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Forty
Six things I’ve learnt from cold-contact evangelism
(e.g.
door-to-door, street preaching, conversations with strangers):
1.
Cold-contact doesn’t
have to be cold! Even the shortest meeting with a stranger can provide
opportunities to show concern and Christian love.
2.
Christ needs no
help in gaining an audience.
Jesus rules the cosmos – that’s my authorisation to speak. I don’t need a special excuse, I don’t
need to earn the right, I don’t need a clever bridge into the
culture. By God’s grace I have
had many many significant gospel conversations begun simply with
something like, ‘My name’s Glen.
Can I ask you what you make of Jesus?
3.
In 2006,
evangelistic organisation Bridgebuilders did a survey of 538 recent
converts. 58 of them said a
conversation with a stranger was ‘significant’ in their decision to
accept Christ. 23 said that a conversation with a stranger was the only
contact with a Christian they had before coming to Christ!
4.
You regularly
meet people – British people as well as foreigners – who don’t know even
the first thing about Christ. It
is a privilege to be pioneer missionaries to such people! Yet it is also very sobering. There are millions even in this country
who have not heard the gospel explained.
There are simpy not enough Christians around for friendship
evangelism to reach the nation or the world. Stranger evangelism is many people’s only hope!
5.
The streets are not
spiritually neutral places. They
proclaim spiritual values constantly.
Christians are not the ones cluttering up public spaces with
religious talk. Religious talk already abounds. We are simply vocalising
the Truth. We must not abandon
public spaces to the gods of this age.
The streets would suffer without us.
6.
Apologetics
simply helps the non-Christian avoid the claim of Christ on them. It will
divert the conversation into countless unfruitful cul-de-sacs. Speak of
Christ!
7.
Always be praying
for wisdom and for the Spirit’s power to attend the Word.
8.
Always be
thinking what this person needs to hear and believe next. Think of (and have to hand)
appropriate literature for them to take away. (Remember in many contexts
a bus, train, phone call or friend could drag them away at any second).
9.
You can be the
fragrance of life and the stench of death in a single afternoon. I’ve had a number of people look me in
the eye and tell me they’d rather go down to the devil than be with
Jesus. We mustn’t be shocked by
this. We are, in a very real
sense, being Jesus to these people – we are His ambassadors and whoever
receives us receives Him. We will
get the kind of reactions He got if we’re being faithful. That means not only rejection but
also, wonderfully, life and hope.
10. There ought to be a good dose of announcement
to your outreach. Conversations
are great – earth-shattering at times.
But God has given us news to proclaim, not simply advice to
share. Even if people don’t hear
what you’re saying, it is a gospel witness to have truth declared
publicly. It says to people –
there is an authoritative story to be told and it stands over and above
the to-and-fro of life.
11. Prayer is incredibly powerful. The best times of open-air and
door-to-door are so often preceded by concerted times of prayer. Pray intentionally, fervently,
particularly, expectantly. Pray
big beforehand. Pray continually
throughout. And pray afterwards for protection (Satan loves to get a
foot-hold after we go into battle) and for the word to be powerfully at
work in those to whom we’ve spoken.
12. Pray for and seek to establish good relations
with the local churches. You will be a blessing to them, getting the
gospel out to people who have not yet entered their four walls and hopefully
bringing some of them in. Get
them praying for you and perhaps providing members for your outreach team
so that you can invite the people you meet to their nearest good church.
13. The gospel is simple. Jesus lived and died for you, will you surrender to Him?
All difficulties come from distractions and complications. Speak of
Jesus.
14. Pray that ‘from the overflow of your heart your
mouth will speak.’ Pray that there would be a tangible love for Jesus
evident in your words about Him.
Pray that people would know you’re not a propagandist for a
religion but the beloved of a Saviour!
15. Don’t dis-enfranchise anyone from hearing! The most unlikely looking person is
someone infinitely precious to Christ and someone who should (and so soon
could) hold Christ to be infinitely precious to them. Don’t by-pass anyone and don’t be any
the less prayerful as you speak to the ‘unlikely ones.’ Faith is always a miracle.
16. Don’t divorce Word and Spirit in your
thinking. We do this in all sorts
of ways but one is when we pray that God’s Spirit would open and prepare
hearts long before the Word comes to them. God may well grant this prayer, but we know how God’s
Spirit works – He works through the Word. The power of God for salvation does not come and then the
gospel. The gospel is the power
of God. God has told us how He
unblocks ears and softens hearts – it is through the gospel
proclaimed. It would be terrific
if God softened up someone in advance of our preaching, but to be
focussed on finding the pre-softened non-Christians is to forget what
power we have as we proclaim.
