Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Do You Know the Starting Point for Evangelism?

Do You Know the Starting Point for Evangelism?

About a year ago, I was sitting on the steps of First Presbyterian Church in San Diego with a young man who was homeless. I had my arm around him as he wept—he wanted to die, was utterly without hope.

I asked him a simple question, “Would you tell me your story?”

 For the next 30 minutes, he shared with me his life story that began in a happy home and ended waking up that morning, not fully aware of what had occurred the night before. As he finished his story, wiping away his tears, he concluded with his doubts in God and God’s presence in his life as he glanced up at the bell tower behind us.

And at that moment something came to mind.

 I invited him up to my office, pulled out a pad of paper and pen. I scratched out a timeline of my life—childhood, teen years, early adulthood, marriage, etc. I ripped off the paper from the pad, handed him the pad and pen. I said, “I’m going to get you some coffee. While I do, would you write out your timeline?”

When I returned with a cup of coffee, two pieces of paper were already crumpled on the floor as he worked on his third start. He looked up and said, “This is gonna take me a while.”

Over the next week, I got to know this young man better. He talked through his life. He would point at certain points and talk about what happened in greater detail. I would ask clarifying questions. I had ulterior motives in this project. I had a hunch this guy needed long-term help, but, as it is with many people on the streets, his story was confusing.

Writing it down helped me understand his trajectory and how best our church and others might help him.

I picked up on the idea in a leadership class at Fuller Seminary. Dr. Robert Clinton had advocated using timelines for leadership development. I just hacked the idea for my own purposes.

But that young man discovered something as we talked through his life: We discovered that, even as bad as life was at the moment, there was good news riddled throughout his life—God had been showing up everywhere.