When Jesus said,"Go ye into all the worlds and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15)", He was not only directing that command to the disciples who were witnessing His ascension to Heaven. As recipient of His forgiveness, all of us have the obligation to have a part in the Great Commission. But sadly speaking, very few of those people who claim to be "Christians" really get their feet wet when it comes to sharing the gospel. They give out so many excuses for not heeding the Great Commission. There are those who claim to be not gifted when it comes to speaking to people face to face. Some say they are very busy to give some time to this. And there are those who think that doing so entails some financial sacrifice which they are not capable of doing. Whatever their reason may be, still, it is clear that they are disobeying a direct command from God to seek the "lost".
To erase any excuse many Christians have for not sharing the gospel and to facilitate their obedience to the Great Commission, for this article, I will be sharing to everyone several easy ways of involving yourself in the ministry of evangelism. We’ll start from the less frightening to the more challenging ways of declaring the message of salvation, of course, always in the way of the Master. I really believe that after reading this article, no one can ever say that he/she has no opportunity to share the gospel.
Using the internet
Through e-mails
It is possible now to share the gospel with you not uttering even a single word, with your face invisible to anyone from anywhere. Thanks to the internet.
All over the internet, you can download great gospel flash animations that you can attach to e-mails which you can send to people. A couple of years back, I remember spending the whole evening sending these flash gospel presentations to everyone in my e-mail lists, including those that appear in my "Spam" mail. To make people receiving the e-mail curious enough to open the attachment, write something interesting either in the body of the e-mail or in the subject line. You can write, "I bet you haven’t seen this before", or "This will definitely turn your life upside-down". If you want to see samples of these flash presentations, go to www.livingwaters.com and open their "Free Evangelism Resources" page.
But if you want to make the presentation more personal, you can always write down for them a clear gospel presentation. You can have your testimony of how you met the Lord be the focus of your e-mail to them with a question in the end of whether they think they also need the Lord in their life just like you. In the past, I’ve used my account in social networking sites like Friendster, Myspace, Multiply, etc., to send a nicely prepared written gospel presentation to people in my network of friends.
Placing links that lead to gospel presentations
Regarding these social networking sites, do you know that you can customize your webpage and add links to gospel presentations? Yes, you can! Just play around your account until you find where you can do the customization. You can also add these links to your e-mail account as your e-mail signature, and whenever people receive e-mails from you, there’s a part that they can click which leads to these sites. All you need is to add the necessary html codes to the customization of your social networking account, e-mail, blogs or in your personal website if you have one. You can get a hold of the html codes at www.livingwaters.com, through their page called "Stuff for Webmasters".
By directing people to open sites that have gospel presentations
Several times, I have induced interests in people in opening websites that have gospel presentations. I have directed people to open www.needGod.com and in our own website at www.livingwaters-asia.com where there appears the "Are you a good person test?" I tell them, "Have you tried this particular activity in this website? You gotta try it. The website is…" All it takes is some excitement on your part in telling people about these sites, and until you know it, they’re already contemplating the gospel that was presented to them.
Sharing the gospel in chat rooms
If you’re tough enough to engage someone in some discussions but without you showing your face, online chat rooms are a great venue to do this. Once in a while, I and other SYM members do this. We log in to our Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger accounts and go to available chat rooms. There are chat rooms for women, for men, for professionals, for business, for movies, for religion, etc. But our favorites are the chat rooms for pagans and atheists. Here, we engage people in a discussion of why God is real and strategically lead it to a discussion of sin, then of judgment, all the way to the Good News. Sometimes it really gets rough in these chat rooms. Pagans and atheists would hurl curses on us, but, it’s okay. We don’t get hit physically with what they throw on us. At the end of the chat session, we are left very satisfied knowing that we just did God’s will.
