6 Ways to Prepare Yourself to Evangelize in 2020
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Central Text: Acts 4:31–
After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
Hello Fellow Readers,
The central text today speaks of a special moment where the Christians in this passage prayed for courage to preach God’s Word. After they prayed they then were filled with the Holy Spirit and then they went out and preached with boldness.
In those times, Christians needed a lot of courage because of the persecution and threats they were facing because of their faith in Christ. Thanks to their boldness and the persecution that caused them to disperse to different areas, Christianity is now all over the world.
If one thing is as true back then as it is today however, it is that the message of Jesus Christ must still be preached.
This is our most important task as Christians. The great commission given to us by Jesus (Matthew 18:18-20).
Unfortunately, although there are some who have responded to this task by dedicating their lives to preach the Gospel, there are way too many Christians who are not doing their part in this.
Why?
It has come to thought, that maybe preaching the message of Jesus is not as easy as it seems. We are missing what the disciples in this passage prayed for, courage.
But how do we build the courage that we need to go out there and share the Gospel with others?
The following are ways to prepare your mind and heart to build the courage that you need to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all those around you and all those you encounter.
1. Always Pray Before you Go
Before the Christians in this verse went out to preach the word of God with boldness, they prayed.
Prayer before preaching is so important because it stops you from saying things that come from you and not God.
In order to become filled with the Holy Spirit who will guide you in what you need to say, prayer is always necessary.
Praying also protects you from harm.
You never know what is waiting for you outside your door.
Prayer places God’s protection over our lives to keep us away from what can harm us, keep us strong against what is attacking us, and prepares us for the challenges in our future.
2. Get Rid of Fear
If there is something that truly gets in the way of taking action, it’s fear.
People lose valuable opportunities to make change happen in their life every day because of fear.
Fear is one of the Enemy’s most effective mechanisms for taking us out. He knows the innate potential we have for spreading the Gospel immensely far and winning millions of souls for Christ.
So he uses fear to keep us in bondage and stuck.
There is an acrostic that I learned about a year ago that has been an amazing reminder to me to continue taking leaps of faith in my life.
This acrostic is basically the definition of fear:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
My friends, if we allow the lies of fear to rule our lives, we will never accomplish what Christ has called us to do for His glory and world mission.
Fear is a liar.
It is a compilation of what-ifs, images, and thoughts depicting the most catastrophic end to whatever action or choice you are considering.
And yes, sometimes the outcome we fear does come true, but we cannot allow fear to get in the way of us completing our most important task on this Earth: evangelism.
We have to learn to have faith that God is in control, whether we “fail” or succeed.
God calls us to act! Obedience is up to us, results are up to Him.
So, let’s make it a priority to cast fear out of our lives because “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” ( 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT)
Power to cast out all doubt and fear and speak boldly in Jesus’ name.
Love to speak the truth of the Word of God to everyone regardless of who they are and their situation.
Self-Discipline to choose every day to deny ourselves, take up daily our cross, and follow Christ and his commandments (Luke 9:23).
When it comes to preaching the Gospel to the world, there is no moment to waste.
Every moment delayed by fear is another soul that misses out on the message of Jesus Christ.
That is how important evangelizing is.
So rebuke the fear that makes you think: “what if no one accepts the Lord?”, “What if they laugh at me?”, “What will people think of me?”
Thoughts like these have no place in a Christian’s life because in God we have no fear.
3. Prepare for Rejection
I know this one sounds pretty bad, but it is essential to prepare for rejection before going out to evangelize.
This is important because rejection is inevitable in the field of evangelism.
Even Jesus was rejected. That means we will be too.
However, that’s completely okay. Lucky for us Jesus gave us instructions on how to deal with rejection.
“If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave.” – Mat. 10:14 NLT
This verse tells us two things:
- Rejection is guaranteed.
- Don’t take rejection from others personally.
As I said before obedience is up to us, results are up to God.
If we preach the Gospel and people choose to not listen to us, walk away from us, or throw the Christian pamphlet you just gave them in the trash after literally walking two steps away from you, that is their own problem.
Dust your feet as you move on to preach to the next soul passing by you. In other words, don’t take the actions of the person who rejected you personally. When people reject you, they are not truly rejecting you, they are rejecting Jesus!
So do not let one or multiple people’s refusal to listen to you or refusal to accept Christ affect you in such a way that makes you decide to quit evangelizing.
I can tell you from personal experience that sometimes when I go out to give out Christian pamphlets or tracts to people on the street, people have told me they are not interested or have taken the pamphlet and thrown it on the ground while still within my eyesight.
I understand all too well the feelings of hurt, sadness, and even embarrassment when these things happen to me.
