THINGS THAT KEEP YOU FROM BEING A WITNESS

Answer: “I’m not confident that I know how to share the gospel. It seems too complex to me.”

When I was younger, I attended every kind of evangelism training and learned all sorts of ways of sharing the good news about what Jesus has done for us. I memorised all the points and the verses that go with the different points. I was trained to share the gospel as a ‘gospel presentation’. But when I was with my friends I was always afraid that if I started a gospel conversation I wouldn’t remember the points or the verses and I would end up coming across as a pushy idiot.

Now, after years of experience, here’s my advice to you if you have that same hesitation:

Relax, simply have gospel conversations rather than giving gospel presentations.

You absolutely should learn the super simple gospel message: we are broken people because we have a broken relationship with God; our relationship with God is broken because we have offended him and broken his moral laws; we have no way to repair that break, but God has already paid the price to repair that relationship when he came into our world and died on the cross, taking our place, paying the price so that he could give us the gift of forgiveness and restoration; we receive that gift by turning away from all the things we have been trying to use to repair our brokenness and turning to God in faith.

Also learn just a few key verses that make these points.

Gospel conversations are much more enjoyable and relaxed than gospel presentation. In a presentation you are always tense about not forgetting anything and about saying it just right.

Gospel presentations are like all-or-nothing encounters where the person must put their trust in Christ or you have failed. Gospel conversations, on the other hand, are part of normal relationships. You don’t have to ‘cover’ everything in one go.

In the first gospel conversation a person might just share an aspect of brokenness with you and you might spend some time talking about how broken our lives are. At the end of the conversation you might comment, “I don’t know where my brokenness might have taken me if I hadn’t encountered God.”

Another conversation could pick up there and move further into the simple gospel message. Maybe you would show the person a Bible verse in that conversation.

Here’s my point—don’t hold back because the gospel seems too complex and you are afraid of messing up your ‘gospel presentation’. By switching to gospel conversations you don’t have to cover every point of the gospel in one go. Not only that, but gospel conversations fit naturally into growing relationships.

So today, start a conversation with someone that could lead into one of the truths in the gospel and see where God takes the conversation. This is how you start living as a witness!

If you and a few of your Christian friends want to learn more about living as a witness, head to myLife2Life.com and start a Life2Life huddle.