Press the Clutch Before You Shift the Gears
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 : By Hugh Williams
Evangelists who don’t shift gears smoothly in conversation tend to use the “can’t find it—grind it” strategy.I don’t drive stick. I did—once, in 1991. I learned what “can’t find it, grind it” means. I also learned about stalls. A one-mile drive took more time than walking the same distance. That was enough. I like my automatic transmission just fine, thankyouverymuch.
If only personal evangelism came with an automatic transmission… too often sharing the Gospel is more like my ordeal driving stick: lots of stalls, abrupt stops and starts, and sounds that make you cringe. Oh, and you often don’t get very far, either.
Joe Thorn considers this helpful question: “How can I take a natural conversation about common things and connect it to the gospel without it coming off like an abrupt topic change?” His answer begins like this…
To state it simply, the better you understand the gospel the easier the transitions become. If you are trying to share the gospel you will still sometimes make huge leaps that do not work. Sometimes the conversation will only connect to the Christian faith in part, without getting directly to the gospel. Sometimes it will all come together the way you imagine. The more you know the gospel (its essence and effects) and the more you practice this discipline the easier making comfortable transitions to the gospel will become. I have been asked a few times what this would look like practically, so here are 8 examples of topics that make for shorter leaps to the gospel or Christian faith.
This makes great sense. If you understood the transmission better, you’d have more success with shifting gears. The better you understand the Gospel, the more naturally you will see how everyday conversation intersects with the Good News.
Here are Joe’s eight topics that offer smooth transitions to the Gospel:
- Corruption, evil, and sin
- Community
- Politics
- Environment
- War
- Family
- Church
- Art/pop-culture
How do you see that knowing the Gospel better might help your ability to steer people Christward in your everyday conversations?
About The Author
Hugh Williams is one of the Connections teachers at Grace Fellowship and is also one of the webmasters for the forGodsfame.org website. You may notice him playing bass with the music team on Sunday mornings, too, when he works hard on smiling while reading music and keeping rhythm at the same time. A native of the New York City area, Hugh and his wife, Krista, have lived in the Atlanta area since 1997.
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