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Four Tips On How to Spread the Good News

Our job as Christians is not only to love one another, as Jesus commanded, but also to spread the good news of the salvation we have received because God sacrificed His one and only Son for us. (Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19). I believe this is the number one mission of churches, especially Seventh Day Adventist churches, but something that often gets put on the back burner. It’s a lot easier to plan church retreats, youth activities, and camp-meetings where people who are already believers can congregate, then to focus energy/time/money on trying to convert those that might not be receptive. 

This might be because evangelizing is really hard. It’s fear of rejection, or being seen as a hypocrite, or not being knowledgeable or experienced enough to bring someone to Christ. Recently, my church has started a series on evangelism. Below are some tips that our lessons have been going over that can help any Christian jump start a conversation about Jesus with a friend, co-worker, or family member.

1) Don’t be afraid of being labeled a hypocrite

Recently, I was talking to a friend who wanted to reach out to her boyfriend about become a believer and attending church together. Their relationship was getting serious, and they were thinking about marriage – my friend didn’t want her kids to grow up not attending church. Although my friend had grown up in a strong Christian home, she was scared to talk to her boyfriend because she didn’t think she had the credentials to tell him about Christianity. She told me that they sometimes went out and drank together socially, and that they engaged in pre-marital sex. She also said that he of all people knew she wasn’t perfect, and that she would feel like a hypocrite if she tried to witness to him.

This is a fear that many Christians have. However, it is unfounded.  We are all sinners – no one is perfect. As the Bible says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) The good news is that everyone is saved if they believe in Jesus, and we are not saved solely because our good works or any good deeds. A righteous person who follows all the “rules” of Christianity will not be saved if they don’t believe in Christ. (If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9).

Jesus died to forgive our sins. He doesn’t want us to become perfect representatives of Him with no flaws, before we tell our loved ones or others about how He came to save us. The beauty of the gospel is that no one is perfect except Jesus. It is scary to try to witness to people who might point out our flaws – “How can you tell me to be a Christian when you sometimes curse, don’t go to church every Sabbath, are sometimes impatient, unkind, etc., etc.? The answer to this is: “I know I am not perfect, that is why I need Christ. I might not be the perfect representative of the Christian faith, but that is even more of a reason why I need Jesus to help me live on this Earth. I want to tell you about how He has forgiven me and has saved me. Can I?”

2) Have a good opening line

It is sometimes hard to work in: “Do you want to hear about Jesus?” into a regular conversation or daily routine with co-workers, friends, or family. A potentially receptive way is to start like Jesus did: with a parable. Here is one example: One day, there was a man who found a treasure in a field. It was so priceless that he sold everything he had: his car, his home, and his clothes—every possession he had—then bought that field. What do you think is worth selling everything you have?

The person you are speaking to might say: oh, a million dollars, a diamond necklace, a deed to an estate overlooking the oceans and mountain in California. To which you can say, “What if the treasure is something that money can’t buy? I know of a treasure that is priceless.” You could go from there… As Jesus said, “The kingdom of Heaven and the promise of salvation is like a treasure —one that persons could be compelled to give up everything for.” (Matthew 13:44)

This is just an example of one easy-to-understand method that you can use to break the ice and explain Christianity to someone you’re trying to reach.

3) Approach the person you are speaking to with love and understanding

Common reasons people reject evangelism is because they feel defensive and scared. One time, my friends confronted me about being Seventh Day Adventist—he wanted me to be a “real” Christian, someone who was part of the Baptist church he attended. I immediately felt defensive and angry. How dare he try to tell me what to do; as if he was the only one who knew was right or wrong? That conversation was one of the death knells of our friendship. Although that situation is different from telling someone about Christ, the lesson is the same: it is extremely hard to take criticism or to have someone try to change your life. It is even harder for someone to try to convince you about something you truly believe in.

That’s why we always have to remember Jesus’s mantra: love. When we witness to people, we aren’t saying: your life is hedonistic, you have to change, you’re going to go to hell, you don’t know the things I do, and you’re wrong. We are saying: I have something amazing to tell you. Jesus died to save you, and he wants to see you in heaven. I love you, and I want to see you there, and I want you to experience the kind of happiness I have experienced since accepting Christ. The gift of salvation is too precious a gift to jeopardize by approaching someone in your life with the goal of persuading them, no matter the cost.
We always have to approach people we are trying to evangelize to with love and a gentle message.

4) Don’t feel like you have to become a biblical scholar before you can evangelize

“Why do bad things happen to good people?” “Did God really create the earth 5,000 years ago?” “Why would God send people to hell, even if they never got the chance to hear the gospel?” “If God knows the future and has a will, why does he not stop catastrophes from happening?”

These are some of the questions that new Christians or people coming into the faith might ask. It’s hard to imagine teaching them about Christ, but having to embarrassingly say: I don’t know. Or, I don’t know: the Bible doesn’t have all the answers. Some people avoid conversations about faith because they feel like they don’t have the knowledge or the experience to truly convince people or tell them enough about Christ.

This is a hard hurdle to overcome. However, it can be overcome with time, commitment, and hard work. If a person you are witnessing to has a hard question, you don’t have to say, “I don’t know” or “I guess you’re right, that doesn’t really make a lot of sense.”

Sometimes you can just say: “I don’t know, could I talk to my pastor (or someone else that you trust and delves a lot into scripture) and get back to you?” or, “I’m not sure, do you want to try and find out the answer together?” and finally in some situations: “I know there are a lot of questions that you have that somehow seem unexplainable. However, that is what faith is. We have to trust what is unseen, because if everything could be proven, no faith would be required to trust in Jesus. However, there is a lot of bible verses/existential evidence that we can point to that prove the existence of Jesus and of his plan for our salvation. Can I show you some?”

These answers all have something in common: they don’t punt the question and they express a willingness and commitment to work with that person to find answers. If you are not a biblical scholar, you can at least reach out to help people find answers. And in the meantime, you could always work on reading your bible, reading bible studies, and engaging in discussions about bible verses or commentary with your church or your small group, so you can be better prepared to tell someone about the good news you have received and that God had placed in your heart.

Go Forth and Practice the Tips

These four tips are helpful jump-starters to help you to talk to that person you’ve been intending to tell about Christ. It may seem scary, unattainable, or even just not worth the time or work. However, when you have the love of Christ in you, how can you keep silent? We should try to save as many people as we can. If you inherited a fortune, would you just live alone and spend it on yourself, hoarding it and not telling anyone about the gift you have received? Most people’s answer would be no: they would share it with the people they loved, the people who were in their lives. The message of salvation is the same—but the stakes are much higher. I hope that these tips help those who have been struggling or praying for a person close to them to be saved, but don’t know how to bring up the subject of Jesus’s love. I also hope that opening up this conversation invigorates us to remember the treasure of the salvation we have in Jesus, and how important it is to share it with others.

Ashley is in her third year of law school and lives in Austin, Texas.


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