One thing I wish I’d known before I started to share my faith is…don’t be weird!
Sounds simple right? I remember the first time I shared why I have faith in Jesus with a friend. I knew my story. How for so long I’d felt lost, alone, and angry. How for years I’d had so many questions and no one to ask. How a simple invitation to attend a youth club changed my life and saying yes to Jesus changed my eternity.
I was found. I was embraced into a community of peers and a loving church that showed me unconditional love. I learnt to share my anger with Jesus in prayer and ultimately to surrender it over to him.
I have never struggled with conversation (I am rather chatty if we have never met) so I wasn’t nervous, and I made the decision that this night was the night to share my faith in Jesus. I remember walking through the doors of a house party towards my friend. I had prayed beforehand, so my spiritual tank felt full. (Forgive me for the term, I was 17 and that’s how I understood prayer at the time.) I had spent time condensing my story down into a simple monolog that was clear and to the point.
I did everything my youth leaders encouraged me to do and as I stood before my friend without even saying hello or acknowledging what was going on around me, I said very loudly “I now believe in Jesus, and I want to tell you why.” Cue the music on the portable CD player coming to a dramatic stop and all eyes on me.
It got very weird, very quickly! I had stunned everyone into silence.
I had a captive audience of over 30 people instead of my just one selected friend, and I forgot everything I was going to say so instead of sharing my faith, my reason why my life had changed, I began to preach about sin and salvation.
It was a total disaster. I ended my unplanned altar call (that had resulted in zero responses), by leaving out of the same door that I’d walked through only five minutes before and going home.
That memory has stayed with me.
I am still in touch with one or two of those friends and they often say when we reconnect, “Do you remember when you…” and I just want to crawl into a dark hole and never resurface. I got very weird that night. I allowed my boldness to overtake me, and I forgot to read the room.
I forgot that the moment wasn’t about me, it was about Jesus and my friend. I completely missed the mark on how sharing your faith in Jesus with a friend comes from a place of relationship, one that you hope will continue regardless of the outcome, and because of my actions we did not speak for some time after.
It may sound simple to say, ‘don’t be weird’, but it’s so easy to be weird when you’re sharing your faith. If it’s to an unsuspecting friend or family member, what you are saying to them is a lot to comprehend, so how you are delivering your good news matters.
If it’s to a crowd or at least a captive audience, make sure it’s from a place of invitation and not from one of disruption, and please, if you only take away one thing from me sharing my embarrassing story of the first time I attempted to share my faith, at least say ‘Hi’ first!
I am pleased to say that I’ve learnt my own lesson and am no longer weird in those moments. There are however a few questions that I ask myself internally when presented with the opportunity to share my faith in Jesus, be it with a loved one or stranger, and I hope they help you when you too are presented with the opportunity to share your faith.
QUESTIONS
1- Have I listened enough to their story? People’s time is a privilege. If they are choosing to spend theirs with you, and you intend to take up some of their time sharing your story, make sure you have spent your time listening to their story too.
2- Is this the right moment for them? It doesn’t matter if you are ready, it matters if they are. The parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 can apply to the same person. Depending on the environment you are in, the mood of the other person, or what is going on in their life, there could be different outcomes to the same message. Make sure you are sowing in a ‘good soil’ moment.
3- Where am I signposting them? Whenever I share my faith in Jesus, I follow it up with an invitation to the listener to do the same. I ask a simple question – “What’s stopping you from putting your faith in Jesus?” and pray with them in the moment if that invitation has been accepted. I do however always make sure that there’s a clear signpost to discipleship. We have not been commissioned to generate decisions but to make disciples. Always have something or somewhere to signpost people to. A copy of the Bible to gift, information about a local church, a personal connection to a person near them, or of course, if they are known and local to you, invite them into your community.
Written by Marie Louise-Aitken
Based in the Liverpool area with her husband and two children, Marie works for Alpha UK equipping churches to run Alpha and grow in their evangelism engagement across the North of England and The Midlands. She is part of the leadership team at her local church and founder of online platform- ‘Girl Can Daily’, designed to resource the emerging generation of female leaders.