Using telecommunication devices
Sharing the gospel to telemarketing and customer service agents
Once in a while, we get calls from people we don’t know that sells us things that are, most of the time, not necessities of daily living. Rather than being annoyed by these calls, why not take it as an opportunity to share to someone the gospel. When they call, give them the time they need to present to you their products. Be very kind and accommodating to them. When they’re done, ask them if you can also present to them something very important. Because you accommodated them earlier, they will definitely give you the time you are asking from them. Then do what you’re supposed to do.
You can also do this when you’re asking for assistance from customer and technical service agents. I did this once when I was asking for assistance with my internet connection at home. When the agent asked me to do something and observe the developments for several minutes, I took the free time to share the gospel to her. Because they are in the business of giving service, they are usually very courteous and accommodating. If they do not agree with something you say, they express it in a very kind way compared to when you're doing a one-to-one gospel presentation in the streets. Of course, you should also reciprocate their kindness. Because of the air of respect in this situation, in a matter of 3 to 5 minutes, you’re all done with your presentation.
Through mobile phone SMS (text messaging)
In the Philippines, if there is one thing that is mutually shared and enjoyed by every Filipino, that is text messaging. The Philippines is the “SMS capital of the world”. I once read in an article that the number of text messages that go around the Philippines for one day is more than the number of text messages that go around for the whole continent of Europe.
Enough of the glories of Filipino text messaging. Let’s get to my point. You can definitely use this venue to share the gospel. Engage someone in your phonebook to a healthy discussion of how one can go to Heaven and evade Hell. The good thing about this mode of witnessing is that it gives you time to think about your answers to questions that the person at the other line may throw at you. You also have the benefit of asking for assistance from more mature Christians in answering questions. There’s really no reason for you to be frightened in sharing your faith in this situation.
Using gospel tracts
Gospel Tracts in mails and in strategic places
For the non-tech-savvy Christian who is also so frightened to give-out gospel tracts in public places, here’s one for you. But before I give this to you, let me tell you that for God’s glory, you should overcome your fear. Pray about it and little by little, challenge that fear.
Here is it. Buy a pack of good gospel tracts (we have lots of them at our online store --- http://www.livingwaters-asia.com/catalog), and get a phone directory or any available directory for the public. Depending on how many tracts you have available, choose randomly the same number of addresses from the directory. Place a tract each in every envelope and send them to the addresses you’ve chosen. It will also be good if you can attach a note in each of the tract before you place it in the envelopes informing the recipients of a way to contact you if ever they would want to ask you some questions after reading the tract. We did this a year ago and our hearts are field with joy whenever we realize that we were able to share the gospel to someone far away from us.
You can also just leave gospel tracts where people can see them and easily get them without you facing them or talking to them. You can go to the parking lot of malls and insert gospel tracts in cars’ windshields. You can also leave some of them in phone booths, restaurant tables, fitting rooms, mail boxes, etc. Star Youth Ministries members once inserted tracts among free Catholic literatures in a big Catholic church in our place. It’s as simple as this --- leave some tracts where people would usually go. There’s a tract also available in our online store called “The Wallet Tract” which really looks like a wallet from afar placed on streets. I’ve scattered this tract in colleges and markets and have watched how people would really pick them up. It’s a great tract to use if you want people in the streets to get a hold of a copy of the gospel.
Direct tracts distribution in public places
Of course, this is something you can always do. It’s really not as scary as you thing it is. What’s so scary about offering someone something free to read, right? The worst that can happen to you while giving out tracts is that they’ll reject what you are offering them. Well, yes, I’ve heard of stories where a person that received a tract tore the tract in front of the person that gave it. But this is something that probably would only happen once every 1,000 gospel tracts given away. And if ever this is something that will happen to you once every 10 gospel tracts, remember that it is not you they will be rejecting but God. Take comfort on the fact that you have suffered reproach for Christ’s sake and then stand-up again and go to the next person and give him/her a tract.