When we proclaim, then the Spirit unleashes His power to effect
not just softening but life from the dead! We can meet someone who is completely ‘un-prepared’ for the
gospel, but the gospel itself has the power to save that person in an
instant. We must go into our
evangelism convinced of the power that is unleashed in the preaching of
the gospel. The Spirit works
through even our weak words.
17. Christ crucified looks exceptionally weak to the
world. Our preaching will – in
fact must – look similarly weak – 1 Cor 1&2!
18. There are Roman Catholics and Greek and Russian
Orthodox Christians with wonderful and humbling faiths in Jesus. There’s such a thing as being too
suspicious!
19. Having said that, for Catholics and Orthodox,
the question of assurance is a key way into the gospel.
20. For the Christian religious people, challenge
them to be born again. Take them
through John 3, tell them Nicodemus was from a religious background with
a religious job – he needed to begin again with Jesus. And so do we.
21. If you meet believers from a Pentecostal
background, it’s often good to ask what they find hard in the Christian
life and to empathise with them in this. Many have been fed a steady diet
of prosperity gospel and don’t even know it’s ok to suffer. You could be a life-line!
22. If someone says “I don’t believe in God”, ask
them “Which god don’t you believe in?”
Whatever they say you can tell them “I don’t believe in that god
either.” Whatever notion of
absolute power etc they come up with, it is nothing like the God of the
Cross. Declare to them Christ and
Him crucified – a God totally unlike any human imaginings.
23. When I began doing open air I was told three
questions to ask people which I’ve never been able to improve on as hooks
to hang the discussion on: Who is Jesus?
Why did He come and die? If God were to ask you ‘Why should I let
you into my heaven?’ what would you reply? Give them the bible’s answer
at each point.
24. Having said that… Different strokes for
different folks! Don’t simply
trot out the same spiel to everyone.
On the contrary the Spirit has given me some very unexpected
verses to bring to bear on conversations that have proved incredibly
effective. If you want a
watch-word: it’s the Spirit not strategy!
25. Printing up your own tracts is probably best if
you’re going to be using them lots.
In bulk, printers can do them for around 20p each and they will
have your details on them and all the information you want.
26. Two Ways to Live is not a great tract for
Muslims. The first three boxes
will all too easily be seen by them as a fair summary of Islam
anyway. Box 4 brings in Jesus
half-way through the story, described expressly as ‘the man Jesus Christ’
and solving a problem He’s had nothing to do with.
27. If a Muslim says that Jesus is just a prophet,
ask them if they know anything He prophesied. Almost unfailingly they won’t. Tell them that prophets speak – that’s what they do. You can’t honour a prophet without hearing
His words. Take them to an
outrageous claim by Jesus and get the conversation going. I like to use John 17:5 – you get
Jesus’ pre-existence and the cross in one verse! (It’s handy to be in John for when you
back up the pre-existence point.
Go back to the prologue, get them interested then give them the
Gospel to read for themselves.)
28. If a Muslim says the bible has been corrupted,
ask them ‘when?’ They can’t say
before the Quran was written because the Quran says to read the Injil
(the Gospels) and to consult the people of the book (Jews and
Christians). If they say it was
corrupted after, tell them you’ll take them to the British Library where
you can see two complete bible manuscripts from well before Muhammed’s
time. But of course…
29. The real proof for the bible’s authenticity is
that in it God actually does speak.
Have gospels with you.
Introduce them to some aspect of their teaching as you speak with
the person (I often use John’s gospel and take them very quickly through
the prologue). Then as the
conversation winds down, give them the Gospel with the page that you were
discussing marked. Challenge them
to read the Gospel for themselves…
30. But don’t just get them to read it. Perhaps say something like this: ‘If
what I’m saying is true about the bible – that it’s God’s own word – then
reading it is a spiritual thing. So because it’s a spiritual thing, the
best thing you could do would be to pray to God as you open up the
Gospel. Say, ‘Dear God, please
show me if Jesus really is who He says He is.’ You can’t lose with that
kind of prayer – if He’s not there He won’t answer. But if He is there, there’s nothing
more important than meeting His Son.’
31. The great majority of people who say ‘I don’t
speak English’ can actually have a decent conversation with you (after
all they got to the train station, street corner or wherever else you’ve
set up! This is obviously not as
true if doing door-to-door). I
usually say ‘Oh where are you from?’ which invariably gets the
conversation going. After a bit I say ‘And what do they think of Jesus in
your country?’
