Editors Note: Many of the thoughts that I have about initiative evangelism came from the time I have spent involved with Cru. Cru has helped challenge me to take a good hard look at what the Bible says about telling those around us about Jesus. I say this because much of the post I am going to write today is not my own, but it is taken from myths staff have encountered over the years as they have worked with Cru about initiating spiritual conversations with others. While I might put many things in my own words here, a lot of what I discuss today will come from Cru. Under this, there is another myth that another seventy8 Productions contributor, Jim King, mentioned in the comments from yesterdays post. Today we are going to take a look at some of the reasons why we often don't feel comfortable initiating spiritual conversations with others and reasons that people give for not initiating spiritual conversations. So lets dive in, shall we? "If we live a good enough life, people will come ask us about it, and we can share more about our faith in Christ with them then." I think it is true that the world should see we are different, and yes, sometimes seeing this difference causes people to approach us and ask about why we are different. Most of the time though, people don't ask us about why we are different. Also, others might already know why we are different, that it's because we are Christians. However, merely knowing why we are different doesn't give them a greater understanding of the Gospel unless we talk to them "If we initiate spiritual conversations with people, we will turn them off." Remember KJV guy that I referred to back in my first post? This is what I envisioned when I was first challenged to initiate spiritual conversations. In my mind, KJV guy is pushy, has an objective, and his conversation with others centers around accomplishing that objective. