HAILEY WRITES:How can I be a witness to my friends who do not attend church? I try to lead by example and have been able to build many relationships with people, but I’m just never quite sure how to work my faith into conversation. I’m starting a monthly Bible study next month, but I don’t know how to make my non-church friends want to come.
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I would recommend starting a conversation with something very simple that would typically not lead to a discussion on faith. You can easily move the conversation towards faith with a little bit of practice. For instance, a simple example would be to start a conversation about what their favorite cereal is. You could say something like, “My favorite cereal is Fruit Loops. I eat them every Sunday on the way to church.” This gets you on the topic of church and faith.
Another suggestion would be to ask your youth pastor to organize a social or fellowship at your church. This does not have to include a message of any sort. It can just be a fun night to invite your friends to. Believe it or not, this really gets people to want to come to your church more often. My youth group just finished a back-to-school party last night, and several people showed up with some of their friends from school. We just had upbeat Christian music playing, ate burgers, played games, and had places to just sit and talk. It was a great night and I am expecting to see many new faces either on Sunday or Wednesday. This is a great, fun way to get your friends involved in church.
Hope this helps. God Bless!!! : )
I also had a deep desire to witness to some people I was doing some volunteer work with this summer. I am not typically a very social person so I always have a hard time getting the things I want to say into words. I also was having a hard time starting a conversation on faith. I was praying to God to give me the chance to witness and when the time came that He would make me bold. Well He did! In the last week of volunteering God gave me the chance to work alone with two other volunteers and they just all of the sudden were both talking about being Atheist. God gave me the perfect chance to share the gospel and He was faithful and gave me all the words to say. God allowed me to give one of them a Bible and also my contact information in case of questions. The whole thing was so perfectly orchestrated. I encourage you to pray very specifically that God would give you the opportunity to witness. Even pray for the certain specific person He has put on your heart. Always be in tune to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. God is faithful he will tell you what to say! I’ll be praying for you (:
That is so awesome, and really encouraging to hear!
I recently had a similar experience at a secular conference. I’d been praying for opportunities to witness, and after impressing these two girls because I’m in grade 12 but I can hold a conversation (that’s actually what they said, so rebel against low expectations!!!), I mentioned chaplaincy, and one of them said how wonderful everything spiritual was. It turned out that she is “very spiritual” but not a Christian. So we had a good conversation that night. A key thing was that she and her friend already respected me.
The next night the conference finished and everyone started heading off, and I panicked because I’d been waiting all day to talk more to this girl, but hadn’t had a chance. When we did start chatting, I just prayed that God would bring the conversation to that topic… before I knew it, we were discussing how she can know God without the Bible!
So pray and God will bring the opportunities to you if you are prepared. 🙂
It is hard to try to share your religion.
Keep doing what you’re doing by living in a way that is an example to them. Love them and accept them.
But sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and invite them to church. Or a church activity with the youth or something. Sometimes you can’t beat around the bush and just have to go for it!! 🙂
This is such an important topic! The first thing I would do, would be to continually pray for boldness. Ask God to give you opportunities to be a light, whether its talking to someone no one else does, paying for someone else’s lunch or even just complementing someone’s shirt. These little actions help to display Christ in us. As for your Bible studies, (on a much more practical side) I’d get some fun snacks and drinks. Games are nice too. Things that can help break the ice. People are more inclined to come if the promise of fun, food and fellowship are made. Soon, they will be learning about God and his love for them, all the while having a blast! I really hope this helps! God bless!!!