25 Ways to Share Jesus

Sharing our faith can make the most confident person clam up. But why is that? Are we afraid of rejection? Are we afraid they will be mad at us? Why don’t we love others enough to share what we have – the incredible love and support of God and His son, Jesus Christ? How can we keep that all to ourselves? Join us as we learn about biblical evangelism, 25 ways to share your faith, and how to handle a spiritual conversation!

I became a Christian as an adult. While there were many people who shared their faith with me, there were many who didn’t! They kept it to themselves! And after I became a Christian, that was something I had to forgive in the people who didn’t bother with me. They had the key to a life with Jesus; and they kept it all for themselves. How disappointing!

God gives us a spirit of boldness – not of fear! Of love – not of selfishness. Satan wants you to stay ineffective. Don’t spend your life like that! Jesus tells us to shine our light to others. Don’t let Satan snuff yours out.

What is Evangelism?

Christianity.com shared a helpful article on this topic:

“Evangelism means preaching, announcing, or otherwise communicating the gospel, our salvation. It’s delivering the message that Jesus Christ is not only the Son of God but also gave His life as a sacrifice for our sins. In doing so, He ensured eternal life for anyone who believes.

Evangelism comes from the Greek words euaggelion — a good message, or gospel — and euaggelizo — to announce, declare, bring, or preach this good news. Notice the word “angel” tucked inside the word — an angel is a messenger. Those who practice evangelism are indeed delivering a message: One of extraordinarily good news, life-giving and transformative, with eternal ramifications.

While the word “evangelism” isn’t mentioned a lot throughout the Bible, its theme is woven throughout the New Testament. All four gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — are rooted in evangelism, and scholars often refer to the writers as “the evangelists.”

For Jesus had a message, one He came to earth to deliver, teach, die, and rise again for every single one of us. And we are tasked to deliver that message both by Jesus and every other apostle in no uncertain terms.” (Jessica Brodie, Christianity.com, “What is Evangelism?“)

25 Ways to Share Your Faith:

I have a heart for evangelism, so I get excited when I have opportunities to share my faith. It is an ongoing, intentional commitment to constantly look for ways to shine the light of Jesus into my relationships with family, friends, neighbors, strangers – anyone God puts in my path.

Sharing our faith doesn’t always have to be direct conversations. Many times they can be handed out in the form of books or in our actions. Here are 25 suggestions to get you started:

