Evangelism Idea: Share with a Facebook Ad!

Sharing your faith with a large number of people has never been easier! Go to the facebook ads page here for answers to questions you may have to get started. Create an ad for your ministry, church, website or blog by going to the create ad page here. You will pay around $1.00 per click on your ad but can set the limit you're willing to pay per day (ex. $10 / day). For every click there are usually thousands of impressions (people that see your ad but don't click it). That means for every dollar you spend thousands more will get a quick view of the gospel. Carefully select specific demographic conditions to target your ad to specific audiences (ex. college students in your city). Make sure to use your 25 character title to portray the big picture of the gospel in a unique way (example: Jesus loves you!!!) and then summarize the gospel and your link in the next 135 characters. You probably won't be able to afford to run this forever but for a short time period you can reach a large audience with the gospel and a link to your ministry. I hope you get a chance to try this idea and the many more we've posted!

March Madness!!!

We just got back from our staff retreat (that's the team in the picture)! It was a great time. Sorry I haven't blogged in about a week. Below are the top 5 posts from March! I hope these encourage you a ton!

1. 532 words Jesus Died to Tell You!

2. 91 Easy Ways to Share Your Faith!

3. Rob Bell on Hell.

4. How to share the gospel with gay & lesbian friends

5. The God Solution Show 1 (get all the God Solution shows under the tab at the top of this page).

Having grown up an MK all around the world I am always excited about what God is doing around the globe. More than 90 countries have read this blog: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, India, Indonesia, Isle of Man, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Quatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Uruguay, the US, Venezuela, Vietnam and others. If you live in any of those countries, please comment on this post and let us know what God is doing in your part of the world. Thanks!

Rob Bell on Hell!

Rob Bell is out with another theological blunder trying to explain away hell rather than doing something to keep people from going there! So who is going to hell? That's the question Bell tries to answer in his new book "Love Wins." Of course love wins Bell! That is the whole point of the Gospel - God loved us, Jesus died for us, rose from the grave and now there is a way to escape the reality of hell. In all honesty, I haven't read this book yet and don't really plan to. If Bell had shown anything other than wishful theology in the past I might be more inclined to read it but I'm not. Not having read it I will be careful not to judge what I don't know. What I do know is that hell is a very real place described vividly in the Bible. This truth is uncomfortable and like some people will avoid going to the doctor because they fear a diagnosis, some Christians just pretend it isn't in scripture or explain away the clear verses on this subject in the Bible. If you don't like hell, join the crowd! Neither do I and, remember, neither does God. That is why He sent His Son Jesus! In stead of pretending Hell doesn't exist, please decide today to "snatch others from the fire and save them" (Jude 1:21-23)!It is funny (and sad) how these leaders that say what peoples' itching ears want to hear have so many followers. Check out what the Bible really says about hell by clicking here (get those notes here) and watch a very revealing interview with Bell on secular TV below. I truly believe Rob Bell is my brother in Christ but he's quite off track. As Randy Alcorn tweeted yesterday, "Farewell, Rob Bell."

Sharing with Mormons!

The Mormons are on campus!!! Yesterday, as I walked past a new table in the Union trying to see who it was, I realized it was the Mormons at exactly the same time they asked me, "What do you think about the book of Mormon?" I told them Joseph Smith should have read Gal.1:8-9. I continued by sharing a few problems I have with the book of Mormon, like Alma 7:10 saying Jesus was born in Jerusalem. They answered that that was written because the Jews wouldn't have known where Bethlehem was. I reminded them that Bethlehem was prophesied to be the hometown of the Messiah in Micah. Other problems include the reality that nothing in the Book of Mormon has been archeologically verified, no Hebrew artifact has ever been discovered in the US and both linguistics and DNA trace Native Americans back to Asia, not Israel. I also asked them why LDS doctrine, if true, constantly changes (they used to believe minorities descended from Satan, polygamy was O.K., etc) and  compared Jesus to Joseph Smith: one was pure, the other a polygamist pedophile, one died peacefully to pay for my sins, the other died a sinful death fighting to the bitter end. It was at about that point that one of the precious young missionary ladies told me they were through talking to me. I asked her if she had been serious when she asked what I thought of Mormons. She said yes so I asked if I could continue. She said I could. After that I transitioned to the real issue with Mormons, that of working for our salvation. I think these two young ladies were the 1st I've ever spoken to that readily admitted they believed works were necessary (usually Mormons try to play this game where they act like they just agree with you and you really have to fish it out). We discussed salvation by grace through faith alone and then we discussed how you can know you are saved. They told me about the "burning in the bosom" and I told them a lot of non-Christians get similar experiences by doing drugs, partying, drinking and sleeping around. I encouraged them that we can only have confidence in our salvation through faith in God's Word and what Jesus did at the Cross, not through a "Burning in the bosom." We wrapped up the conversation from there. I encouraged them to check out saintsalive.org and then left. It was the first time I've met Mormons evangelizing on campus. Very interesting! Anyway, here are a few links to get you started sharing with Mormons: Christian Answers for Mormons, CRI ideas and Utah Christian Publications ideas. I hope you'll apply those ideas and share with your Mormon friends as well!

