It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t expected. But God allowed a unique experience in sharing the Gospel to unfold on one of our mission trips last summer that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen and been a part of when it comes to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We were hosting a community cookout on the last night of our trip. I was sitting around a picnic table with 5 of our students and there were 2 kids from the neighborhood that were there with us. I had already brought up going to church with our 2 new friends and I was ready to turn the corner from church attendance to believing in Jesus. At that moment I really felt encouraged by the Holy Spirit to try to be more engaging than asking a few pointed questions and getting to my Gospel presentation so I did something I’m not always good at: I let other people talk.
I asked a simple question: What do you know about Jesus? It was great to hear the two of them respond with their answers. The older sister said that Jesus was born of a virgin and the younger brother said that Jesus was real. Even though they only provided single responses their answers provided a launching point to get into the Gospel.
Then I turned to our students and asked a similar question: What is one thing that you know about Jesus? I limited to “one thing” as I didn’t want to overwhelm the two students that we were talking with. They randomly shared that Jesus was sinless, that He loves us, He died on the cross, rose from the dead, and that He forgives our sins.
I took all of their answers and then summarized the Gospel based on what they had all contributed. This was really cool. I walked through the Gospel using every answer that each of the students had provided and I filled in a few blanks along the way. It was cool to see how their faces lit up when I pointed to them and reiterated what they had shared. All of them were excited to hear the entire Gospel unfold. Tribal Evangelism had taken place.
This was the first time I had really engaged in a group presentation of the Gospel. It was a fantastic experience for a variety of reasons:
- it got the students all involved in sharing the Gospel
- it served as a pop quiz for my students and helped me evaluate what they did and did not understand about the Gospel
- it was an engaging conversation that everyone got to participate in
What are some creative ways you have shared the Gospel? How do you prompt and encourage your students to share their faith when they are outside of their comfort zone? Join in the conversation below and share a moment from your summer in which the Gospel came up!