But I will not allow it to stop me from continuing to preach the Gospel. I have learned to understand that I have a job to do for God and one person saying no does not mean every person will say no.
To those who fear rejection if you can take anything from this little portion of this post, it’s this message: Don’t take it personally.
4. Prepare for hard Questions
There are always going to be people who ask really hard questions. Questions you may not be able to answer on the spot.
Don’t let this scare you.
There some great ways to turn this situation into a blessing:
- The first way is to study the topic of your preaching very thoroughly.
If you are going to talk to people about salvation, make sure you have real knowledge about what the Bible says about salvation.
Use the index to find various verses about salvation for you to read and study, read books, and listen to preachings about this topic. These steps can be applied to any topic you choose to preach about.
I know it sounds like a lot of preparation, but you really have to know what you are talking about if you’re going to preach about it. That way if someone asks you a hard or complicated question about your topic, you will most likely have a Biblically-based answer for them.
But what if the person asks about a different topic or a question I don’t have the answer to?
That’s no problem at all. It’s impossible to know everything and that takes us to the second way of preparing for hard questions:
- Invite the person to future conversations.
If they are asking questions, that means they are interested.
So, if you don’t know the answer to their question just be honest.
- Admit you don’t know the answer
- Tell this person that you really appreciate their question or think it is interesting and you want to know the answer as well (yes, throw in some customer service skills lol)
- Say that you will look into this topic or question when you get a chance.
- Ask them for their contact info (phone number or email) so that you can later discuss the answer to their question(s)
This is a great strategy to follow up and keep the conversation going. Don’t just give people random answers or say “I don’t know” and leave it at that.
Build relationships with people! Appreciate their curiosity and interest and show them you truly care by going the extra mile.
It is completely okay if the person chooses not to give their contact information, that is their choice. But if they really want to know the answer, more people than not will give their contact information.
Also, please DO actually find the answers to their questions and follow up with them. This is a valuable learning experience for both you and that person because you get to learn something new about Christianity together. AND, this one simple action might lead that person to Christ.
This strategy can also be used with people of other religions.
Sometimes people who practice a different religion from Christianity may want to argue or debate why their religion is better or right. Take this opportunity to ask them for their contact info to have discussions about both religions later.
Many meaningful conversations will be born from this and you will have a chance to preach the Gospel of truth to someone and bring them to the light (I will write a post in the future on how to have these conversations and what questions and points are important to ask and highlight).
5. Prepare for Difficult People
Unfortunately, there will be difficult people in our path. This is also inevitable in the evangelism field.
These are people who are argumentative, have a bad attitude, or like to ridicule others.
Facing people like these is a true test of character. As mentioned before, step number one, prayer should always be included in order to effectively prepare for difficult people.
It is important to ask the Lord to work on your character and help you keep your calm when people act in rude or offensive ways towards you.
Also, here are a few tips when dealing with people like these:
- Whatever they say, just respond “God Bless you” and cut the conversation short if necessary
- Don’t be sarcastic though, mean it in the best way possible.
- A lot of times people just want to get under your skin. It’s important to show them you’re not there to entertain them.
- Keep a calm voice and tone
- “A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.” (Pro. 15:1)
The key to dealing with difficult people is to just keep a calm demeanor.
Easier said than done, but this is the example Jesus set for us through His life.
6. Stick to the Basics
Paul said to the church in Corinthians “When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:1-2)
Paul continues to say that his message to them was plain and that he only relied on the power of the Holy Spirit so that they would trust in God’s power rather than human wisdom (v. 4 & 5).
Paul, the man who had so much spiritual wisdom and knowledge, chose to preach only of Christs’ crucifixion and make his message simple and easy to understand for those he evangelized to.
The results as the Bible lets us know were amazing. An entire church formed in Corinthians! That means plenty of people received Jesus Christ through Paul’s preachings.
My advice on this point is to follow Paul’s example. You don’t need a super fancy and complex message to preach to unbelievers. You don’t even need an impressive amount of Biblical knowledge.
All you need to know is Jesus died to wash us from our sins and give us the free gift of salvation through reconciliation with God.
That is the Gospel.
As long as we can communicate that to this world we are doing our God-given task of reconciling others to Him (2 Cor. 5:18).
All in All
I hope you have enjoyed this post because I have truly enjoyed writing it!
I hope you are encouraged to become more active in spreading the Gospel in this year 2020.
And I hope reading this has simplified evangelizing for you.
Let’s win souls for Christ!
What are some ways you prepare yourself to evangelize? Let me know down in the comments!
If you have any questions or other ways you prepare for evangelism let me know in the comments section!
The next post will be up on Sunday, March 15th, 2020 and it will be related to church community!
While you wait
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