Evangelism Seminar: Session 3, Guiding the Way

We have spent a lot of time discussing how to explore where people are at on their spiritual journey's with God, but as we all know, it can often be very difficult to understand how the many tumultuous spiritual paths we can find the world on, can connect in a relevant way to the cross. The problem with this is that we need to have a way to relevantly explain the reason why we have in Jesus Christ, and why therefore we choose to live our ways in a different way from the world. If we have done our job correctly as explorers of people's spiritual reality, people others centered in asking questions and listening, the gospel can be shared in both a clear, bold, and relevant way which leads people to the gospel.

In Psalm 5, David cries out to the Lord, "Make your way straight before me." What really want and need as believers is the gospel. We need to know, in a very straightforward way, that there is nothing that we can do to earn our way to God, but rather it is only by he grace of God, every day, through Jesus Christ that we are His children. Our need for straight paths to God, only by grace, is the same as not-yet Christians. As we are exploring in people's lives we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit for guiding people on straight paths to the cross via the gospel. So, as I have been known to be asking question, can you describe the gospel of Jesus Christ in a straightforward way? As evangelists, one of the tools in our toolbox needs to be a clear gospel presentation. I think one of the most effective ways of doing this is through our personal stories. As believers, we all have the gospel written on our lives, in many different ways which connect to peoples needs in unique ways. There are also many different resources out there which have very clear and distinct gospel presentations. Some of the ones we talked about in class were "Do You Want to Know God Personally", published by Crupress, "For You Joy" published be desiringGod, and "Backstory" also published by Crupress.

Some questions that I find to be helpful to ask in order to allow people to process the gospel: What is sin? So, have you sinned?
Why did Christ have to die on the cross?
What do you think Eph 2:8,9 is saying?
What is the main difference between a person who is a Christian and is not?
If there is a written prayer in presentation, what is the main idea of this prayer?

Guiding people to Christ is something that we are called to do as people are in a position to receive the gospel.