Gospel Outreach Conversations

Starting spiritual conversations is something that comes mainly with practice, but there are a few basic principles that I tried to get across in a short talk at our church. First, admit and reject your excuses not to! Most of my Christian life was spent coming up with excuses why I shouldn’t initiate spiritual conversations, and once I decided to make it a priority, I had to deal with the arsenal of excuses that constantly played like loop tapes in my head. A main excuse I talked about was that I didn’t want to misrepresent God and turn people off to the Gospel by being pushy, having a “spiel”, or being dishonest with “bait and switch” tactics. Instead, we can have positive, real conversations by being open about it upfront, asking good questions, being good listeners and responding accordingly. Another excuse I talked about was that I just didn’t know how to start spiritual conversations. While this may be true in the moment, if we use our creativity and access available resources, we can learn and practice it like any other skill. So it’s not a matter of lack of knowledge but rather a lack of motivation. A second principle I talked about was that reaching out with the Gospel won’t come naturally for most of us and needs to be treated as a spiritual discipline like any other area of our Christian growth. This means we need to purposely make it a priority and set goals that we ask God to help us with. Don’t make a vow or promise to God that you try to keep by your own efforts, because you will only set yourself up to fail. It needs to be God working in us and through us for it to truly be a “spiritual” conversation. I also talked about how prayer-walking can naturally lead to initiating gospel conversations, and how I often do this very inconspicuously while pushing a shopping cart at the grocery or home improvement store. Gospel tracts can be helpful as conversation starters and usually lead to shorter conversations, while asking open-ended questions and active listening are better for longer conversations when we have more time to talk. I prefer the longer conversations because most people really love to talk about their own beliefs when someone cares enough to ask and is truly willing to listen to their answers. For many people, it’s the first time they have ever put their own beliefs into words and reflected on their implications, and it can truly be an eye-opening experience for them. I often preface my outreach conversations by saying “I have a crazy question for you that I try to ask someone new every day”. This acknowledges that I realize my question is indeed unusual, but reassures people that I do this all the time and am not targeting them in particular. The question that I usually ask, after thousands of outreach conversations over the last ten years, is “What do you think happens after this life, if anything?” It’s clearly a spiritual question, but not so specific that it would short-circuit a good conversation about their beliefs. If I asked something like, say, “Do you know for sure that you will go to heaven?”, I’m implying that I expect them to already believe in heaven, and the conversation won’t be as honest. At the end of my talk, I passed out a sheet I wrote explaining the ideas behind “Law and Grace” evangelism, which is what convinced me that outreach conversations can indeed be biblical, sincere, and worth pursuing. A PDF of that essay, which I titled “Using God’s Law to Share God’s Amazing Grace” is available at this link – https://tinyurl.com/3px28szj That paper also includes some resources I highly recommend. If you've read this far, you must care about reaching out to the lost, but do you care enough to do something about it? It may sound scary and overwhelming but after setting a goal of witnessing every day I can say this; it does get much easier and you will definitely improve with practice! Here are two excellent "law and grace" evangelistic resources to get you started: · "One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven" by Mark Cahill · "Way of the Master" by Ray Comfort I also highly recommend Ray Comfort’s evangelism training website at LivingWaters.com Start with the audio “Hell’s Best-Kept Secret” (I know, it has a scary and negative title, but it is well-worth listening to!) The rest of the website offers valuable resources for evangelism training. For examples of how an introverted, socially awkward person (myself) might possibly go about sharing the Gospel and gospel truths on the streets and in the marketplace, I offer my YouTube channel and blog: YouTube.com/c/jeffreiman Everydayclub.blogspot.com