If only every Christian would make it a point to give out a tract or two everyday. Probably, a big reason why a number of Christians do not engage in tracts distribution is because they really do not fully comprehend what a piece of paper can accomplish. In the School of Biblical Evangelism book of Living Waters, there’s this recorded account of a diver that decided to get right with God through a gospel tract. The story says that this guy had many friends that were sharing the gospel to him but he just kept on ignoring them. One time, he went diving and in the bottom of the sea, he saw this shell that had in its mouth a crumpled piece of paper. He took the paper and at the shore he opened it. To his amazement, it was a gospel tract. He began to pray and told the Lord, “God, even in the bottom of the sea you chase me. I give up. I repent of all my sins and I put my total trust in you.” What a story about what gospel tracts can do! Only God knows how many have given their lives to Him through gospel tracts.
To get you started with the habit of giving out tracts, it will be good to have about 3 to 5 of them whenever you leave your home. Give it to the taxi driver when you get off the cab. Give one to the waiter after you pay your bill. Don’t forget to leave one to the person that sits beside you in the bus. If you’re driving your own car, give one to the person in the tollgate after you pay your toll fee or to the traffic policeman when the traffic is in a halt. After some time, take it a step further and bring a bundle of gospel tracts and walk through the crowd in the park or in the marketplace and give a copy to every one you pass by. You will find out later that it’s not as difficult as before to be in this activity, and instead, it’s a very satisfying thing to do on a regular basis.
You can also give away gospel CDs, DVDs or books with very clear gospel presentations as gifts to friends and relatives. We also have a lot of these in our online store. I recommend you check out the following books and CDs at our online store: 101 Things Husbands Do to Annoy their Wives / What Hollywood Believes / The Narnia Story / Slaying the Dragon / Why Christianity? (available by the 15th of June).
If you are short in cash to purchase our gospel tracts and you really want to be in this kind of evangelism activity, you can download a free copy of tracts we’ve made and have them photocopied depending on how many copies you want from our “Free Resources” page in our website.
One final word…
It is my hope that you will use these avenues exclusively only until you have overcome your fear of directly facing people to declare sin, righteousness, judgment and God’s plan for salvation. Don’t be too comfortable with these strategies. As you mature, you should also be willing to go out of your comfort zone doing one-to-one witnessing and open-air preaching, even if it would mean embarrassment and persecution. Remember that what Jesus endured so that He can give us the salvation we so need will always be more than what we may experience in sharing the gospel. Until the nets are full, may we all labor together in heeding the Great Commission.
To erase any excuse many Christians have for not sharing the gospel and to facilitate their obedience to the Great Commission, for this article, I will be sharing to everyone several easy ways of involving yourself in the ministry of evangelism. We’ll start from the less frightening to the more challenging ways of declaring the message of salvation, of course, always in the way of the Master. I really believe that after reading this article, no one can ever say that he/she has no opportunity to share the gospel.
Using the internet
Through e-mails
It is possible now to share the gospel with you not uttering even a single word, with your face invisible to anyone from anywhere. Thanks to the internet.
All over the internet, you can download great gospel flash animations that you can attach to e-mails which you can send to people. A couple of years back, I remember spending the whole evening sending these flash gospel presentations to everyone in my e-mail lists, including those that appear in my "Spam" mail. To make people receiving the e-mail curious enough to open the attachment, write something interesting either in the body of the e-mail or in the subject line. You can write, "I bet you haven’t seen this before", or "This will definitely turn your life upside-down". If you want to see samples of these flash presentations, go to www.livingwaters.com and open their "Free Evangelism Resources" page.
But if you want to make the presentation more personal, you can always write down for them a clear gospel presentation. You can have your testimony of how you met the Lord be the focus of your e-mail to them with a question in the end of whether they think they also need the Lord in their life just like you. In the past, I’ve used my account in social networking sites like Friendster, Myspace, Multiply, etc., to send a nicely prepared written gospel presentation to people in my network of friends.
