Article By Meranda, ( piecing in blue text commentary and notes from Jim Staley’s video )
A believer can present the gospel, – but how effective is their delivery approach?
The video is about about how to present the gospel to others in such a way where they grab a hold of the material you are presenting in the best way possible.
Why should you watch this video?
A. The content is rare. Most believers don’t practice sharing their faith. Most churches don’t teach this topic, which means a very small group of believers could teach this material. You wouldn’t want to learn this from someone who don’t put this into practice.
B. The material is learned over years of practice. Wouldn’t you want to be taught the right way, first and foremost, than have to dig through the trenches yourself for years?
C. It’s a free video. Content like this in other subjects cost 10K or more. You could learn these concepts today if you wanted.
Here my bullet point takeaways from this fantastic presentation:
How To Share Your Christian Roots ─ Passion For Truth Ministries
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1. There’s homework, and memorization involved. You need to be able to know a few key scriptures off the top of your head if you want to be successful in presenting truth to a person.
2. You may be the sole witness of God in a person’s lifetime. What if God told you to share something about Him with a person? This very thing happened to me. I had a conversation with a lady at a cash register. I was heading home on the highway, when I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to turn around and go back and share the gospel to that person. I could have turned around right away, and just went in, and handed her a witnessing document. Instead, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me this twice, and I didn’t obey. Sadly, I was reminded of this for a few years. I only hope that the person had another witness, but I could have been the sole witness in that person’s life before their appointed death. The worst part of the experience was not obeying, and possibly not having other opportunities from God from being obedient.
What if I wasn’t ready? What if I wasn’t prepared? What if I was too shy or too fearful? I had too much anxiety, and I was his chance? So therefore he goes his entire life, there’s likely ( a chance ) that he’ll never hear it again.
3. Respect and Reverence should be your tone – This is where we all get it wrong. If our tone is all wrong, it will create an immediate impression. When we lead with the wrong tone, people are smart enough to know what we are trying to do. – Sell them on something. You don’t share the gospel as though you are a prosecuting attorney. People can sense your tone, and will decide to change the topic, or tune out within the first 30 seconds of what you are saying.
” Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect”
4. Never tell them what THEY are doing is wrong. If you start of your conversation shaming a person, the person you are talking to won’t be able to get past the emotional slap in the face that you have given them. You have put them down, made them feel bad, or made them feel what they are doing is wrong. Most people are going to tune out or reject everything you have to say from that point on. This approach will be a dead end for you, when talking to 90% of the people out there. They may not admit this to you, but you will loose them when you approach your conversation this way.
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How many of you husbands love it when your wife comes up and tells you all the things you’re doing wrong?
Nobody likes to be told what you’re doing wrong. So why do people do this? We still see an all the time online. You know, we call in toward torah terrorists, that they try to share their faith and they do nothing but run people away. Because all they’re doing is pointing fingers and condemning and telling everybody all the things we’re doing wrong.
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Nobody likes to be told anything. Never ask any child.
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So number one, number two, never tell them what they’re doing wrong. There’s other rules, but this is an important rule for you to remember.
5. Emphasize Compassion and Love. When people understand that you care about them, then they listen for a few minutes more. Everyone wants to feel valued. Consider this when talking to a stranger that you do not know, and someone you have known your entire life. What can you do or say to them that your motives are in the right place?
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Rule number three, over emphasize with family, listen, that you love them and in no way are you telling them that they what they need to do is wrong or that they need to do what you’re doing.
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Let me say that again. over emphasize with family that you love them and in no way are you telling them that they need to do what you’re doing. Because if you do, you’re breaking rule number two.
6. You are not there to convince them of anything. The person you are talking to is smart enough to know you are trying to sell them something. So, you need to approach the conversation that you are NOT a salesman. They, as the listener, can take your idea or leave it.
You need to remind yourself of something : You are not there to win a conversation. Your not there to say, you are right and they are wrong.
The listener should feel comfortable that they could take your idea and embrace it as their own, or leave it. This leaves them feeling as though they can listen with an open mind in a safe zone. If you force feed your baby, they will spit the food out. If you scream at your toddler children to just eat their supper, they do the opposite. You can change the topic of conversation at supper time, and suddenly the emphasis is off eating their food, and it becomes “their ” idea to eat their supper. Your tone and body language is one of the secrets in convincing someone of something.
