Living a Gospel Lifestyle

One of the blogs I enjoy reading is fellow pastor J.D. Greer from Summit Church in Durham North Carolina.  His latest blog on how to share your faith was so spot on I wanted to share it with you:


How do you initiate Gospel conversations with people you interact with on a daily basis (waitresses, etc)?

Here are a few things I practice.

• I frequent the same places. People in our society don't respond well to strangers, so I try to eat, drink coffee, buy gas, get my car worked on, and shop, etc at the same places. Relationship is not essential for evangelism, but it sure helps. At most of those places I mentioned people know me by name. Inevitably a chance comes up to pray for them, ask about their lives, invite them to church, etc. For example, several of the people from my local coffee shop have started to come to our church, and a few have become believers and gotten baptized. My mechanic has recently attended our church.
• Where relevant, I leave BIG tips. Especially if I know someone is having a bad day. I'll jot a little note and tell them I'm praying for them.
• I ask people, sometimes, how I can pray for them. Most people don't mind to be prayed for, and if they don't want to talk, they answer shortly and I let it drop.
• I invite them to church. Over and over.
• When in a conversation, I use an acrostic I learned years ago to help guide the conversation. F- Family; I- interests; R- Religion; E - Evangelism. Yes, that can seem wooden, I know... but it can also help you move a conversation along. Sometimes in talking about religion I'll say, "Do you feel like you have a relationship with God?" I get the most interesting responses back to that question. And usually, it provides me a chance to tell them my story... how I grew up in church but came to know God personally later. As I talk about how I came to know Christ, I make sure to give the Gospel along the way. People don't like to be preached to, but they do like to be asked their opinions, and they do like to hear your story.
• Bill Hybels has written 2 great books on this subject called Contagious Christian and Just Walk Across the Room. Highly recommended.

How do you share Christ with someone who is an agnostic, and their life seems to be going well, and they seem perfectly happy without God?

Yeah, that's a tough one. What you must first recognize is that nobody can come to God until God draws them (John 6:44). The Greek word used for "draw" in that verse conveys the idea of hunger, as in how a starving man is drawn to food. In order to come to God, we must first be taught by the Holy Spirit to hunger for God... to see in our hearts who God is and who we are, how fragile life is, etc. As the old hymn Amazing Grace says, "Tis grace that taught my heart (first!) to fear, and then grace my fears relieved."

That means your first and primary recourse is prayer. There is simply no substitute.

Don't underestimate the power of a consistently kind and joyful life before somebody. Everybody puts up a front, and everybody has moments of self-doubt. Your consistent walk with Christ will probably come into their minds at a time you don't don't even realize--in one of those moments of self-doubt, or in a tough time... maybe even years later. The way you live before them and the things you tell them are like a seed that may not harvest until much later.

Finally, Gospel people are to be people of extraordinary generosity, extraordinary answers to prayer, and extraordinary joy. Look for ways to really put the generosity of Christ on display, because laying down your life can really get someone's attention; look for places to ask God for miracles; and thank God for chances to suffer before your friends, because only in suffering can you put on display that you have a joy that is better than anything life can give and that death cannot take away.