Placing links that lead to gospel presentations
Regarding these social networking sites, do you know that you can customize your webpage and add links to gospel presentations? Yes, you can! Just play around your account until you find where you can do the customization. You can also add these links to your e-mail account as your e-mail signature, and whenever people receive e-mails from you, there’s a part that they can click which leads to these sites. All you need is to add the necessary html codes to the customization of your social networking account, e-mail, blogs or in your personal website if you have one. You can get a hold of the html codes at www.livingwaters.com, through their page called "Stuff for Webmasters".
By directing people to open sites that have gospel presentations
Several times, I have induced interests in people in opening websites that have gospel presentations. I have directed people to open www.needGod.com and in our own website at www.livingwaters-asia.com where there appears the "Are you a good person test?" I tell them, "Have you tried this particular activity in this website? You gotta try it. The website is…" All it takes is some excitement on your part in telling people about these sites, and until you know it, they’re already contemplating the gospel that was presented to them.
Sharing the gospel in chat rooms
If you’re tough enough to engage someone in some discussions but without you showing your face, online chat rooms are a great venue to do this. Once in a while, I and other SYM members do this. We log in to our Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger accounts and go to available chat rooms. There are chat rooms for women, for men, for professionals, for business, for movies, for religion, etc. But our favorites are the chat rooms for pagans and atheists. Here, we engage people in a discussion of why God is real and strategically lead it to a discussion of sin, then of judgment, all the way to the Good News. Sometimes it really gets rough in these chat rooms. Pagans and atheists would hurl curses on us, but, it’s okay. We don’t get hit physically with what they throw on us. At the end of the chat session, we are left very satisfied knowing that we just did God’s will.
Using telecommunication devices
Sharing the gospel to telemarketing and customer service agents
Once in a while, we get calls from people we don’t know that sells us things that are, most of the time, not necessities of daily living. Rather than being annoyed by these calls, why not take it as an opportunity to share to someone the gospel. When they call, give them the time they need to present to you their products. Be very kind and accommodating to them. When they’re done, ask them if you can also present to them something very important. Because you accommodated them earlier, they will definitely give you the time you are asking from them. Then do what you’re supposed to do.
You can also do this when you’re asking for assistance from customer and technical service agents. I did this once when I was asking for assistance with my internet connection at home. When the agent asked me to do something and observe the developments for several minutes, I took the free time to share the gospel to her. Because they are in the business of giving service, they are usually very courteous and accommodating. If they do not agree with something you say, they express it in a very kind way compared to when you're doing a one-to-one gospel presentation in the streets. Of course, you should also reciprocate their kindness. Because of the air of respect in this situation, in a matter of 3 to 5 minutes, you’re all done with your presentation.
Through mobile phone SMS (text messaging)
In the Philippines, if there is one thing that is mutually shared and enjoyed by every Filipino, that is text messaging. The Philippines is the “SMS capital of the world”. I once read in an article that the number of text messages that go around the Philippines for one day is more than the number of text messages that go around for the whole continent of Europe.
Enough of the glories of Filipino text messaging. Let’s get to my point. You can definitely use this venue to share the gospel. Engage someone in your phonebook to a healthy discussion of how one can go to Heaven and evade Hell. The good thing about this mode of witnessing is that it gives you time to think about your answers to questions that the person at the other line may throw at you. You also have the benefit of asking for assistance from more mature Christians in answering questions. There’s really no reason for you to be frightened in sharing your faith in this situation.
Using gospel tracts
Gospel Tracts in mails and in strategic places
For the non-tech-savvy Christian who is also so frightened to give-out gospel tracts in public places, here’s one for you. But before I give this to you, let me tell you that for God’s glory, you should overcome your fear. Pray about it and little by little, challenge that fear.
Here is it. Buy a pack of good gospel tracts (we have lots of them at our online store --- http://www.livingwaters-asia.com/catalog), and get a phone directory or any available directory for the public. Depending on how many tracts you have available, choose randomly the same number of addresses from the directory. Place a tract each in every envelope and send them to the addresses you’ve chosen. It will also be good if you can attach a note in each of the tract before you place it in the envelopes informing the recipients of a way to contact you if ever they would want to ask you some questions after reading the tract. We did this a year ago and our hearts are field with joy whenever we realize that we were able to share the gospel to someone far away from us.