7. You think the historical facts of Christ convinces people, but in actuality, with 90% of the people out there will not be swayed with this evidence at first.
This is where I went wrong for years in witnessing, because facts spoke volumes about God ( to me ), but people want an emotional account first.
Why is this?
Most people cannot consume a large volume of facts in a short period of time, especially when they know nothing about the subject. You have to win them over with something they can relate to first.
If a person cannot comprehend something, they tend to run away from you, shut down or change the subject.
Put yourself on the other side for a moment to understand this concept.
You are across the desk of someone selling you a new technology. It is your first time encountering this machine they are trying to sell you. They throw volume of facts about the machine. You feel completely overwhelmed with the information, that you cannot figure out why it will benefit you. The conversation is causing you to do mental gymnastics, to just figure out what they are trying to tell you. You feel so exhausted that you want to leave.
You have to lead off with the emotional reasons that everyone can relate to. Give them an anchoring hook first.
Doesn’t that make sense?
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So what happens the mistake that people make is they get into the intellectual part.
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First, you can’t do that.
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It’s absolutely a terrible mistake. If you want to win over your family and help them to see your perspective.
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You cannot go to the intellectual part first. You have to massage the emotion and the feeling and make them feel better first.
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Before you can even create an opportunity. Look at it this way.
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You buy a plant, okay, and you want to take that plant home and you want to put it in your garden.
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Well, what’s the best time to do that? 97 degrees outside at a drought or wait to the cool of the evening right before rain.
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You see,… you have that pot in your hands and it’s completely up to you, it is in your power of when you’re going to plant that plant to watch it grow. But how you do it is completely determined what the result is going to be.
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And so this is why some person some people have such tremendous success in sharing their faith with others and some people don’t. It’s all in how you do it. So first thing you have to do is you have to prepare the soil. You must prepare the soil, that soil is the heart according to the Scriptures.
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And so you run over everybody with the intellect and their heart is bleeding.
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Now, they’re not going to tell you this. Guarantee your mom is not going to tell you most likely “son…. you hurt my feelings”. It’s crushing me you’re telling me that the way I raised you was wrong. That’s embarrassing. It’s not gonna go there. It might come out in anger, a few choice words might come out in the silent treatment.
8. A genuine complement can soften the heart of a person in any conversation.
9. You need to relay the message that you are not taking something away from them. Guaranteed, they are going to be thinking this at some point.
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This has to do with me. This is what your way is showing me.
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And what that does is it gives them security blanket that you’re not going to take anything away from them.
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Most people really start freaking out when you grab something that’s important to them. Just in touching it as you’re reaching for it. It makes them nervous.
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It’s like a guy buys a brand new Corvette. He’s got it out in his driveway and he just washes it right and his kids you know come around the corner with the first time on roller skates.
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And they’ve got like, you know, a fork in their hand from lunch.
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That’s a bad combination. coming towards the Corvette.
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So we get so nervous.
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funny picture but listen, this is how they feel.
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You start talking about Christmas and Easter you start talking about you know Shabbat or something that they’re it’s foreign to them and all they hear is you’re about to tell me I’ve done something wrong ruined your life and you’re about to take something away from me that means something to me.
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And you go from being their son to the devil, just like that.
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So you can’t do them. You’re not taking anything away from them. You’re letting them know right up front.
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But here’s the secret that you’re not going to tell them because the one that takes things away.
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Okay, so you don’t have to even try to take it away. Don’t even try to convince them. Listen, rule number one should have been this. You’re not here to convince them anything.
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The most powerful evangelists that are out there, you don’t even know you’re being evangelized because the real Ruach Holy Spirit is so thick in the in the love and in the voice. He does all the convincing.
10. Mystery is an interesting game for most people. Your not telling everything about what you discovered. The fact that someone cannot have all the details causes them to look into it for themselves.
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So here’s your response. You need to memorize this.
