Sharing the Gospel

In order to effectively share the gospel, there is a skill that you need to learn, develop, and even master.  This skill I’m speaking of does not require the memorization of Scripture (although doing so is strongly recommended).  

It does not require you to take a course or even read a book (although doing so may be very beneficial).  It doesn’t even require you to knock on doors in the neighborhood (although we need to do that).

No, the skill I’m speaking of is the ability to listen, or observe.

If you were casually walking down the street and noticed that a neighbor’s bedroom was on fire, and you could see that the living room curtains were open, with the family watching TV, you would instinctively yell to them, “YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE!  GET OUT!”  Then you would begin running toward their door – with your eyes fixed on the family in the living room.  You are observing them – looking to see if they hear you – looking for a response, and indication that they are taking you seriously.  If they immediately get up and run out, then great!  But if they didn’t, you would ramp up the intensity in your warning, yelling louder and knocking on the front door.  Eventually, if the people inside the burning house refused to respond to your warnings, you would bang on the door with all of your might and yell at the top of your lungs.  My point is, you watched and listened, and as your warnings were increasingly ignored, rather than becoming disappointed and walking away, you ramped up the intensity of your efforts.

In our gospel conversations with lost people, we must learn to listen.  They will tell us where they are on this scale.  If you listen closely and observe, their comments and demeanor will signal if they are sitting comfortably sitting on the couch, ignoring the warnings, or if they have heard the message and are considering its truthfulness, or are they ready to escape their burning house at all costs.  You don’t want to shout at someone who is already running for safety, and you don’t want to be gentle with someone who is ignoring the gospel message.  There is a proper balance in all of these situations.

So how do you develop this skill?  Like everything else – through practice.  You must purposely bring up gospel conversations with others.  You need to be talking about the things of Christ so regularly that it just becomes natural to you.  And people talk about what they’re doing in life – so if you want to be able to easily start gospel conversations, you need to be reading your Bible all-the-time.  When you’re doing that, the things of God will become a natural part of your conversations, even with strangers.

Blessings!

Pastor Bruce

Bruce.cullom@gmail.com