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Why do we freak out when it comes to reaching out to our friends? How do you bring it up without throwing up? These questions and many more plague us when it comes to communicating the most important and “bestest” news on the planet. This little blog post is all about relieving your tension by giving you some tools you can use when it comes to sharing your faith.

Here are three simple action steps to remember when sharing your faith with those you know (or those you don’t!)

1. Pray!

It is God who flips the light switch on in the souls of those who don’t know Jesus. This is why we pray with passion for God to flip the switch and bring them “…from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” Colossians 1:13.

The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Italian believers in Romans 10:1, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” What drove Paul’s prayer life was an unquenchable passion to see his fellow Jews saved from the earthly and eternal results of sin. This same passion for those in our world must drive our prayer lives by driving us to our knees on their behalf.

2. Pursue

After we pray for our friends who don’t know Jesus we must pursue them. In other words we must bring God up in some way. This means getting the God conversation going on some level, on any level.

Just like Phillip in Acts 8 pursued the chariot-riding, book-of-Isaiah-reading Ethiopian Eunuch we must run side by side with our friends and engage them in spiritual conversaton. Just like Phillip asked “Do you understand what you are reading?” we must become skilled at asking the right questions at the right times to those we know. Here are a few sets of questions to start with:

-What are your spiritual beliefs?
-Would you mind if I shared mine with you?

or…

-Do you believe in God?
-What do you think God wants from you?
-Would it surprise you that God wants a relationship with you that starts now and lasts forever?

or…

-Do you know for sure you are going to heaven when you die?
-If I could tell you how you could know for sure do you think that would be good news?

or…

Use your own questions.

Another way is to just get into a conversation with your friend and look for the natural “forks in the road” that can peel off toward spiritual discussions as easily and naturally as possible.

Bottom line: Bring it up!

3. Persuade

Gently persuade the person you are talking with to believe the Gospel message. Actually, in the Bible there is no other kind of persuasion than gentle persuasion. “Peithou” the Greek word for “persuade” means “to win someone over, to gently convince them.”

So, when you seek to persuade someone to believe in the Gospel message, you are not coercing them to convert but painting a picture that they can accept or reject. You share it in a relational-meets-relentless way that seeks to win them over with love. And, even if they reject the message, you keep loving them and never give up on reaching them with the ultimate message of hope.

What is this message? It’s the good news that Jesus died so that we wouldn’t have to and that he rose from the dead to prove that he was who he claimed to be. But it gets even better. Through faith in Jesus we enter into a personal and permanent relationship with God that can never be separated by us and will never be separated by him.

At Dare 2 Share we use The GOSPEL Journey message as a way to tell the whole story of the Gospel. Here it is:

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1,2)
Our sin separates us from God. (Genesis 3)
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. (Genesis 4-Malachi 4)
Paying the price for sin Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew-Luke)
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John)
Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. (Acts-Revelation)

When you’ve explained this simple message to your friend ask him or her if it all makes sense. If it does then ask your friend if there is anything keeping them from putting their faith in Jesus right now to forgive them for their sins and give them eternal life.

If they trust in Jesus that is just the beginning of their journey. Here are the ABC’s of what everything you want to persuade your friend to do:

Accept Christ as their savior.
Belong to a good church.
Commit to THE Cause (aka “sharing this same message with others!”)

Here is a evangelism training podcast that I challenge you to watch which will help you share your faith effectively with your friends…


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