10 tips to help you share the gospel

Mark Barry, a Liverpool builder, grabs every opportunity to share the gospel at work and in his community. If you'd like to do likewise, how do you beat the fear and avoid sending people running for the hills? Mark has some top tips.

1 Witness in your workplace

I work for a building company where the boss is a Christian. Some lads who work here are Christians, but some aren't, so we try to be good witnesses. Sometimes at lunch we'll steer conversations towards faith, sometimes the lads ask questions themselves. Customers notice we're different too; they say we're the first builders they've met who don't swear! We try to show integrity and do a good job too.

We need to witness in our workplaces because people aren't just going to walk into church. To coin the phrase, you might be the only church they ever go to.

2 Start the conversation

We're working on a big contract in a doctor's surgery, and it's created some great opportunities. There's a lot of staff in the building and I get to interact with them, to talk about my faith and offer to pray for them. You've got to be intentional if you want to do this though. If you wait for a gap, you could be waiting a long time.

A couple of days after I'd told the receptionist I was a Christian and offered to pray for her she said, "I feel terrible and you've not prayed for me!" I was a bit caught aback, so I walked over to her and prayed there and then. The next day she told me, "I don't know what you've done but I feel fantastic!" I just smiled and said, "Well, it wasn't me, was it?"

3 Learn from your mistakes

I love evangelism but during my early attempts as a new Christian I didn't know how to do it, what to say, what not to say, so I made every mistake possible. I prayed in tongues, closed my eyes, lifted my arms in the air, everything you'd look at and think, don't do that!

I did have a heart for evangelism though, so later when God called my wife and I to Causeway Vineyard in Northern Ireland for an internship and an Encounter School of Mission we learned loads and had some great opportunities to share and pray for people. That set me up and I've got a real heart for talking to strangers now.

4 Beat the fear

John Wimber used to talk about "the meat being on the streets". I realised he meant that if you want to see the kingdom of God come you need to talk to people on the streets, and that means talking to strangers.

God had to set me free from fear of doing that though. He woke me up one night and told me to pray against the spirit of fear of man. As a new Christian I didn't have a clue what that meant, but I just prayed, "Spirit of fear of man go!" I felt a weight lift off me, like someone had been kneeling on my chest and had got off. I'm not saying everyone will have that experience, but we must beat our fear.

5 Steer the conversation

You need to know what not to talk about and avoid getting taken down those tracks. When I was in Ireland, I never mentioned church, for example. It was a dirty word because of all the religious stuff that had gone on there. But when you talk about Jesus, most people have an opinion whether they're religious or not, and most who aren't antagonistic say they'd love to meet Him.

When they do, I tell them about what Jesus said: "I stand at the door and knock", and that Jesus would really like them to invite Him into their lives. From there you can ask, "Do you know what He's done for you and how He's wiped the slate clean for you? Not to mention what He wants to do in the future."

Jesus didn't just die to save us from our past, but He also died to save us for our futures.

6 Use modern-day examples

I use modern analogies that people can relate to. People understand debt, for example, so I say: "Imagine owing £20,000 then someone paying your debt. That's exactly what Jesus did."

Rucksacks work well too: "Imagine every time you mess up a pebble gets put in your rucksack. How heavy would it be? Jesus wants to cut that off and set you free from the weight of guilt and shame because He's paid the price for you."

I very rarely quote Scripture because so many people think the Bible is a 2,000-year-old book made up by men. I do use Scripture, but without using names, chapter and verse.

7 Be hands-on

One thing I love to do when I pray is lay hands on people, because it's like the batteries make the connection and the power flows. The number of people you pray for in the street who say, "I really felt that" or "Your hands are like ovens". Of course, it's not me; this is just God being God, touching them, and I explain that.

I'm careful though. When I ask if there's anything I can pray for, I also ask them if it's okay to put my hand on their shoulder.

8 Pray beyond family

Jesus told us to "go into all the world" but I often find a Christian stance that says, "I'm praying for my family and talking to them, but they don't want to know."

My response is, "OK, keep praying for them, but go and talk to other people who might want to know about Jesus too."

I would even point out that Jesus wasn't accepted in His own town, and His own family rejected Him, so He went to strangers instead.

9 Get prepared

I spend most of my drive to work thinking about how I might respond when people throw curveballs or about conversations I'm likely to have or how to start one.

In Liverpool, for example, if you ask people if they have a faith 90 per cent will say, "Yes, I'm Catholic." I've thought that through, so my next step is to ask, "Who's Jesus to you?" Most people genuinely have an opinion about Jesus, even if they don't go to church or call themselves a Catholic, and it's usually a favourable one which you can talk about.

10 Equip everyone!

There's this idea that only professionals do the evangelism, but in Ephesians we're called to equip everyone for works of service, and that includes evangelism.

At Formby Elim we're trying to do that. People genuinely want to know how to strike up conversations so when we go out, I'll take someone with me and share my techniques for chatting and answering questions, then encourage them to have a go. Different people have different approaches, but at the end of the day it's about encouraging people to talk to strangers.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.