A very common answer to my outreach question of whether heaven and hell exists is that we are going through “hell on earth”. This answer often comes from people who are bitter and believe themselves to be mistreated and oppressed, but it also came from a very positive and contemplative young man named Terence. I met Terence during a walk at the park, where he had gone to get away from it all and do some self-reflection. Despite his “hell on earth” statement he was very positive – so positive, in fact, that he couldn’t think of one negative experience in life that he would trade for one more positive. He felt like it’s the negative experiences in life that have helped teach him valuable lessons and make him the person he is today, so in that sense, he views “hell on earth” to be a valuable, character-forming process. Most people I talk to who make the “hell on earth” comment are quick to agree that, while there are many bad things that surround us, we also experience many good things. Their “hell” comparison is often just a flippant description of the struggles of this life to be tolerated, and for Terence I believe he was referring to life as a sort of halfway existence where we experience both good and bad, a sort of testing ground where we have many valuable lessons to learn. And, despite Terence’s lack of any sort of biblical foundation, that is the biblical view. We are in the midst of good and evil experiences, and God can use them all for His glory. In James 1 we read “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” If we were to go back in time and erase some of the hardships we’ve faced, we could be less mature and complete than we would be without them, and a self-reflective person like Terence was intuitively able to recognize their value without feeling the need to complain. But can the rest of Terence’s generation recognize this? A quote I’ve heard often lately describes the cyclical nature of generations, and why some are more tough than others: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” I think a quick look at history, in the Bible and elsewhere, reveals the truth of this statement. So where is Western Civilization now in this generational cycle? I’m pretty sure we are in the midst of some good times creating some pretty weak men and women, and I fear for what comes next. What comes next could indeed be that “hell on earth” so many weak people have prematurely complained about. In the meantime, however, I believe our character formation doesn’t have to be subject to generational tides. Jesus calls us to the tough, character-forming challenges of being His disciples no matter what generation we are born into. In John 15, He said “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” And Peter, who experienced that persecution as Jesus’ disciple, advised “do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4) For the sake of Christ and His Kingdom, we may indeed experience a sort of “hell on earth”, but we are promised such a heavenly future that “…our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Cor. 4) Thanks, Terence, for allowing me to record our conversation! It can be seen at https://youtu.be/uvbZvzW6fa0 on my YouTube channel.

What did Jesus mean when He said “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind?” Jesus said this in Luke 7:23, in response to two disciples whom John the Baptist had sent from his imprisonment by King Herod. John had sent them to ask “’Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” This occurred just after Jesus’ powerful teaching in His “Sermon on the Mount” and in the midst of a wide variety of miraculous signs and wonders. Jesus told John’s disciples “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” Before his imprisonment, John had lived out in the wilderness, far from the sophisticated urban centers and seats of power, so that the very act of hearing his message required a certain amount of humility in coming out to see him. And come they did, not looking for a watered down, man-centered message, a “reed swayed by the wind” of ideological fashion, but the very truth of God, unrelenting and hard as nails. John’s mission was to prepare the hearts of people to hear Jesus’ good news, preached to the “poor in spirit” as Matthew’s gospel reads. John’s message was one of law, of the conviction of sin, and of the need for repentance, in preparation for Jesus’ message of forgiveness and reconciliation, the “good news” of God’s amazing grace. This good news Jesus preached only made sense in the context of John’s bad news of our sin and our need for forgiveness. So it was with this understanding that I spent some time preaching John’s message to a young man named Andy in a parking lot outreach conversation. Andy had minimal church background but some spiritual curiosity, expressed in his interest in various religious videos he’s watched on YouTube. But their message would be fashionable and watered-down, and I knew Andy needed to hear the “hard as nails” truth of John the Baptist. Andy had also stated “I want to believe, but I just can’t” and we talked about the purpose of some of Jesus’ miracles, such as the raising of several people from the dead. “Did God make a mistake in allowing them to die in the first place?” Andy had asked. I explained how Jesus’ miracles were recorded in order to demonstrate his identity and authority as the Messiah, and I gave the example of the paralyzed man brought to Jesus, whose sins were forgiven first, but then Jesus also healed his body as a demonstration of His authority to forgive sins. Like Andy, John the Baptist, languishing in prison, also experienced doubts as to Jesus’ identity and authority. Jesus responded by referring to his miracles, and then to the good news preached to those who would humbly receive it. As we receive that good news and then respond by going out to proclaim it to others, let’s not forget to tell it in the context of both John’s message of repentance and our need for forgiveness, and Jesus’ demonstration of His authority to bring that forgiveness, especially seen in his triumph over death and the grave. And let’s proclaim it not as a “reed swayed by the wind”, but with the unashamed confidence and authority that people need to hear.