story, without implying that your friend must have the same experience.
Third, take one minute to share how your life is different now from what it was before. Be concise and focused. Your life is not the prescription, but merely an illustration.
Then be patient. It is not our job to convict, convert, or change someone. It is merely our call to share what we know to be true for us.
There are some other tools that can be used in the right situations. Let me briefly describe them. If you would like to know more, send me an email and we’ll talk further.
ROMAN ROAD
Use three passages in the book of Romans to reveal the path to experience God’s grace.
Romans 3:23 – everyone has sinned
Romans 6:23 – the consequence of sin is death, but the possibility of grace is eternal life in Jesus Christ
Romans 10:13 – Everyone who asks for grace will receive it.
ABC’s
Admit that one is not living the kind of life God wants and that we are responsible for our sins. Romans 3:23 reminds us that this is true for all of us.
Believe that Jesus is the way to experience grace and life. John 14:6
Confess that one has done wrong and that one has chosen to follow God. Romans 10:9
DO vs DONE
Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg in their book, Becoming a Contagious Christian, claim that religion is spelled “DO.” Religion is the list of things we need to do to win God’s attention and therefore become blessed. On the other hand, the Christian faith is about “DONE.” God has already done all that needed to be done in Jesus Christ. Do we trust in that? Do we trust in Jesus? If so, we are saved!
There are many more tools and methods that may be helpful. Find the ones that work well for you. Some people are very logical. Others are much more relational. Some will merely share their own story while others establish a relationship by performing some acts of service. One needs to find the style and method that is most comfortable and natural for them.
Most of all, to share begins with prayer. One needs to pray in order to fasten one’s focus on what God may choose to do in the experience of sharing. Some of that is with your friend, and some of that is what God may want to do in your heart.
I believe that if we pray for our family, friends, and neighbors; God will provide opportunities for us to share our faith. God will bless those opportunities and will do wondrous things – perhaps even beyond our ability to see.
Neighbor called to see if he could park in my driveway to pack up his car. He was moving out of the apartment next door. When I met him the driveway to inform him I was fine with that, he asked the question, “Why are you a preacher?”
It was a clear opportunity to share a little of my spiritual journey. I used the three one-minute segments as my approach to keep it simple and personal. We talked for 15-20 minutes about my journey and his journey. I never saw him again, but I trust God has planted some seeds in his life that have blessed him, and perhaps blessed many others through him.
Pray and prepare. God will use your story in wondrous ways!