1. Include Bibles/small devotional books in blessing bags for the homeless. Include a note that says, “Jesus Loves You!” We have our kids write these notes, which can make it extra meaningful for the recipient.
2. Participate in Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child – each shoebox includes the gospel in their language.
3. Hand out spiritual books at birthdays and Christmas. At Christmas time, I usually order a spiritual book in bulk and hand out maybe 15-20 of them. Some of the books I have handed out over the years are:
   • Joni by Joni Eareckson Tada
   • Life Without Limits by Nick Vuijic
   • The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
   • The Complete Guide to Money by Dave Ramsey
   • Imagine Heaven by John Burke
   • The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
   • The Fall of Lucifer by Wendy Alec
   • Bibles for adults and kids
   • Great books for kids are: Heroes for Young Readers series
4. Teaching – whether at VBS, sunday school, bible studies, or with your kids at home, these are great opportunities to share God and His Word with others. If you are a professional teacher in public schools, private schools, preschools, university level, homeschool groups – look for ways to share you faith. As a teacher in a homeschool coop, I always brought up God, whether I was teaching the preschoolers or the high school students. It didn’t matter what subject I taught, I always found ways to include God in our conversations and would open or close our class with prayer.
5. Praying – just simply praying before meals, whether you are out at a restaurant or have people over for a party or meal. It is a simple but purposeful way of demonstrating that God is number one to our family and will be acknowledged and thanked. And we have found nonbelievers who come over for a party or meal to be respectful about it.
   • “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
6. At our annual Christmas Eve party, which includes believers and nonbelievers, we always read Luke 2. At your annual Easter lunch, read the resurrection story from the gospels to the group.
7. Read the Bible to your children and pray with them. We are also foster parents, so this has been some of the intentional ways we have shared our faith with the foster children. You can also sing spiritual songs like “Jesus Loves Me” everyday.
8. Playing Christian Music – whether at home, in the car, in the classroom, at a party, at work.
9. On our annual Christmas card, we always pick a spiritual theme. And we usually hand out between 100-150. This includes family, friends, neighbors, piano teachers, dance teachers, all my husbands coworkers, church members, homeschool group members, etc.
   • “Let your light so shine before men…” Matthew 5:16
10. The way your care for your neighbors and intentionally seek out conversations with them can open up opportunities. We have had spiritual opportunities with neighbors over the years because we spent time in the front yard and greeted our neighbors when they were outside and asked how they were doing. If someone shared a difficulty, we would tell them that we would pray for them. And then follow up with them on how they are doing.
11. Don’t forget people’s birthdays! It doesn’t have to be a big thing, but just showing people you remember and care opens up doors!
12. Invite people to stuff! Having a party? BBQ? Big fun thing happening at church? Invite your network!
13. I make custom calendars for my extended family – and guess what – they include bible verses!
14. Our actions – bringing meals or donating when people need help, or serving in whatever capacity God gifted you. Building homes, repairing cars or computers, painting rooms, giving rides to appointments, babysitting children, taking care of animals and plants, picking up mail or groceries – the ideas are endless.
15. Be at peace with yourself. A quiet spirit can also show to people that something is different about you and they may want that! Before I was a Christian or even as a new Christian, there were a few Christians I knew that had a peaceful spirit and I wanted that! It really set them apart.
16. Walk around your neighborhood/park/nearby mall and ask people how you can pray for them. You can tell them you are praying for the community – how can I pray for you? It may surprise you how people will open up.
17. Take a video of your testimony and send it to a few people. A teenager at my church did this and used it to share her faith with her sports team!
18. Social Media – share your favorite Bible verses or favorite hymn or life giving christian podcast episode! Don’t be afraid to share your testimony – be ready to share the hope you have! 1 Peter 3:15
19. At my brother’s funeral, I had the opportunity to share the eulogy, and in that I included the gospel.
20. Invite neighbors over for dinner and bible study.
21. During a culture share presentation with work staff in China, my husband gave a presentation on Christmas, Jesus, and His birth.
22. Fostering kids has opened up a lot spiritual conversations with people over the years.
23. When people compliment us, whether it be a stranger or friend, we let them know it was all God and not us.
24. When we have been out in public, and our children got hurt, we direct them to Jesus and pray out loud. We have done that when they were out getting ears pierced, at the dentist having teeth removed, on the bus in China – anywhere and everywhere we go.
25. When we spent time in China, we saw sad people and asked how we could pray for them – and then prayed out loud for them. When you travel, bring Bibles in the native language and look for opportunities to pass them out. God opened up opportunities for us to acquire Chinese Bibles and we were able to hand them out before we left.

As you can see, there are many direct and indirect ways to share your faith! It doesn’t all have to be direct conversations. The ideas are endless!

How to Handle a Spiritual Conversation

I am no great evangelist, but here are some tips I have learned over the years:

1. Whenever I see a spiritual conversation opening up, I quickly and silently pray to God and ask Him to guide me and give me wisdom and boldness.
2. Listen. Let them speak, and respond with encouragement, love, and vulnerability. Leave any judgmental attitudes at the door. Validate any past reasons why they have left the church, past hurts from previous Christians, etc. Be willing to share your own struggles or past hurts. Be also ready to share what Jesus has done for you and how Satan comes to steal and destroy.
3. Be prepared to have this conversation! Don’t stop the conversation or change the subject because you are afraid or uncomfortable. Answer questions to the best of your ability.
4. If you don’t know the answer to a question, tell them you don’t know. And follow up with them within a couple days to answer their spiritual questions.
5. Let them know that they are loved by Jesus and by you. Let them know you will be praying for them and their current struggles.
6. Invite them to church, AWANA, a bible study, events happening at your church, etc. And follow up with them if possible! Continue to reach out, see how they are doing, pray for them. If appropriate, gift them a Bible or other spiritual books.

Sometimes you will have encounters where you have regrets and wish you had done or said things differently. In those situations, ask God to forgive you and consider what you could have done better and learn from that.

Resources

Here are a few helpful resources:

1. Ray Comfort’s Living Waters Ministry
2. Evangelism for the Rest of Us by Dr. Mike Bechtle
3. The Unexpected Adventure by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg

Great Evangelists to study are:

• Paul the Apostle
• Billy Graham
• Luis Palau
• Nick Vuijic
• Joni Eareckson Tada
• Corrie Ten Boom
• Billy Sunday

Conclusion

Evangelism is for everyone! And we can start right where we live. Pray daily that your community would know Jesus, and that you would be a light to all those around you. Pray for opportunities to share Jesus with others. It may be scary, but with God, all things are possible! It is a gift to be a part of the life transformation that only comes with the Creator. He gave us mercy and He yearns to shower His mercy on those around us. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few! Let’s help with the harvest.