” I can understand why you would think that based on the information that you have, but if you saw the information in this video, or this pamphlet or this article or on this website, you might come to the same conclusion that I’ve come to.”
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Now there’s a reason why I wrote it that way. Okay. There is a strategy involved here. It’s called the strategy of mystery I made that up, you won’t be able to find that.
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It’s the strategy of mystery but it really is a real strategy. Because if I don’t quite tell you everything what does that make you want to do?
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That’s right. Okay. Listen, every one of you that are married raise, raise your hand. This is a good time guys to raise your hand if you’re married by the way. Okay. All right.
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This happened to you. This is why you’re married most likely because your wife before you got married did one of these
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and she created a little bit of mystery. And then you became a hound dog. And you followed her everywhere that you went well, this is exactly what happens in life when you create a mystery. So the mystery is this is that I can understand. By the way. This is part of the conflict resolution series that I did in Shalom in the home when somebody is offended. You say:
“I can totally understand where you’re coming from. If I was in your shoes, I would probably feel exactly the same way.”
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So that’s how that starts out. You’re validating, validating, validating their feelings, then you’re going to go in and you’re going to create a little bit of a mystery.
“I can understand how you would feel that way based on the information that you have. But if you saw this video that I just got done watching, you probably would would come to the same conclusion that I did.”
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Because they have no way to answer that.
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No but seriously, this works.
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What you want to do is you want to create the atmosphere where they’re asking you for more information.
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Create a bit of mystery and desire to see the evidence and don’t ever start with evidence.
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Worst thing you can do.
11. Your testimony is Gold.
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Rule number four, show them the value So rule number four, show them the value. This is critical. No one is buying a car without driving it.
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You should use you have to create the value. So what do I mean by that? When you are sharing your faith with someone you’re sharing something? You got it you got to tell them why it’s valuable to you.
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They don’t care what the theology says. Listen, most Christians don’t even know what the Bible says. Most of us don’t.
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So you have to show them the value and how do you do that? You do that by emphasizing your experience.
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So it starts off like this. It says you know, when I was keeping the Shabbat you know this whole Sabbath thing I know it sounds crazy, but you can’t imagine the difference in my family dynamics since we’ve been doing this. You know, you know Cindy normally goes out on Friday nights with their friends, but since she’s been staying home with Craig, we’ve reconnected in our relationship and just having that dinner and that absolute guaranteed time has radically transformed our love for one another the time that we spend with one another. Were nicer to one another. We spend more time with the word.
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How does someone argue that?
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See if I start off and I go …….. (quoting scripture ) Hebrews chapter three and four it says that you know, therefore there remains a Sabbath a resin in in the Sabbath in the garden, blah, blah, blah. I mean, they first of all, they’re not following you because they’re emotionally upset.
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emphasize your experience. Your testimony is so powerful. Share what God has done in your life.
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Ladies and gentlemen, trust me 75% of time you will not have to even get into the scriptures. They’re going to want to know more.
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You know why? Because it behind the smiles …. They’re hurting too.
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Everyone’s looking for an answer.
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But amazingly in the midst of their pain no one wants to admit that they’re doing anything wrong.
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And so you’re bringing answers to people, but you have to do it in such a way that makes them want to know more.
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And there was your personal testimony.
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Before keeping the Sabbath we hardly ever had dinner as a family or took an entire day out to honor God and spend time with one another. But ever since we’ve been setting aside that day to bless my family. It’s been truly amazing on every level, how it’s changed us and brought us closer together.
12. Ask Questions, Don’t Make Statements. Jesus often asked questions, because it forces people to figure it out for themselves in their heads.
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Rule number six, and we’ll spend a lot of time on this one. Ask thought provoking questions and don’t make statements.
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Okay, this is a big mistake that I made for years is making statements. I’m an apologist. I’m an I’m a knowledge guy, right. I love knowledge. I love interesting facts and figures. I can’t remember what I had for lunch, but I’ll remember every fact and figure us all that day.
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And so I will approach I used to approach people this way. It doesn’t work.
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All right, Socrates. He said, The best way to answer a question is with a question. The best way to move people is to make them answer it in their head.
Listen to the rest of the video here