Personal Evangelism Point #2: Invest

Second point for a personal evangelism strategy:

Invest spiritually in that person.

One misconception of personal evangelism comes in the form of our role in the task. We are called to do more than transfer information. We are called to do more than leave a gospel tract. The biblical mandate calls all believers to invest spiritually into the lives of those around them. No matter how much training or confidence a Christian has, God has equipped him or her to simply share what Christ is doing in his or her life.

Since God is at work in the lives of those around us, our job is to simply walk through the doors that he opens for us. Paul had such a great love for the Thessalonian people, that he shared with them more than solely the gospel, he also shared his life with them (1 Thess. 2:8). In fact, the transfer of information or the giving of service devoid of love is useless (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Our reasoning for investing in them is our love for them which is modeled by Christ’s love (1 John 4:19-20). As we engage them, we must look for the open doors to steer the conversation towards Christ (Acts. 3:6). When someone is overwhelmed with the worries of this world, we can share how Christ helped us get through a similar situation. When someone near us is hopeless, we pray for them with them! Due to our love for the lost, we look for those open doors, and we walk right through them pointing people to Christ.

People can resort to arguments, but they can’t argue with results. One of your greatest tools is your testimony – what Christ has done and is doing in your life! No one can argue with that. No one can refute that you now have peace (Phil. 4:6-7). No one can deny if your life has truly been changed (John 9:25). Due to the change Christ made in our lives, we should be unable to keep quiet about how He has transformed our lives (Acts 4:19-20; Jer. 20:9). As part of investing in others, the mission team will equip people to share their personal testimony. We will seek to equip every member how to succinctly and convincingly portray his or her story before Christ (Acts 22:3-5), at conversion (Acts 22:7-16), and after conversion (Acts 22:21).