My Starting Point in Sharing Christ with Others
I have been in ministry for 46 years on three different continents. I have seen the Lord accomplish great things in the lives of people who choose to follow him and help others do the same. When I came to faith in Christ at the age of 20 (here's my story on Soundcloud), I was discipled in the context of Cru. I learned how important it is to take seriously Jesus' final command to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). This has been my life theme, even though the Lord had to remind me in 2018.
I was trained to share my faith as a new believer, using the Four Spiritual Laws. I am forever grateful for that training. It taught me that if the gospel is good news, it deserves to be shared, and it continues to shape me these many years later.
A Shift in Approach
A shift has occurred in my approach over the last 20-plus years. I still love to share my faith, and I see every encounter as an opportunity to do so. I just go about it a bit differently. In the first half of my Christian life, I saw sharing my faith as a duty. I felt disappointed if I was not able to share Christ in some overt way. In this second half of my Christian life, I have mellowed a bit. I trust that I am just as fruitful, if not more so.
I am not entirely sure how the shift occurred. I cannot cite a particular moment or influence. In my 20s, while on staff with Cru, I felt, as I am sure other campus staff did, that sharing Christ had to include all or part of the gospel. When someone quoted the saying often attributed to Saint Francis, "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words," I dismissed it as not rigorous enough.
Well, I have come to embrace that perspective. I still believe in the power of the gospel to transform lives. I believe in the importance of kerygma, the New Testament Greek word for the proclamation of the gospel. The gospel is very specific (the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, etc.) and requires specific responses (faith, faithfulness, and fruitfulness).
My New Starting Place
I have found a new starting place whenever I encounter someone, whether it is the first time or the 50th.
Everyone needs to be named, known, seen, and loved.
If I can take 10 seconds or 10 minutes to pay attention to and learn the name of the person in front of me and understand where they are in that moment, then they feel named; known, even if only in a small way; seen, when they have been invisible to most of the people they have encountered that day; and loved, even if only through my attention, interest, and care in that encounter.
I find that their hearts are much more open to receiving something from me that relates to what they have shared. At the very least, if the encounter is brief, I say, "The Lord bless you and keep you." Try it, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the reactions. If the encounter is longer, I will offer a prayer, a web link, a Bible verse, or my short book, Friendship with Jesus. I try to provide a way for them to contact me.
I have not seen as many "decisions for Christ" as I did in the first 20 years of ministry. But as I seek to help as many people as possible walk and talk with Jesus like he's here, I trust that each encounter offers the fragrance of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15), leaving the person wanting more of him, not less. One of my goals, in our contentious age, is to give people many reasons to believe in Christ and no reason to reject him based on their experience with me.
So I invite you to do the same:
- See every encounter as an opportunity to love.
- Help everyone you encounter feel named, known, seen, and loved.
- Leave them with something, even if it is only a short blessing.
- Keep making those investments of love if you encounter someone on a regular basis.
Postscript: In this Jubilee Media social experiment video, which went viral, I try to put my approach into practice.
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