Breaking the Ice

Sharing the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ is a responsibility of every Christian. It is not a gift just for certain followers of Christ, it is a command from Jesus Himself. Sometimes I wish the term evangelism or evangelist didn't exist. Its put out there by the evangelical churches of America as a "category" in a long list of places to serve in the church. We all have probably filled out some type of survey from our church asking where you would like serve, whether it is greeter, usher, missions team, children's church, etc. Evangelism or evangelism team is usually included on this list and in a way its a shame. This is something that should be understood that if you are a Christian, evangelism or sharing the Gospel with unbelievers, is a requirement that you should be doing if you are going to call yourself a Christian. If we truly believe the Bible and what it says about those around us who may die in their sins, then why are we not sharing this with them? If God chose us for salvation when we are deserving of an eternity in Hell, why would we not want to share this exciting and amazing gift with others?

I understand and can relate that fear plays a big role in why more Christians do not share their faith. Fear of rejection, fear of being labeled as a religious nut, fear of offending others, and fear of what people will think about us. I get it. As human beings we innately want people to like us and in today's culture of being "tolerant" of other peoples beliefs we have been ingrained to just keep our deeply seeded spiritual beliefs to ourselves. But this simply will not do. We must fear God more than man. We must speak the truth in love and compassion. We will get rejections, we will get labeled, and scripture tells us that the Gospel is offensive all by itself. So my solution is this.....get over yourself! Put yourself and your pride away, swallow your self centered fears and share the good news that God saves sinners. 

I believe what keeps us from sharing with people most often is just getting the conversation started. I know from personal experience that the Gospel can be very easy to share itself, but getting to the subject can be a stumbling block. Hence the title and the main subject of this post. 
Essentially we must practice and train ourselves to be masters of small talk transitions. I cant remember the place where I read it, but one author stated that most everyday conversations revolve around only three or four subjects. For me its 1. kids, 2. sports, 3. the latest news, and 4. the weather. So take these topics and they may be different for you, but think of ways that you can transition these subjects into a spiritual conversation. An easy example is the latest news. Most things that make the news today are tragic things such as the school shootings or some natural disaster that claims the life of many people. You can easily transition from one of these things with a simple comment like "it really shows you just how precious and short life can be. What do you think happens to people after they die?" And then your set up to get their view on eternity and the after life and then you can share what you believe happens as a Bible believing Christian. A good way to practice this is a game you can do with other Christians where they give you a subject or an object and you have to transition or tie it in to a Gospel conversation. Watch below as Andrew Rappaport explains how this game works. Then get together with your brethren and practice.
The better we are at making these transitions, the easier it is to share the Gospel. If you haven't read my post on Gospel Tracts then go up and check it out because tracts are an easy tool to break the ice with someone. 
God Bless,
Steven