Share Your Story

"If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it." – 1 Peter 3:15

"Go and make disciples of all the nations." – Matthew 28:18

"Work at telling others the Good News." – 2 Timothy 4:5

As people changed by the gospel, we have an opportunity to share the gospel. Fear, loss of reputation, and various other factors contribute to the challenge we feel in communicating our faith, but it’s one way God calls us and uses us in advancing his work in the world. Do you know how to talk about him with others? Take a few minutes to use this tool to help you create language and clarity around sharing the gospel.

Starting a Conversation

Various questions can be used to get a conversation moving depending on the degree of your relationship. "Where are you on your spiritual journey?" "What’s your view on the church?" "Do you go to church?" "What’s your view on God?" "What’s your view on Jesus?" "What do you think it means to be Christian?" "How do you make sense of all the problems in the world?" "Why do you think we are here?"

Question: What are some questions you might use to get a conversation going about faith?

Share the Gospel

There are many ways to share the gospel. The key is to "work" at this in the way Paul tells Timothy. Very few people are natural when it comes to sharing their faith. Listed below are several approaches to use in communicating the gospel. Depending on the situation, your bent, and the need of the moment, any of these four options could be helpful.

Option one: Text-based approach

Life apart from Christ - "Here’s how my life was before Christ, how I viewed the world, what brought me a sense of meaning and purpose, etc." If raised in the church, "There was a moment when I realized I needed a personal faith, not merely my parents faith."

"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard." – Romans 3:23

Understanding sin - "Over time/through certain circumstances, I began to see how unkind, hurtful, and self-oriented I was. Many of my words and actions were leaving a wake of damage behind them. I could only think of myself. God began exposing me to the sin that was keeping me from God and leaving me guilty and separated from him."

"So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you...Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming." – Colossians 3:5-6

"When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned." – Romans 5:12

Christ’s sacrifice for sin - "Over time/in a moment, I gained clarity around the cost of my sin. The cost of my sin and ultimately my salvation was so high that God had to pay for it himself. Jesus was sent to die on a cross for my sin so that I would not experience the full judgment of separation from God eternally."

"When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." – Romans 5:6-8

"He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed." – 1 Peter 2:24

Turning in faith and repentance - "This awareness of sin and Christ’s death for me personally helped me understand how serious my sin is—it leaves me condemned and judged by God—but how grateful I am for his sacrifice. I transferred my trust from myself and my work to gain acceptance with God to his work—his sacrifice to save me—on the cross."

"The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!" – Mark 1:15

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." – 1 John 1:9

Option two: The gospel through Romans

Our problem: sin - All of us have sinned against God in work, deed, and attitude. No one is innocent.

"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard." – Romans 3:23

Our consequence: death - Physical, spiritual, eternal death is the punishment earned for sin.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." – Romans 6:23

Our hope: Christ’s death - Even though we have rebelled about God, he loved us and sacrificed His Son to pay for our sin.

"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." – Romans 5:8

Our response: confession and belief - We confess our sin and trust Christ’s death for us paid the price to save us from God’s judgment.

"If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." – Romans 10:9

Option three: Two ways to live

God’s the ruler. "God was the loving ruler of the world and he made us to be rulers of the world with him."

We rejected him as ruler. Even though he is the rightful ruler, we rejected him as ruler and wanted to live our own way. That’s what sin means. To be king rather than follow the king. As a result we cannot even rule ourselves or our societies well.

God responds to our rejection. Fortunately, God cares enough about humanity to take our rebellion seriously. He will not let us be rebels forever. He will punish rebellion with death and judgment.

"Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgement." – Hebrews 9:27

God offers Himself as the solution. Even though God is just to judge us, He is also merciful to love us by sending His son into the world to live perfectly and die for sin. Jesus always lived under God’s rule and by dying in our place he took our punishment and brought forgiveness.

"For Christ died once for all the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God." – 1 Peter 3:18

Then God raised Jesus to life again as the ruler of the world. He’s conquered death and gives new life and will one day return as judge.

"In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." – 1 Peter 1:3

So there are two ways to live: One way is to reject the ruler and live life on our own and the result is we are condemned by God and we face death and judgment. The other way is to submit to Jesus as ruler—to rely on Jesus death and resurrection resulting in forgiveness with God and eternal life.

"And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment." – John 3:36

Which of these represents the way you want to live?

Option four: Four questions around the story of the Bible

What was the world like? It was a good world, people had relationship with God, and there was no pain or problems.
What went wrong? We wanted to be God rather than follow God. That’s what eating the fruit was all about. So we got a world without God, a world independent of him and it’s full of pain and problems all because of sin. Sin means rejecting God’s rule in place of our own.
What’s God doing about it? He could have rejected us but instead gave us rules to guide our lives. However, we rejected those—we did not want to listen. So even though we did not listen to what he said, he decided to come and show us what he is like. He came and lived perfectly. He was good, kind, and true. And he died perfectly. That is what the cross was all about. He died to forgive our brokenness, our rebellion, our sin, and restore us to God.
What’s this mean for us? He calls us to trust and follow him—to have faith in him. So we believe we are sinners separated from God, but through the cross God has restored us to relationship with God.

Question: As you consider these various means to share the gospel, which is most comfortable to you? Take some time now to write down in a conversational way how you would share your faith.

Offer a Next Step

If possible, come away from the conversation offering them a next step. "If you would like to talk further about it I’d love to. You’re welcome to come to church with me. I’d love to get together to read one of the gospels with you so that you could see Jesus and his story for yourself. Would you like to meet up sometime to do that?" (See Suggested Resources below)

Question: Can you think of another direction you would like to take with someone?

Your Sphere of Influence

Since God has established the "boundaries" of our lives (Acts 17:26), we can move towards the opportunities he has provided. Take a moment to write down some people God has put in your path to pray for and pursue with spiritual conversations.

Family & Friends

Where You Work

Organizations You Belong To

Kid’s sports club, Volunteer work, etc.

Places You Frequent

Gym, Coffee shop, Bank

Where You Live

City, Neighborhood, etc.

Suggested Resources

Andrew Cornes. One2One: Just Looking. Surrey, UK: The Good Book Company, 2011.

Helpful Bible reading guide for two people getting together to explore the life and message of Jesus through the Gospel of Luke.

Randy Newman. Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publishers, 2017.

Originally published in 2004, this updated version is a great read on asking good questions and building relationships with irreligious people.

J. P. Moreland and Tim Muehlhoff. The God Conversation: Using Stories and Illustrations to Explain your Faith. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL: 2017.

A resource to develop clarity for explaining your faith to irreligious people.

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