I haven't watched this whole video yet but it looked good. Let me know what you think!

4 Unique Evangelistic Events

Check out these different ways to share your faith through events.

1. Host an Open Discussion

2. Invite a Few Friends to go Witnessing After Church.

3. Host a Half Night of Prayer.

4. Flash Mob Evangelism!

Evangelism Idea: Share a Good Book!

We all have non-Christian friends and relatives we want to share the Good News with. One way to share with them is to give them a good book. Of course, the best book you could ever give them is the Bible. Even if they aren't a believer, you can buy them a high quality gift Bible that would look nice on any bookshelf and would be there the next time they became interested in investigating further. I bought this Case for Christ Study Bible for a loved one this year and it is full of great apologetics and answers that will be just right whenever they decide to check it out. Talking about the Case for Christ, that or a similar book "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" is a good one) would be a great idea for a gift as well. You might want to buy a stash of 10 or 20 to keep on hand for whenever you have an opportunity to give one away. I just bought 10 copies of "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" to hand out. I hope this simple idea opens up a ton of doors for you to share your faith!

How to Share the Gospel in a Conversation About any Movie.

Entertainment permeates most Americans' lives. Many of your friends will see all the major movies that come out so how can you get to the gospel from a conversation about any of those movies, whether seen in the theater or rented? Simple! Follow these 3 easy steps. 1) Are there any Christian actors, influences or direct contributors to the movie? If so, mentioning them is a great way to begin transitioning to the Good News. You might think "In Hollywood?" Before you jump to conclusions about the godlessness of Hollywood, think of all the movies released recently that have Christian connections: The Chronicles of Narnia (you could easily mention C.S. Lewis and why he wrote the series; you coul also suggest one of his many classics like "Mere Christianity"), The Lord of the Rings (J.R. Tolkien was a committed believer who actually influenced Lewis for Christ), etc. Each of these present a great opportunity for the Gospel. 2) Are there any themes that are either Christian themes or anti-Christian themes? These are an obvious way to get to the gospel as well. Whether pro or con, it is easy to say what you liked or didn't like about the movie and to explain why: it either did or didn't jive with your values. You can visit movieministry.com for more ideas on Christian conversation topics for every new movie. 3) Does the movie address any social, moral or historical issues that you could bring a Christian perspective to? Look for opportunities to discuss your faith when talking about movies with an important message.

Those are just a few ways to get to the gospel from any movie you happen to be talking about. Please share any other ideas you have and please check out some of the evangelism ideas we've shared below for different movies. Finally, before you get burned by a bad movie, go to pluggedin.com to see what's good (and they'll undoubtedly have even more conversation topics in their analysis of each movie!

1. Toy Story 3

2. Despicable Me

3. "The Social Network" and "Wall Street"

Valentine's Evangelism Idea!

Yesterday was GREAT! We set up 2 tables connected into one long table and had tons of Valentine's related conversation starters out on the table. Brandon and Malcolm (who lead our evangelism team) came up with this idea. We had conversation starters on the table (like the one in the bottom left hand side of the picture) that asked questions like, "How would you define love?" Most people had no good answers but those led into many great conversations about true love! We also had $40 worth of candy spread across the table. Each piece of candy had a valentine taped to it with a verse about God's love for us, a couple of hearts and "Jesus Loves You" printed boldly across the middle. There were 6-8 students sharing pretty much throughout the entire afternoon and we had great conversations with tons of people. I got to share with "M" who is Jewish. This simple table resulted in a great conversation with him about the Messiah and OT prophecy. He was very interested and hadn't heard any of that before. He wants to stay in touch and wants to learn more about the Messiah. He was just one example of the many students that got to hear the gospel yesterday! I hope this idea encourages you and I hope you can do something similar wherever you live! Check out the video below for more!

Egypt: A Great Opportunity to Share the Good News!

Everyone is talking about Egypt and all the political unrest in the Middle East. These conversations are a great way to bring up the Good News. Next time you find yourself in a conversation about all that's happening in Egypt, tell those you're talking with that a lot of this is prophesied in the Bible. You can share Is.19, especially verses 20-25 with them. That will bring up the topic of Biblical prophecy. You can go on to share how prophetically accurate the Bible is. Even now Biblical prophecy is being fulfilled in amazing accuracy. A recent example is that of Israel becoming a nation in a single day: prophesied in Is.66:8 and fulfilled by on May, 14, 1948. For more on the reliability of scripture and tons of great points you could bring up in this type of conversation, click here and check out more on understanding the times here. The main point would be to work through the sound barriers once you're discussing the situation in the Middle East today! Finally, praise God for what He is doing in the Muslim world. 16,000 + Muslims are trusting Christ every day (and if you click that link you'll actually get some stories of the revival going on in Egypt)! Check out the video below for more on that and have a GREAT time sharing your faith today!

