How to Evangelize: A Guide From Me, a Layman Who is Terrible At Evangelizing

(H/t @theodramatist bringing up this topic)

I’m not good at evangelism but thought I would share my “strategy”:

(1) don’t lie about what you do on the weekends
(2) do Christian things with people from church on the weekends
(3) build relationships such that people ask you what you did on the weekend (this is not hard)

So now they know you’re a Christian and will be reminded of it in a non-threatening but persistent way.

(4) love God and love your neighbor so that your light shines before all men (women and men)

^this is the hard part

(5) pray for them

^just tack it onto the “give us this day our daily bread” part of OF

(6) at some point, someone will open up about their own religious experience, thoughts, or moral questions. Just listen and share your understanding of God’s word in an open way, but be sure to bring it back to the gospel if at all possible.

(7) if they respond positively, great! Invite them to church to find out more! If they respond with questions, great! That’s also positive. Answer the questions as best you know how. This may require doing research. Do not BS but also don’t slink into noncommittal relativism.

(8) if they respond positively throughout and it just goes forward, that is awesome. At some point, it could be worth asking “where they are on this.”

Remember, you can’t pressure God and God’s the one who causes the change of heart.

It also can be worth doing a post-mortem on where one’s own sin got in the way of evangelization. But this can also be a device Satan can use to make you stop evangelizing. So prayer is essential.

Anyway, this is my lame strategy. It has had mixed results.

But I will say that God basically walking me through this has shown how evangelism doesn’t have to be this hyper-confrontational/socially do-or-die thing. It just takes a mustard seed’s worth of social courage.

And to be clear, I’m not saying this is *the* way to do evangelism. I don’t even <know> (in an authoritative way) if this is *a* way to do evangelism.

Passing out tracts, open air preaching, etc. can be great too!

But I think a lot of people (who do not have the spiritual gift of evangelism) feel like they either have to take the plunge and pretend they do have the gift of evangelism OR do nothing.

I’m trying to show there’s a pretty gradual on-ramp to sharing the gospel from normal life.

Anyway, don’t blame me, I voted for Kanye.

/END