Train Christians to share their faith
God’s calling is clear. In Matthew 28: 19–20, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I commanded you.”
Jesus’s instructions are clear, but do we obey?
- 61% of Christians haven’t shared their faith in the last 6 months.
- 79% of Christians haven’t invited someone to church in the last year.
- 98% of Christians do not witness to nonbelievers weekly
- 95% of Christians have never led another person to God
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (Luke 10:2).
Francis Chan uses a great analogy of asking his daughter to clean her room.
That’s pretty convicting, isn’t it? But as the statistics show, most Christians are content to study what it is like to share the Gospel with the world without actually doing so.
So if Christians understand the importance of sharing the Gospel, why do so few do it?
THEY NEED YODA
It may help to think of Star Wars. Obi-Wan didn’t just say, “Luke, you’re a Jedi…Well, good luck!” No. Luke had to go train with Yoda, where he was personally taught to do important Jedi things like levitating objects, doing front flips with Yoda on his back, and fighting an imaginary Darth Vader in a cave. The point is, even though he knew what he was supposed to do, he needed help learning how to do it.
Now some people will get it right away and as soon as you tell them about Jesus, they’ll say, “Wow, I have to tell EVERYONE about this!” Kind of like in The Force Awakens when Rey is like “Hey, maybe I’m a Jedi” and she can instantly do the Jedi Mind Trick without training. But that’s not the norm. Most people, even if they know what they’re called to do, would rather go to Toshe Station to pick up some power converters.
So how can we change that? If Christians believe that sharing the Gospel is important but most don’t do it, what’s holding them back? There are a lot of reasons but I’m going to focus on two:
- Most Christians don’t know how to share their faith
- Most Christians don’t feel confident or comfortable talking about their faith
How can digital strategies help solve those problems? There are a number of digital tools that can help.
TOOLS FOR FACE-TO-FACE EVANGELISM
God Tools, which is available in more than 50 languages, has a simple Gospel presentation that you can walk a person through. The Gospel is such a big and complex story that when your average Christian is asked to explain it, they clam up. They don’t know where to start and what details to include.
“Well, it started in a garden because Adam and Eve ate an apple that they shouldn’t have. Well, it wasn’t really an apple, but some kind of fruit because a snake tricked them and because of that Noah had to load 2 of every animal onto a boat. But we don’t have to sacrifice livestock anymore because Jesus…”
What God Tools does is tells the basic Gospel message in four simple points:
- God loves you and created you to know Him personally.
- We are separated from God by our sin, so we cannot know Him or experience his love.
- Jesus is God’s only solution for our sin. Only through Him can we know God and receive His love and forgiveness.
- We must each respond to Jesus by placing our trust in Him as our Savior and Lord. Only then can we know God personally.
With God Tools, it’s easy to walk someone through a Gospel presentation that they can understand. If you can use your phone, you can share your faith.
The Jesus Film app is a great way to share evangelistic film clips or short films with someone you’re having a face-to-face conversation with. This app has clips from the Jesus film and other short films in over 1,000 languages. Film is one of the most powerful ways to communicate across cultures and evoke emotion. It draws people in and allows them to experience the Gospel message rather than just hearing it. The films are a great way to break the ice and start conversations about God and faith. You just have to ask questions and listen. And if the conversation brings you to a Gospel conversation and you’re not sure what to say, switch to your God Tools app!
FOR ANSWERING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS
Many Christians don’t share their faith because they’re worried about being asked a question they can’t answer. Big questions like:
- What’s my purpose in life?
- Where is God in tragedy?
- How do I know Jesus is real?
There is a website designed to answer those questions. EveryStudent.com has articles answering all of these big questions that nonbelievers and new believers have about Christianity. This is a great resource for someone who thinks they don’t have enough knowledge about the faith to share their faith.
God gives each of his follower’s a clear command to “make disciples of all the nations.” Though most followers of Jesus agree that it is important to share the Gospel, very few do. Two major reasons for this are:
- Most Christians don’t know how to share their faith
- Most Christians don’t feel confident or comfortable talking about their faith
Digital strategies can help with both of these. In Part One of this article, I discussed how God Tools and the Jesus Film app can aid with face-to-face spiritual conversations. For some, however, the idea of sharing their faith face to face is still too intimidating.
What if the Christian is not ready for sharing their faith face to face? I get it. As an introvert, starting a conversation with a stranger about any topic is awkward. Is there a baby step that they can take to share in a way that is more comfortable? Yes, that’s what our phones are for, when they’re not catching Pokemon!
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR EVANGELISM
Social media is an easy way for introverts and those lacking confidence to share their faith. You can use Hootsuite to do social listening, scanning social media for people who are discussing key topics. If someone is tweeting about depression, offer them the hope of God. If someone is asking questions about God, answer them.
Use WhatsApp to share your faith with your friends and in WhatsApp groups. Start group conversations about spiritual matters and let the Spirit guide you.
Use Facebook to pay attention to what is going on in your friends’ lives and look for opportunities to reach out to them. Look at what Amy Udy did. One day Amy was on Facebook and she noticed one of her friends, who is not a believer, was sharing a lot of travel photos, but she didn’t look happy in any of the pictures. So Amy messaged her friend and asked how she was doing. Her friend was shocked that she could tell something was wrong and surprised that someone cared enough to reach out. So they started talking on FaceTime and Amy’s friend told her about her marriage problems, depression, and other struggles. Amy shared her own experiences, talked about Biblical marriage, and shared the Gospel.
USE VOKE TO KICKSTART CONVERSATIONS
Another great tool for sharing your faith with someone at a distance is an app called Voke. Voke is a video-sharing app that helps you kickstart conversations that matter. The app also notifies you when your friend starts watching the video, when they finish it, and more so you can be there to talk to them at the moment of impact, possibly the very moment the Holy Spirit is working in their heart. What’s more, it comes with Vokebot, a program that helps you through the conversation by giving tips and suggestions.
DIGITAL DAY OF OUTREACH
One of the easiest ways to get Christians to start sharing their faith for the first time is to host a Digital Day of Outreach. Basically, a Digital Day of Outreach is an event where you’ll get a lot of Christians together, often students, and have them spend the day using Voke or social media to send an evangelistic video to their contacts. As their contacts watch those videos, they start up spiritual conversations.
We’ve seen God do amazing things at DDOs. Many of the participants had never shared their faith before. Many have helped friends and family members come to know Christ who they never thought they would be able to reach, people who they never even bothered trying to reach before because it seemed hopeless. Participants leave a Digital Day of Outreach with more confidence in sharing the Gospel and new tools to do it with.
Most Christians understand the importance of sharing the Gospel but don’t do it because they don’t know how and they lack confidence. For the Christians that you know personally, don’t assume that something that comes naturally to you is easy for them. Take it upon yourself to help them learn to share their faith with confidence using these digital tools and others. Just like Luke Skywalker, they need to be trained, and we need to be their Yoda.
This article originally appeared on Indigitous.org.
