Sharing Our Faith - a workshop

Quote from John Dickson

Our friends and neighbours live and breathe in the presence of the greatest Lord. Yet, they do not know it. We, the people of the Lord, who know God’s majesty over heaven and earth, must stand up on the bus, so to speak, and, in whatever way is appropriate to our gifts, personality and circumstances, promote God’s glory.

Quote from Charles Spurgeon

Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.

Factors in Sharing Faith

(1) LOVING GOD – We need to be people who have responded to God’s love and grace by loving God in return. It is difficult to truly love our neighbour, because of all the quirkiness and points of difference that generally exist, without first loving the God who loves them. We cannot separate the two elements of the greatest commandment given by Jesus in the Gospels (loving God and neighbour)! Effectively sharing faith depends upon living with Jesus in the centre of our being. When this is the case, sharing faith becomes more and more natural! However, without Jesus in the centre, there is often too many conflicting agendas (or inconsistencies within us) for our faith to be shared with any authenticity.

(2) BEING BURDENED – We need to have a burden for people who don’t know Jesus at least to the point where we are prepared to make sacrifices so that they might experience Jesus. To say that people need to know Jesus, or that it’s a shame that they don’t know Jesus … is not enough! We must be prepared to be part of the solution – part of the seed sowing process. We as a community formed around Jesus, need to continue to paint an informed picture of community need. We should also assume that people will not hear about Jesus unless we tell them, and won’t accept Jesus unless we help them. The early disciples had great success because they really cared about the welfare of their community.

(3) GOOD VISION – We should learn to see other people as Jesus sees them! We should see past any behaviour, language or belief system (without being repelled) knowing that God loves this person.

(4) DEALING WITH FEAR – Each of us probably have concerns about being embarrassed or ridiculed or rejected or losing friends when we share our faith. However we need to address this fear with a reminder of our responsibility to not allow another person to live on without knowing about Jesus. God being important to us means that God would also be important to the lives of others. There will be no reaping or harvesting without sowing!

(5) BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS – We should see life, and the life of the church, as an opportunity to build relationships with people from our neighbourhood. We start this process through simply being positive and helpful people and offering helpful and engaging activities. We can also become sort of “go to” people … people that can be relied upon (literally ‘good neighbours’). We have to earn people’s trust. We build relationship credits with people by showing we are interested in them, performing simple acts of kindness, and meeting their needs in practical ways. In starting to think about how we might build relationships with people, Dennis Pethers suggests, “Do something you love and take Jesus with you”. Dennis himself joined a gym, and was sure to take Jesus with him. When we do start to share life with certain people, we should check on ourselves that we don’t leave the faith part out! They may find our stories of faith far more interesting than we think.

(6) HUMILITY – We should abandon attempts to exert power or control over people; rather assuming the position of a co-traveller (searching for meaning and purpose). We should never try to argue a person toward faith … this can be very counter-productive. This does not mean that we can’t be confident or assured about what we believe for ourselves. But we should be wary of trying to sell a message which does not really ring true (or appear to work) in our own lives as yet. Rather, we should correctly represent ourselves as ‘works-in-progress’ – this being much more accessible anyway for others than any pretence of having it all together.

(7) BRIDGE-BUILDING – We are seeking to build a bridge for another person between where they are and Jesus. But we do not stand on our side and try to drag them over, but rather join them on their side and seek to walk over with them. This is what Jesus himself modelled in his own incarnation – to become known to us he came to our place! So we don’t begin with a pre-prepared package of doctrines – most people these days will have no idea what we are talking about anyway. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Bridge-building starts with listening long and hard to other people.

(8) NATURAL SHARING – Although the Gospel message has a particular and unique focus, we should not just seek to share what we might consider to be undeniable facts. We should honour where other people are at, on the basis of their own particular journey of life. We should listen to their stories, and seek to understand their reservations, doubts and points of disagreement. We should simply seek to share the journey of life, and draw attention to our faith as we share about our particular experiences. We should listen well for nuances of conversation that lend themselves to faith sharing. And finding ways of encouraging others often provides a positive opening.

