Tips for evangelism from your living room
These tips have been brought to you by contributors from Church Army Evangelists, Activate, Purpose Driven Church Europe and Christians to encourage you to Share Faith through Words and Actions.
Virtual prayer walk
Go for an imaginary prayer walk. Close your eyes and relax, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts. Choose a group of people that you often meet – at the office, in the shop, at school, on the bus, in the leisure club. Who do you meet first, and what would you like to say to them? How are they feeling? Pray for them and for their situations. Next time you see them, if you feel brave enough, tell them that you prayed for them. You might be surprised by the response.
Matchstick testimony
Make notes about your faith journey and ask a group from your church to do the same – your background, how you came to faith, what events or people were involved, how it affected your life, and what difference it makes today. Practise your story by chatting to yourself in front of a mirror, and see if you can do it without using your notes or jargon. Get your group together and each tell your stories, encouraging each other and finding out more. Then each cut your story to the bare bones, strike a match, and tell it all before the match goes out.
Gathering points
As a church group, make a list of all the places in your neighbourhood where people gather together, such as shops, offices, schools, parks, bus stops or pubs. Go through the list asking how much Christians from the church interact with people at this place. For those with most interaction, how could they bring the good news of Jesus Christ there? For those with less, how could you get involved? In a time of prayer, lift to God one at a time the places you have mentioned and the people who gather there, and pray about the church’s role with them.
One at one
Develop a list of seekers – those un-churched friends you know are struggling to find faith. At one o’clock each day pray for one minute for one of those names on your list and repeat this each day of the week.
C-C-Changes
People are generally more open to the gospel when they are going through times of transition or change in their lives. Consider giving a change kit tailored to the specific needs of the family you are reaching out to. Put together a new home kit for those moving into the area; a new baby kit for those welcoming a new baby to their family; or a grieving kit for those who are grieving or fighting depression after losing a loved one or being made redundant.
Looking and listening for God in everyone
We must start from where people are. We need to stop, look, listen carefully for where God has begun a work of exploration and revelation in people’s lives and then be able to join them on a journey of dialogue and discovery together. Start your discussions on faith, Like the Apostle Paul, from the point of people’s own spirituality so the discussions can be grounded in something they are familiar with- they will then be better able to see God at work.
Fresh expressions
We need to deal with people’s faith seeking by being able to provide opportunities for personal exploration and expression of faith in unthreatening, imaginative, multi-sensory and interactive ways. Our church and its language may simple not be close enough to where people are at, so we may need to plant a new or fresh expression of church within their culture and not ours. Going outside of our comfort zone, rituals, music and language.
Such new Christian communities are unlikely to resemble churches as we know them.
Church is about belief in and worshipping God and that can happen wherever people may be.
Experience evangelism
We need to loo for opportunities to help people to meet with God directly and be touched by the Holy Spirit, maybe in advance of their need for Jesus. This experience evangelism gently fosters the search for God in every living person and starts from the point of the individual’s limited experiences and then ripples out to asking more questions and seeking more satisfying answers that will eventually les or Jesus.
See www.churchinaspiritualage.org.uk
Informed prayer
Buy a newspaper today. Read it with the intention of praying about situation for which you have never prayed before. Lift to God all the places in the world where people are denied justice, trying to see the news reports through his eyes. Then think about whether you might make a habit of expanding the ranges of places and people for whom you pray.
What’s in a name—a lot!
Here’s a simple tip from Church Army evangelist Phil Clark. Every day you probably come across many people - maybe on the streets, at work, in shops, in schools, or regular faces at the bus queue. Try really hard to learn people’s names, especially the names of children.
People matter to God, so show that they matter to you. Calling someone by their name suggests that you care, are interested in them and can be trusted.
If they express surprise, remind them that Jesus too knows them by name. He has known them by name since before the world was created.
Explore freedom
Make plans for next Sunday as day to do something good, happily and open-heartedly. Choose something that can be done not because duty requires it, but just because the world is better when good people do good things. Make people’s heads turn with the unexpectedness of it. Make goodness seem irresistible, and watch to see if other people catch the habit and pass it on. Add value to people’s lives with the sheer fun of increasing the amount of virtue in the world. Make this your way of scattering the darkness, and in the company of Jesus, unreservedly enjoying the light.
Being Available
Church Army evangelist Martin Garner suggests that you leave chunks of your diary blank – a couple of hours where you don’t plan anything and can just be available to people.
Martin says, “Our pastor is not an evangelist but he has times where he goes into cafés in the city and takes a Bible or a book to read. He has brought people to church on a Sunday as a result of this.”
A person might pop into your mind and you can go and visit them. The Good Samaritan had time to stop and be available – so should we.
Magazine Giveaway
Everyone knows the sorts of magazines you find in dentists’ or doctors’ waiting rooms. Short, chatty publications like Take a Break or Chat that contain true life stories, inspirational articles, helpful tips, as well as jokes and puzzles.
Church Army is one of the key partners in a new magazine called Inspire Magazine. It is glossy, colourful and uplifting, with inspiring interviews and challenging thoughts. It is also ideal for leaving in waiting rooms (providing you get permission from the dentists or doctors) and for giving away to non-Christian friends.
Churches can order free copies in bundles of 10; visit the Inspire Magazine website.
