This is evangelism-equipping week at the Summit. As I explained this weekend, according to Ephesians 4:11 it is the saints who do the primary work of the ministry, and us pastors that to do the equipping. So all week we are going to put up tools and resources to help you get more equipped to engage in the mission. A great way you can put this into action is to invite people to church at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park this Sunday!
Daniel Simmons, one of our campus pastors, put this review together. He previously wrote a blog called “Practical Missional Living.”
The Fuel and the Flame by Steve Shadrach is a book about college ministry. If you are not on staff with a college ministry or a church college pastor, you might feel like you are reading something totally irrelevant to you. But you would be wrong, because some of the ministry principles in this book cross over into all areas of ministry. In particular, chapter 6 deals with personal evangelism. He has spent much of the book talking walking with God, having a vision for ministry, and building relationships, but this chapter 6 is relevant to everyone who has a desire to sharpen their gospel conversations. There are four reasons I say this:
1) Shadrach challenges Christians to not simply recruit other Christians to the ministry, or in our case church, but to intentionally build relationships with lost people. The goal is not to have people church hop, the churches mission is not to reach Christians that are moving to RDU from other cities, what we are here for, in part, is to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). We certainly want people moving here from other places to come to our church, but if that is the extent to your sharing the gospel, you are not sharing the gospel. We need to, as Shadrach puts it, “penetrate into non-Christian circles with the gospel” (125).
2) Often times, one of the hardest aspects of a gospel conversation is turning it from a sports/tv conversation to the gospel. Sometimes we want to, we just don’t know how. Shadrach deals with this very issue on pages 131 and 132. He gives five transition sentences that he has used over the years, good advice on how to say them, and then suggest that you actually practice these types of conversations. All of these can help you a great deal turn a conversation towards the spiritual. Here are some examples of phrases that Shadrach uses to transition conversations to the Gospel:
“Preston, if you could know God in a personal way, would you want to?”
“Ali, on a scale of 1 to 10, how sure are you that you’re going to heaven?…Would you like to know for sure?”
“Clark, I’ve got a little presentation here that I’d love to show you that explains what the bible says a real Christian is. Mind if I take a few minutes to share it with you?”
“Stephanie, I’m trying to learn how to share my faith. I’m wondering if you would allow me to practice and get your response?”
“You know, Anna, I don’t feel like I’ve been much of a friend to you. Over the last few weeks/months you’ve opened up a shared with me all kinds of things about yourself, yet I haven’t told you abut the most important thing in my life. May I?”
“David, what do you think about spiritual things?”
3) One of the most important things in this chapter is the section called “Can you ask the Golden Question?” The golden question is, after sharing the gospel with someone, “Do you want to receive Christ as Lord and Savior today?” Then you shut your mouth and let the Holy Spirit work in those awkward 3 or 4 seconds that seem like an eternity. We often make great arguments for the faith, we can tell people all about Jesus, but we forget to call them to a decision. This is one of the most important aspects any gospel conversation, because this question brings them to a moment of crisis. Shadrach says on page 133, “I believe the main reason many students have never received Christ into their lives is because no one has ever individually shared the gospel with them in a personal way, asked the golden question, and waited for a response.”
4) Have a method to share the gospel. We all need a way to share the gospel clearly and confidently, one that we can go through any time we need to. It must centered on the work of Jesus, let scripture be the key words used to change people, have a place where people are confronted by whether or not they are Christians, and a place to ask the golden question. As long as the method has these, it really doesn’t matter whether you use the bridge, “Four Spiritual Laws,” the Story. or anything else.
For those of you who want to sharpen your ability to share the gospel effectively and creatively, I highly recommend chapter 6 in The Fuel and the Flame.
