You are sitting on the train gliding smoothly towards the city centre. You’ve come in to work a bit later today, so the train isn’t quite as crowded. You open your Bible and begin to read. Suddenly the person sitting next to you leans closer and says quietly, “Is that the Bible you’re reading?”
You’re caught a little by surprise. People don’t usually talk on trains. Then it dawns on you that you’ve seen this person before, walking to and from the station. You’ve even said “Good morning” a few times as you’ve passed them by.
Your mind snaps back to the present and you manage to squeak out: “Yes, it is the Bible”.
Your neighbour says, “I’ve always wondered about the Bible. We had a really good Scripture teacher at school and I enjoyed the stories but never really got what it was all about. What’s your take on it?”
Your mind begins racing and panic sets in as you do your best to explain what you know about Christianity. You’re aware that you are talking a lot, using jargon and putting out lots of complex ideas.
You would love to invite this person to meet again on the train and discuss the Bible more, but you lack the confidence to do this. Out the window the scenery whizzes by… and so does this missed opportunity.
Stop and consider: How would you have fared in this situation?
Invest in training
Are you equipped to make good use of the opportunities God sends your way? Can you share the Christian message in a clear, compelling and succinct way? Are you confident to answer people’s objections to Christianity? Are you able to read the Bible one-to-one with an enquirer?
Training is an investment that will not only prepare you for when people ask you about Christianity (like on the train), but will give you more confidence to initiate opportunities. And once you’re trained, it’ll help you for the rest of your life.
Many of us invest a lot in our careers by doing second degrees or postgraduate study. Is it time for you to invest in being an effective ambassador and mouthpiece for the Lord Jesus Christ?
Training resources
Here are some resources that have helped me to become more confident and able in answering questions and sharing the gospel. Ultimately they’ve helped me to lead people to Christ.
- Two Ways to Live*1 is a short gospel presentation you can draw out using six simple illustrations. Memorize it by rote and then practise saying it. The Two Ways to Live video-based training course helps you to learn the presentation thoroughly and then shows you how to adapt the basic gospel outline to your own natural patterns of speech.
- One-to-One Bible Reading: A simple guide for every Christian is a really useful book by David Helm. The guide gives lots of practical advice about reading the Bible with another person, and will equip you to do it with confidence.
- So Many Questions is a video-based course that will prepare you to answer common questions and objections about Christianity.
- Investigating Christianity is a set of four Bible studies that get to the heart of the gospel quickly by looking at key Bible passages. The fourth study invites the person to respond and make a commitment in a natural way. Although this isn’t primarily a training resource, doing these studies yourself and knowing these key Bible passages well will increase your confidence in evangelism.
- Preparing Just for Starters is a self-paced training course that contains everything you need to learn how to use Just for Starters, a set of Bible studies that have been used for more than 30 years to follow-up new Christians and establish them in the basics of the faith. By the end of the course you’ll have greater confidence in meeting one-to-one to follow-up a new Christian. Just For Starters can also be used with ‘religious’ people who think they’re already Christian but are not.
All these resources are published by Matthias Media and are available for purchase at www.matthiasmedia.com.
Stop and consider: Which of the above resources would you benefit from most? Where might you find the time and motivation to do some training?
Action: Why not find a Christian friend to be your training partner? Learn together. Practise together. Motivate each other to keep learning in a disciplined way.
*1
For an explanation of how to draw out the presentation in six squares, see the ‘Two Ways to Live Presentation’ video, 6:55, posted by Matthias Media, 28 June 2012 (viewed 5 October 2016): www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbcvuu8lCFg
For more information, see www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/trainingcourse.html