(9) PRAYER – We should pray for new opportunities to arise, and for the powers of good listening and wise responding in those opportunities. Having prayed we should be expectant for what God will do! God can bring about an encounter, and prepare the other person for it. And we should trust God for the outcome … God is with us!! Through the knowledge of God’s presence with us, our confidence should build. It could be that someone asks us why we live the way we do, or why we hold particular beliefs. These questions could arise out of our serving attitude. We should also pray that we might be able to respond graciously when treated unkindly … for the sake of witnessing to the Jesus who taught us to love our persecutors.

(10)                    TELLING OUR STORY – We should practice (or rehearse) our own faith story, and consider how various elements of this might connect with the situations of others. For example, our sense of forgiveness may connect with another’s sense of guilt. My own faith story is about the search for meaning and purpose in life more so than a sense of sin or guilt. There are many people who have no sense of sin or lost-ness, therefore other initial points of connection will need to be discovered. These could include: dissatisfaction with the world, loneliness, grief, family concerns, work issues, health, etc. Just about every point of discussion has a faith element to it (or a connection to the Gospel story)! We should especially focus on what God is doing in our lives now … which is far more relevant and poignant than ‘ancient history’! What difference is God making in the present? How is God currently responding to our prayers?  God wants to use each of us as we are. God wants to use you as you! We shouldn’t try to be something or someone we are not. In fact, it could be how we are dealing with our vulnerabilities and sufferings that has the most impact, and lays the best groundwork for faith-sharing. Let’s practice!

(11)                    GOOD IMPRESSIONS – We should at least achieve the other person gaining a better understanding of God than they had before. Also, what we know to be “good news” should certainly be conveyed (and hopefully appreciated) as ‘good news’. We should seek to express joy, thankfulness, hope and peace. Then, our story may be seen as an ‘alternative vision of life’, especially for those who are struggling. Also, having heard a person’s need, we can offer to pray for them.

(12)                    PATIENCE – We don’t need to make huge strides or jump big chasms straight away – we need patience. We should not expect or even look for immediate response – in most cases finding Jesus is a process. Too often we give up too early because of a lack of response, failing to understand the often strangeness being experienced by another person. This is becoming more and more the norm, as more and more people have never really heard about Jesus. We may also be just one link in a much longer chain of people who will share their faith with a particular other person. We might only be one link, but we don’t want to be the “missing link”!

(13)                    GOOD SUPPORT – Any person considering a big change to their life, like accepting Jesus brings, needs support. They are perhaps most concerned what other family members and friends might think. Also, if someone does want to accept Jesus in our presence, help them pray their own prayer from their own heart in their own words, rather than giving them set/prepared words; for it is important that a person owns their own faith statements (and not borrow them from others).

(14)                    EDUCATING OURSELVES – When we are asked a question we can’t immediately or satisfactorily answer, we should be prepared to say that we don’t know and that we’ll seek to find out (rather than uttering some trite or unhelpful nonsense). When we have become more informed, we can then gently come back to a person with some responses to their question. There are some often raised intellectual objections or ‘belief blockages’ that making sharing our faith very difficult. This is why we are progressively showing the series of DVD presentations towards belief that respond to these often heard ‘belief blockers’ (and we have already looked at suffering, the bible and issues around a supernatural, miracle-working God). Also, participating in reflective and interactive bible study helps us know more about the faith we follow.

(15)                    SUPPORTIVE NETWORK – We should take the time to HONESTLY share with one another how we are going with this faith-sharing – the good and the not so good. In this way we can draw support, ideas and prayer.

(16)                    WELCOMING CHURCH – No one will survive as a Jesus-follower for long without loving and supportive Christian community. We must always factor in being a welcoming church to all comers, and have gatherings that hold some relevance for people at all stages on the faith journey. Churches should be places where people can happily invite and bring their friends and family.