10 Great Evangelism Tools!

1. The Perspective Cards Evangelism Tool
2. The Lie Detector
3. Share Jesus' words with your friends
4. Christian t-shirts are a great way to share your faith.

5. Soularium

6. The testimony worksheet.

7. Short survey: 30 seconds to change eternity.

8. Using the KGP and 4 Spiritual Laws to share the Good News.

9. Life@Large: The gospel as a narrative story!
10. The Vantage Evangelism Tool.

Get even more ideas here!

The Perspective Cards Evangelism Tool

Yet another great tool from CRU Press!!! I've been hearing about the Perspective Cards for a while so we finally decided to try them out yesterday! We did the "Lie Detector" at one table and the Perspective Cards at the 2nd table. Students were there hearing the gospel pretty much non-stop from 11:30 - 3:30 (and Joseph ended up doing the Soularium after that till 6). The perspective cards ask 1) what is the nature of God, 2) what is human nature, 3) what is life's purpose, 4) who is Jesus and 5) what is the source of truth. For each of those questions there are a number of cards, each with a perspective common today. After the person you are talking with shares their perspective you have the opportunity to share the Biblical perspective on each of those topics. It ends up being a great way to get into deep spiritual conversations and share the Good News in a relatively short period of time. You can (and should) get the Perspective Cards here. I'll be sharing more stories soon but for now, check out the video below and get tons more ideas here!

Lie Detector Day 1

The Lie Detector from Living Waters came in yesterday morning (see more and/or buy it here)  so we tried it out on campus yesterday. We'll be trying out more today as well. At first it was hard to get into conversations with people.  Several turned Jack and me down; many more than normally would. Those that did it thought it was fun, funny and interesting. Malcolm and I got into a great conversation with "J." After doing the "lie detector test" I said, "this is just a funny illustration of what Jesus said in Lk.18:19, that no one is good but God alone. What do you think of that statement?" He told us he was spiritual but didn't believe in Jesus. He was very interested in all of this and continued asking tons of questions regarding Jesus, the Bible, other religions, heaven, hell, salvation and various other spiritual topics. We were able to go through each main point of the gospel with him and he eventually had to take off. I think we talked with him for about 45 minutes. It was a great conversation and proof, yet again, that the method or tool isn't what matters most - people are being drawn to Jesus and whatever you can do to engage them in a conversation about Him is great! Can't wait to see how round 2 goes today! Pray for us. 

Say You're Sorry!

We've all had disagreements with people in our spheres of influence. Sometimes we've even hurt non-Christian friends of ours. The natural tendency in those situations is to think we've ruined our opportunity to share Christ with them. Well, not necessarily! Sometimes telling a non-Christian friend or co-worker you've hurt that you're sorry can open up into an amazing opportunity to share with them. The world is full of pride, arrogance, gossip, slander and running over each other to climb the social latter. When you humble yourself and genuinely apologize, it will get peoples' attention and they're entire perspective will likely change. Your vulnerability, humility and kindness will be very attractive. Almost every time I've done this they ask me why I did it. That always opens up an opportunity to share about Christ. Give it a shot, ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of any of your non-Christian friends you've wronged and then try this evangelism idea! 

Street Preacher!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to get to know Shawn Hole, a traveling street preacher that genuinely wants to make Jesus known wherever he goes. Whatever you might think about traveling street preachers, and I'll be the first to agree with you that many of them have done a poor job with reaching out to people, you can't just lump all of them in together. Many are amazing men and women of God that want to share the Good News with a world that is lost, dying and headed for hell. Shawn falls into the latter category. Great guy, great heart for God and great perspective on reaching the lost. Open air preaching isn't our main style but it is a tool. Check out this post from the last time we did open air here at FLC. We definitely have plans to do more of this style of evangelism soon. Pray for Shawn as he heads on to new areas, that God would bless him a ton (you can see more about him and his ministry here). Finally, if your friends are talking about him being on campus yesterday, use the opportunity to get back to the gospel.

Check out more about open air preaching here or watch the video below.

Drowning in a Sea of Lies!

Video will play automatically. If you don't want that press pause in the bottom left hand corner of the video box. If you add up all the stats in this video, 300% of the population deals with stress, depression, mental illness, loneliness, broken relationships, STDs, abuse, financial hardships, self injury or addictions. You could word that differently saying everyone around you deals with at least 3 of those issues. No one around you is “NORMAL!”
 They are all empty and searching for Jesus! Consider this proof everyone you know is searching for Jesus. You can get last night's notes here.

