How to Share the Gospel Message Practical Steps on How to introduce Jesus to a complete Stranger!
Know your Audience
In our harvest field there are addicts, lawbreakers of every sort, runaways, people who are growing better in their life situation and others who are growing worse.
We also have a mix of emotions on any given night. Content, angry, depressed, giddy and jaded people come through our paths.
To people in this category, sharing your faith is so much more than a simple confession of faith. We seek to bring Christ and His salvation to every person no matter where they are. Anderson (2017) offers few practical hints on how to share your faith with a complete stranger.
Say Hello
Begin by saluting the target and proced to Tell Them Your Name and Ask For Theirs
Tell a person your own name first. Even, if your name is well known, by giving your name first, you are making yourself equal to the other person and showing them honour.
Ask their name and remember it. If you have to write it down right away, that isn't out of place
Call a person by their name and tell them how nice it is to meet them. If you use their name, it will help you to remember it.
Ask A Specific Faith Revealing Question
“Are you a church going person?” or “Where do you go to worship God?”
You will get many different responses to these questions. Don’t assume anything about the salvation or lack of salvation about the person you just met. Their answer will not reveal anything about their faith.
The reason you asked the first question was to ask a more specific second question. Find out from them where they are right now in their faith by using laser focused follow up questions.
Based on their previous answer you can find out from them if they are baptized are not, attend a church regularly, or read their Bible and pray.
Ask an easy question about their habits, not a deep searching state of their soul question. A true faith is made evident in works. So, unless they are lying to you (which is a very real possibility) you will get a sense of what is important to them.
Identify an Obstacle to Faith
What is holding you back from (fill in the blank)?
What is holding them back from Bible reading or attending church? What is holding them back from praying or believing that Jesus exists?
Find out why they don’t go to church or read the Bible. Maybe they just need a Bible or a ride?
Usually what happens is they will either reveal some deeper underlying cause or hand you a quick excuse.
Whatever they tell you, will reveal something about them. If they are trying to tell you something that they think you want to hear, then you know that something is very wrong with the state of their soul.
Talk to them about what is holding them back from being obedient to Christ until you get an obstacle from them. Identify that obstacle as sin, if it is a sin. Get them to realize that is one sin that they need to confess.
- Turn That Obstacle Into a Prayer.Open or Close
Do not start spouting Bible verses, or personal experiences with someone just like them.
Make this person feel like a special individual who has a serious problem/sin that you really would like to pray for and see resolved in the grace and power of Christ’s resurrection. You want to share your faith by living it. - Share Your Faith in God by PrayingOpen or Close
Share Your Faith in God by Praying
Pray for that person on the spot. Also promise to pray for them during the next week.
IMajority of people love to be prayed for. So, if you are praying for them on the spot, then pray for their well-being, for release from what is holding them back from attending church or reading the Bible.
Tell them that you will continue to pray for them and then do so. If they have told you that they pray, then ask them to pray for you during the coming week.
Whatever else your new acquaintance knows about you, they now know that you have a personal relationship with God who is powerful enough to change things and believe in prayer to communicate with him and that you believe sin offends a righteous God and has to be dealt with.
This is huge. You haven’t told about your faith, you have demonstrated faith.
The person you are talking to knows that you have something that they don’t.
Share your faith by living it. - Let them Know, It's Important!.Open or Close
Tell Them How Much You Enjoyed Meeting Them.
Assure your new acquaintance of just how much you enjoyed spending a few minutes with them.
Make sure they know that you would like to talk again to follow up on their problem or concern.
When you do follow up, ask what happened as a result of your prayer. Tell them that each and every sin we have needs to be brought to Christ and that only by completely following him can we be set free. - Pray For Them | Follow upOpen or Close
Pray for this person you met when you are alone with God.
Ask God to begin pouring the kingdom of Jesus Christ into their life. Pray that the barriers in their life would come down and that they would be set free.
Ask for the Lord’s to help you when you meet that person again. Do they need correction, reproof or training in righteousness? Ask God to convict them of their sin, and reveal his perfect righteousness.
Do they need encouragement, grace, or support? Ask God to begin revealing the fullness of the kingdom of God in their lives to meet their needs.
Pray for all the knowledge, wisdom and understanding you will need as you continue to share your faith. Follow up with that person. Call them by their name and ask specifically about their situation.
Pray with them and guide them as God leads from unbelief to belief to greater belief.
From disobedience to obedience to greater obedience.
From loneliness, to community, to actively building community.