I don’t know what to say? How do you even get the ball rolling?
This is another one of those questions that dogs Christians as they seek to get over the hump and start sharing their faith. We want to do it. It just doesn’t seem to come up and anything we imagine saying sounds lame, so we don’t say it.
Well, there are a couple of things that we need to think about here. First, you might have to make yourself feel a little uncomfortable and take the plunge. A lot of we imagine saying in our heads, sounds lame in our heads because we’re overanalyzing it. Sometimes people are more willing to talk about faith than we might guess and so when we bring up the topic, the ball can get rolling. I’m a pastor so I have an unfair advantage, but a lot of times when I mention that I’m a pastor, people are surprisingly interested in talking about that or their own previous experience with church. Also, while things may be a little awkward at first, practice makes perfect. Anything you want to do well takes practice, so you might have to accept that awkwardness for a time as you get more comfortable taking advantage of the opportunities God gives.
Second, you might have to do a little brainstorming and preparation. If you have a nonChristian friend, coworker, family member, etc that you’d like to share with, think about topics in advance. Do you usually talk sports, what’s been going on in your family, work stuff, the news, etc? Start thinking about questions and comments in these areas that might bring up faith. Here’s an article that even shows how to use the latest Batman movie, or one on the Simpsons. If you google faith and a topic you’ll get some ideas.
Third, and most importantly- pray. Pray over and again- pray for opportunities, for the right words, for specific people, for love and humility no matter what happens.
How about some examples now.
I’ll get the ball rolling with one of my favorite methods. The person you talk to reveals some hardship or problem they’re dealing with. Tell them, “I’ll keep you in my prayers.” This is all-important now. If they say something in response to this, follow up on the comment. If they say, “I really appreciate it,” then maybe ask them about their own prayer life or something like that. Even if they don’t say much, make sure you check back in later and say something like, “Hey, I’ve been praying about . . ., how are things going there?” You’ve just opened up the window to more personal conversation and put faith back in focus again. You can talk about how your own faith has helped you in such situations, what other’s prayers have meant, etc.
To take a more casual topic, how about a news story. You can refer to the previous blog series, “Reading the News Through the Lens of Faith” for countless examples of how to bring faith into focus on such topics. If you’re talking the economy, mention that you read a couple of articles on Biblical principles that have made you reevaluate your own finances. Bring up some of those principles and the surrounding context and see where it goes.
Remember God can use almost any topic to his purposes. Ok, what conversations have you had that you had or do you imagine having that you’d like to turn to the topic of faith. Let’s have some examples and some comments on how a person might bring up the faith in those examples.
Tags: how to, Sharing Faith
When I was working with un churched friends it was easy to bring up the fun things diffrent groups were doing at church, and invite them to join in. Maybe the Dining out group or old movie night, groups going on out of town trips. Once they get to know more people in the congrigation, they are ready to come to church with you and learn what is most important, Gods’ Word. Anyway it has worked for me.
I play golf each Monday with a bunch or retirees at Pecan Hollow Golf Course in Plano. From time to time I have mentioned that our church had a tournament there. Going on, I’d tell my playing partners of the long drive the “A” player in our group had made on this particular hole(basically commenting of the skills of young players) On a number of chats with my cart partner(s) the question would be asked,”what church do you go to?” Usually this was followed up with some experience of theirs (good and bad) in their church life. I would just invite them to our church to see that what we preach is centered on Christ. In one instance, a playing partner took me up on the invitation and eventually he and his wife went through Pastor’s class and joined (no big effort on my part- it was God using me as the initial contact)