8 Great Internet Evangelism Ideas!

Reach the world from your computer with these fun and easy ways to share your faith on line!

1. Evangelism tools and apps for your Iphone, Ipod or other device.
2. The social network spiritual interest survey (a great tool).
3. Share an evangelistic website.
4. Share with someone new online right now.
5. Share Christ in a status update.
6. Comment on an online news story.

7. Be an online missionary!

8. Share with a facebook ad!

The Top 10 Failed Evangelism Ideas!

I just read this funny post from Grant's Graceland (I don't know much about this blogger but thought this list was funny and thought provoking). Here they are, the top 10 failed evangelism ideas (posted from http://grantsgraceland.org/topten/tp0901.html), enjoy:

• With the obvious popularity of Christian Bumper Stickers, who could have predicted the demise of the ill-fated Christian forehead sticker?
• The organization "Abductions for Jesus", while well-meant, has been considered a little too extreme by most!
• While handing out free bibles was a great idea, dropping them from a helicopter in the mall parking lot, created some problems!
• No matter how many times they tweaked their program, "Tupperware For Christ" just wasn't a fresh enough idea!
• Who would have thought that the church offering of a free community car wash could have ended so badly? Then again, who could be expected to remember that "the late" Pastor Bill liked to store his used paint thinner in car-wax containers?
• Offering bungee jumping from the church steeple certainly attracted a younger target audience. Unfortunately, no one seemed to remember who was responsible for making sure that the bungee cord wasn't too long!
• The enthusiastic youth group of Hornblast Meadows Christian Church decided it was time to revisit the age old idea of going door to door. Unfortunately the idea of trying it with cars, in rush hour traffic, just ran out of gas!
• Jittery Hills Baptist Church thought it was a great idea to offer free coffee and donuts to everyone who visited. Unfortunately, all the police cruisers in the church parking lot sent the wrong message to the community!
• The evangelism committee of Faux Pas Valley Community Church still stands behind the idea of a community BBQ. Next time though, they won't BBQ a pig in this mostly Jewish neighborhood!
• And the number one failed evangelism idea is:
• Leaving the lost for your minister to save!

Good point. With that in mind, don't believe the top 10 lies about evangelism, try these evangelism ideas that do work and if you just don't want to share, watch the video below for 8 reasons not to share your faith!

Way to go Dad!!!

Many of you probably remember the post about 2 weeks ago when I asked you to pray for my dad who was sharing with a guy that rides his bus. I just wanted to follow up a bit and encourage you that all of you that prayed were a part of that man coming to know Jesus that morning. Read more in this post titled John is dead. Way to go Dad! Now, keep praying for this new believer to grow into maturity in Christ!

Well, Christmas is passed and you all have undoubtedly been sharing your faith. I hope you all enjoyed the 25 easy and fun Christmas evangelism ideas. You can get all 78 creative evangelism ideas here and we'll be adding more, including ones for New Year's soon. If you need some great evangelism and discipleship training get all our ministry leadership training classes right here.

Well, way to go Dad! Thanks for sharing at work and making Jesus the most important thing there!

Evangelism Idea #22: Tell Your Guests About Candy Canes.

I'm sure you'll have lots of guests over for Christmas or be a guest along with many others this weekend. Candy canes are a great intro to share the gospel, especially with children. Tradition tells us the candy cane's shape as a "J" should remind us of Jesus and when flipped around remind us of a shepherd's staff and how each of us are His sheep (Jn.10). The white color of the candy cane stands for purity. The large red stripe reminds us of His blood which he shed for our sins to make us pure before God while the 3 small stripes represent the trinity. Talk about a great way to get to the gospel from something that will most likely be a decoration wherever you spend Christmas this Saturday. Get more info on the tradition of candy canes by clicking here and don't miss these other easy Christmas evangelism ideas! Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Evangelism Idea #20: Travel for Jesus!

It's Christmas break for students and most everyone else is about to have time off as well. Many of us will be traveling soon. If you will be traveling make it a point to share the Good News with those you encounter along the way, you may never see them again and this may be the only opportunity you ever get to share with them. If you're flying you'll have numerous opportunities to share with people in airports and planes. You cold easily start a conversation by asking them where they're traveling to and then working through the sound barriers from there. If you're driving you could tell a cashier at the gas station that Jesus loves them (see an example of this here). Last year I told a lady at a gas station near Glenwood Springs that Jesus loved her and she almost began crying. She told us that her husband had dumped all of her belongings off at the gas station door earlier that day and told her not to come home. She was desperate and confused. That one phrase we shared opened into an entire discussion of the gospel. Who knows what will happen when you take the initiative to share as you travel over the holidays! Don't forget to check out all the other easy Christmas evangelism ideas here and have a very Merry Christmas!