 How can we as Christians---more specifically, followers and disciples of Christ---live in such a way that represents the kingdom of heaven well? How can we share the gospel and love of Jesus with others without feeling the need to start a debate or conflict based on theological intellect? The answer is simply this: being fluent in the gospel.
Like a foreign language, to speak the gospel fluently requires practice, and lots of it. Thankfully, this doesn’t mean we have to know everything the Bible says either because we will constantly be learning as we keep practicing. A basic knowledge of the gospel story (see the Story in 4) and how it’s affected your life is enough to get you started. So how can we begin incorporating the gospel into our everyday language? To help us figure this out, I’m going to address a few different methods that I have learned so far while going through my own current, long-term journey of learning gospel fluency. Last summer, I read a book titled, Tactics by Gregory Koukl and it presented all kinds of methods for how we can share the gospel and learn how to defend why we believe what we believe. One of the very first things Koukl addressed was the importance of just asking questions; keep the conversation friendly by getting to know the person; learn to know/understand their worldviews so you will know how to navigate the conversation with further questions. Here’s an example he shared from a personal life experience. The clerk in the photo shop was wearing a necklace with the wiccan star. He asked her what it meant, which led to him asking about her religion. He then asked about her worldview on a certain moral matter and her statement contradicted that belief. Then, he simply asked her why she stood with that certain worldview when it clearly contradicted her beliefs. While this encounter didn’t allow for time to share the gospel, Koukl says that merely asking questions that get a person to think is a great starting point. The metaphor he used (which I now hear all the time when talking about learning how to evangelize) is called leaving a stone in the shoe. Asking questions that will leave a person thinking about their beliefs or worldviews---to the point of irritation that they feel like they have to figure out the solution, so to speak---is a simple way to scatter seeds for the sake of the gospel. Speaking of scattering seeds by putting stones in people’s shoes, another method I recently learned was at an evangelism class that was held at my church last weekend. Jared Looney of Global City Missions mentioned the value of a one-liner. Whether that be a question or even a simple comment/response (i.e., “God’s been good”), if it gets a person thinking, it’s better than nothing at all. In the words of Christian Challenge director, Paul Worcester, we need to be “seed-scattering fools” because we don’t know where the seeds will land or if they’ll bear any fruit. All we have to do---all we can do---is scatter the seed and leave the results to God. Who knows, maybe the grocery clerk (or college student) you speak to one time for a few minutes and might never see again will meet someone else a year or two later who had the opportunity to speak some truth to him; and then maybe, just maybe, a few more years later, he’ll meet someone else who will speak even more truth to him which could help him realize his dire need for the saving grace of Jesus. “‘Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside...Some fell on stony places….Some fell among thorns….But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty….he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.’” Matthew 13:3-8, 23 (NKJV) Image source: Westminster Presbyterian Church
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