Articles
“What Do I Say?”
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Colossians 4:6
For most Christians, the problem with evangelism is not that we don’t want to do it but that we don’t know what to say when an opportunity presents itself. Before we talk about what to say, let’s get two preliminary details about evangelism straight.
First, we can never be effective in evangelizing the lost until we regard people as fellow image-bearers of God. That is, we mustn’t look at people as “projects” for our evangelism but as unique people in their own right. Get to know them and find out what they are interested in. In short, love your neighbor as yourself.
Second, we will be much more effective in evangelism when we “do” Christianity ourselves (Jas. 1:22). We must let our light shine to show others what living for Jesus is like (Mt. 5:16). Living a faithful life takes away any legitimate accusations from unbelievers and may even draw them closer to salvation (1 Pet. 2:11-12).
Once we see people as God sees them and live according to God’s word, we can be ready to take the opportunities God gives us by weaving our faith into everyday conversation. Since Jesus is all the world to us, our faith should naturally permeate our speech. In other words, there doesn’t have to be a hard stop in the flow of our conversation with people while we shift into a “now-I-am-telling-you-about-Jesus-and-why-you-should-obey-him” mode. By raising an aspect of our faith in conversation, even if it moves on to other subjects later, we are showing our neighbor how central Christ is to our life. This may be as simple as someone asking us what we did over the weekend and responding with what we learned in a bible study or how encouraged we were by the church or worship.
In addition to weaving Christ into our communication, we can ask penetrating questions to move the discussion into more serious matters. To do this effectively, we must know what they are going through (see point 1). Perhaps someone is suffering from chronic pain. We may gently ask them, “What if your situation doesn’t improve?” This sets up the chance to discuss the difference between human happiness—which depends on circumstances being good—and Christian joy—which transcends all earthly circumstances. Or perhaps we may ask the nature lover what they think is behind the beauty of the natural world. These questions are risky because we don’t know how people will respond but they are necessary because they open up evangelistic possibilities.
When the opportunity comes, what do we say? We must proclaim Christ (2 Cor. 4:5), but how? There are many ways but here are three concepts from Mark 8:27-35 to help guide our conversation.
Identity (who Jesus is) — Jesus was no ordinary human but Israel’s prophesied Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior and King of the world. (Mk. 8:27-30) The first question to ask is: Who is Jesus?
Mission (why Jesus came) — Jesus left heaven for earth to fulfill his mission to save the lost through his sacrificial death on the cross to overcome sin and his resurrection to overcome death. (Mk. 8:31) The second question to ask is: Why did Jesus come?
Call (how to respond) — Jesus’ identity and mission put a claim on our lives to deny ourselves and follow him. (Mk. 8:34-35) Jesus bids us to come and die—to ourselves—and to live for him. So the third question to ask is: How will you respond to Jesus?
As we engage people with these three subjects, we must ask questions to see if they get it, if they agree with it, and what they will do about it—always listening more than speaking. Evangelism is not about saying everything, it’s about telling the truth about Jesus. By covering these three basic concepts we can be sure we are faithfully preaching the good news. The rest is up to God (1 Cor. 3:6-7).