32. Use your testimony. Lots.
33. The phrase ‘… Now if that’s true then …’ can be
useful in laying out both the gospel truth and the implication. It
doesn’t cast doubt on the gospel truth but draws out its meaning for
everyday life. Once you’ve
explained the implication you can return to the gospel truth having shown
how crucial it is.
34. E.g. “After Jesus rose again He went back into
heaven, now if that’s true then it means the One sitting on the throne of
the universe, the One I can pray to each moment, is my Brother who loved
me so much He died for me. Now if
that’s true then ultimately things are going to work out. God is going to
hear my prayers, forgive my sins, receive me into eternal life all because
Jesus – His Son and my Brother – sits in heaven on my behalf. Ultimately, whether I’m going to make
it in life depends on who this Jesus is and whether He really did do
these things. Have you ever taken
the time to investigate Jesus and His work for us?”
35. Do you see how the phrase ‘if that’s true’
actually throws all the emphasis back onto the gravity of this truth
claim? Of course the unbeliever
doesn’t believe this truth, but assuming its truth for the sake of argument
can help you in all sorts of ways.
The unbeliever is left saying ‘But I’m not sure that that is
true.’ And you say ‘How clever of
you to identify the key issue!
Yes indeed, you need to investigate this truth very seriously. A
lot depends on it!’
36. In street preaching, music, theatre etc can be
great ways of drawing a crowd and augmenting your preaching. After all Jesus spoke in memorable
ways, used stories, illustrations, current affairs, crowd interaction,
visual aids etc etc. Using these means is not a betrayal of 1 Corinthians
1&2. But if you do go for
such performances, work hard at them.
It doesn’t work to use performance art with crummy performances
and not much art! You may as well
stick to unadorned preaching if you’re adornments are going to put people
off. The gospel is offensive
enough without cringe-worthy, unrehearsed, badly performed
side-shows. If you’re not good at
these things – that’s absolutely fine, just get on and preach. Problems arise when people (I can
think of many of my own failed attempts!) have a go at these in a
half-hearted way justifying it by saying there’s honour in being ‘fools
for Christ’. We will be fools
enough for peaching the gospel, no need to be a fool for incompetence
too!
37. Having said all this 1) The LORD can use even
our feeblest efforts, 2) cracked jars can often show forth the shining
treasure since people are not tempted to look at the outward, and 3) you
never know if you can pull these things off unless you try. As John Piper says ‘Risk is Right!’
38. Using amplification will raise your message
above the noise of the street but also make it easier for people to stay
at a distance. Speaking at a
normal level draws people in.
39. Challenge people to a decision. This means a) people have a chance to repent
and believe and b) it models to everyone the fact that the gospel is a
divine summons not just another life-philosophy. We are not simply offering another
world-view, we are calling people to Christ.
40. When it’s appropriate ask, ‘What’s stopping you
giving your life to Christ right now?’
Again, this flows out of the divine summons point above. It also shows that conversion is not
about lengthy rituals of penitence but a free offer of life.
41. There’s nothing wrong with praying with people
on the streets. I suggest praying
yourself, having told them what you are about to pray (checking for
understanding). I would also
encourage the person to add their own prayer, making it their own
response to God.
42. Invite them to church (have details of good
churches nearby ready). The
Church is God’s evangelistic mission to the world – our outreach is not
done behind the backs of churches, in contempt of them. We love church! We pray that we will be a blessing to
the local churches. We refuse to
draw any distinction between inviting a person into the life of the
kingdom and inviting them into the life of the church. To do the former is necessarily to do
the latter. Make it known throughout
your outreach that there are whole communities of people where these truths
are openly discussed and lived out and that they would be so welcome to
come and investigate.
43. By all means meet up again! Before church for a
coffee would be great. If they’re
not yet keen on church perhaps offer to meet at a café and go over the first
chapter of the gospel you’ve just given them.
44. Be sensible about male-female issues. If they are of the opposite sex, seek
to introduce them to a same-sex member of the team. Make sure the team is aware that this
might happen.
45. I’ve used this phrase a lot (got it from a
veteran!): ‘Do not stop short of anything less than a personal and direct
encounter with Christ. Anything
less and you are eternally short-changing yourself!’ Again, it’s driving home the point
that this is about encounter with Christ, not philosophical sport!
46. In short: smile, pray continually and speak of
Jesus!
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