Let's get into it!

A local church announced to its members in its latest community newsletter a reorientation to 'making disciples'.

Nice.

I wonder what they were doing before.

But even if they felt they were deficient in this basic function of church, good that they are now working on it.

One of the elements of this was set out as 'proclaiming' the gospel.

Now it gets tricky.

To just encourage people who have never consciously 'proclaimed the gospel' to now do it is not enough. People need to be trained, have practice, and be clear about their general objective.

I grew up in a church where after baptism, we were urged to 'tell everyone about Christ'. For a 12 year old this was a daunting prospect. Where to start? I barely knew myself what I would say; I could barely articulate to myself my own faith.

I'm sure most people, as I was at 12, now in that church, are in a similar position.

So we need training!

What to train?

Firstly, as per most churches, almost no one knows anything about the Bible or Christian faith; a sermon does not do it; nor does a life-time of them.

There are two elements to this first piece: 

1. Bible: an overview of its content, basic structure, history of composition, and history of its passage to us today; this might also deal with common 'objections' to its veracity.
2. The 'worldview' of the Bible, or its description of reality and where the gospel fits into this. My previous blog on the 5 aspects of God with us could be the basis for this.

The next piece is The Seven Basic Questions.

A Christian should be able to fluently and flexibly answer 5 basic questions about their faith, plus 2:

1. Why do you believe in Jesus, or 'why are you a Christian/follower of Jesus/Yeshua/Christ?
2. Why do you believe God exists?
3. Why do you accept the Bible as authoritative?
4. Why do you go to Church
5. Doesn't science disprove the Bible/your religion?
6. Aren't all religions basically the same?
7. How can there be a God of love with so much evil in the world (and what about the God of love who sends people to hell?).

The final warp-up is the conversation; again, two aspects:

1. Opening conversations about faith matters, or steering a conversation appropriately to them.
2. Dealing with counter claims.
   

Number 1 can be tricky for some people, so this is where much work needs to be done. Number two is comparatively simple: its about asking questions and probing the answers. Greg Koukl's Tactics book is very helpful for this.

Above all, in communicating your faith, is respect of the other person, kindness in the conversation, and only going as far as it is going. Don't expect every conversation to get anywhere near a 'conversion' conversation.

Number 1 springs from a common ground between the person and the Christian. The prior conversation is the foundation for this common ground, but an important one to keep in mind is  Paul's words in Romans 1, and Luke's in Acts 17, reporting on Paul's address in Athens.

Then its practice, de-briefs with Christian friends, and continual reading, thinking and self-education. The church must support this in continued formal education mini courses, or short seminars.