You’d better be a good employee or there won’t be an opportunity!
Be very careful … it’s a p/c world
Pray … pray … pray (privately by name)
Develop friendships and look for way to connect outside of work with co-worker as a friend
Have a Bible on your desk (along with Linux books, et cetera)
The neighbor
You’d better be a good neighbor or there won’t be an opportunity!
Safe free-speech zone (contrary to work!)
Pray … pray … pray (privately by name)
Serve: mow, shovel, baby sit
Gift (eg this year Kathee gave one neighbor a home made cranberry loaf with Paul Tripp’s Advent Devotional)
Inviting to church is a good opening
The relative
They know you the best! All your flaws & foibles. Don’t pretend to be perfect (ez since you’re not!)
Pray … pray … pray (privately by name)
Selective tell but talk family and other things too (see next)
Example (from me): This is what I’ve been learning from my cancer trial
The friend
If you don’t have unsaved friends …. you’re over-churched. Get out of the box!
They know you the well! All your flaws & foibles. Don’t pretend to be perfect (ez since you’re not!)
Pray … pray … pray (privately by name)
Selective tell but talk other things too (see next)
Example (from me): This is what I’ve been learning from my cancer trial
Look for opportunity to give them a Bible (example: we have friends: the husband is from central America. Today we gave them a nice Spanish / English Bible and offered do a Bible study from the Gospel of John with them. They accepted the Bible but not the other offer)
They have trials … be there for them … point them to Christ!
The pizza delivery guy (or any delivery person)
Have a packet prepared: We buy ESV Gospel of Johns by the case. Our packet is a John with the Navigators’ Bridge tract inserted
Give a nice tip (important)
Have the packets by the front door
Ask: “Have you ever read the Gospel of John?” “May we give you a copy of the Gospel of John?” My wife is so winsome at this. She continues: “Look for the the key words ‘believe’ and ‘eternal life’ … look for the 8 miracles and the “I am’ sayings”. No one turns her down.
Mine is: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” (1 Timothy 1:15)
Sometimes I accompany this with the packet (see above) (I keep one in my pocket)
These are terrific approaches, Jim. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to print this and keep it handy for our group discussion at church tomorrow afternoon.
It’s interesting to note that Paul’s recorded instances of sharing his experience with Jesus as recorded in Acts take around 3 minutes. I’ve always tried to encourage people to simply share what Jesus had done for them.
When I worked at IKEA we had a lot of meetings (Swedes love meetings!) and one of the most common ice breakers was for each of us tho briefly share the most memorable event/person in our lives.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
One of the most common ice breakers was for each of us tho briefly share the most memorable event/person in our lives.
A charter school teacher I know (a former member of our church whom we sent to help replant another neighboring church in the Queens borough) takes a similar approach. The school staff does a lot of team-building and info-sharing exercises, and he uses forums and questions like you’ve mentioned to share his conversion testimony, etc. It has opened some tremendous conversations and opportunities for the gospel at work.
In my final years at Wells Fargo, we had an internal Toastmasters group that met every Tuesday at noon.
I worked in a highly secure building so it was WF tech people only. I only went every other week b/c of a conflict but had many opportunities to share Christ.
Eg: speech “I don’t believe in Sasquatch or the Tooth Fairy, but I believe in Jesus”
On manager (basically a peer) told me I shouldn’t “talk like that” at work. I said - “hey this is a free speech zone”
Discussion
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6 situations:
Approaches:
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These are terrific approaches, Jim. Thanks for sharing. I’m going to print this and keep it handy for our group discussion at church tomorrow afternoon.
Thomas Overmiller
Pastor | StudyGodsWord.com
Blog | ShepherdThoughts.com
NewTime
It’s interesting to note that Paul’s recorded instances of sharing his experience with Jesus as recorded in Acts take around 3 minutes. I’ve always tried to encourage people to simply share what Jesus had done for them.
When I worked at IKEA we had a lot of meetings (Swedes love meetings!) and one of the most common ice breakers was for each of us tho briefly share the most memorable event/person in our lives.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
NewRon Bean wrote:
A charter school teacher I know (a former member of our church whom we sent to help replant another neighboring church in the Queens borough) takes a similar approach. The school staff does a lot of team-building and info-sharing exercises, and he uses forums and questions like you’ve mentioned to share his conversion testimony, etc. It has opened some tremendous conversations and opportunities for the gospel at work.
Thomas Overmiller
Pastor | StudyGodsWord.com
Blog | ShepherdThoughts.com
NewIn my final years at Wells Fargo ...
In my final years at Wells Fargo, we had an internal Toastmasters group that met every Tuesday at noon.
I worked in a highly secure building so it was WF tech people only. I only went every other week b/c of a conflict but had many opportunities to share Christ.
Eg: speech “I don’t believe in Sasquatch or the Tooth Fairy, but I believe in Jesus”
On manager (basically a peer) told me I shouldn’t “talk like that” at work. I said - “hey this is a free speech zone”
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Jim's Doctrinal Statement