You can also just leave gospel tracts where people can see them and easily get them without you facing them or talking to them. You can go to the parking lot of malls and insert gospel tracts in cars’ windshields. You can also leave some of them in phone booths, restaurant tables, fitting rooms, mail boxes, etc. Star Youth Ministries members once inserted tracts among free Catholic literatures in a big Catholic church in our place. It’s as simple as this --- leave some tracts where people would usually go. There’s a tract also available in our online store called “The Wallet Tract” which really looks like a wallet from afar placed on streets. I’ve scattered this tract in colleges and markets and have watched how people would really pick them up. It’s a great tract to use if you want people in the streets to get a hold of a copy of the gospel.
Direct tracts distribution in public places
Of course, this is something you can always do. It’s really not as scary as you thing it is. What’s so scary about offering someone something free to read, right? The worst that can happen to you while giving out tracts is that they’ll reject what you are offering them. Well, yes, I’ve heard of stories where a person that received a tract tore the tract in front of the person that gave it. But this is something that probably would only happen once every 1,000 gospel tracts given away. And if ever this is something that will happen to you once every 10 gospel tracts, remember that it is not you they will be rejecting but God. Take comfort on the fact that you have suffered reproach for Christ’s sake and then stand-up again and go to the next person and give him/her a tract.
If only every Christian would make it a point to give out a tract or two everyday. Probably, a big reason why a number of Christians do not engage in tracts distribution is because they really do not fully comprehend what a piece of paper can accomplish. In the School of Biblical Evangelism book of Living Waters, there’s this recorded account of a diver that decided to get right with God through a gospel tract. The story says that this guy had many friends that were sharing the gospel to him but he just kept on ignoring them. One time, he went diving and in the bottom of the sea, he saw this shell that had in its mouth a crumpled piece of paper. He took the paper and at the shore he opened it. To his amazement, it was a gospel tract. He began to pray and told the Lord, “God, even in the bottom of the sea you chase me. I give up. I repent of all my sins and I put my total trust in you.” What a story about what gospel tracts can do! Only God knows how many have given their lives to Him through gospel tracts.
To get you started with the habit of giving out tracts, it will be good to have about 3 to 5 of them whenever you leave your home. Give it to the taxi driver when you get off the cab. Give one to the waiter after you pay your bill. Don’t forget to leave one to the person that sits beside you in the bus. If you’re driving your own car, give one to the person in the tollgate after you pay your toll fee or to the traffic policeman when the traffic is in a halt. After some time, take it a step further and bring a bundle of gospel tracts and walk through the crowd in the park or in the marketplace and give a copy to every one you pass by. You will find out later that it’s not as difficult as before to be in this activity, and instead, it’s a very satisfying thing to do on a regular basis.
You can also give away gospel CDs, DVDs or books with very clear gospel presentations as gifts to friends and relatives. We also have a lot of these in our online store. I recommend you check out the following books and CDs at our online store: 101 Things Husbands Do to Annoy their Wives / What Hollywood Believes / The Narnia Story / Slaying the Dragon / Why Christianity? (available by the 15th of June).
If you are short in cash to purchase our gospel tracts and you really want to be in this kind of evangelism activity, you can download a free copy of tracts we’ve made and have them photocopied depending on how many copies you want from our “Free Resources” page in our website.
One final word…
It is my hope that you will use these avenues exclusively only until you have overcome your fear of directly facing people to declare sin, righteousness, judgment and God’s plan for salvation. Don’t be too comfortable with these strategies. As you mature, you should also be willing to go out of your comfort zone doing one-to-one witnessing and open-air preaching, even if it would mean embarrassment and persecution. Remember that what Jesus endured so that He can give us the salvation we so need will always be more than what we may experience in sharing the gospel. Until the nets are full, may we all labor together in heeding the Great Commission.
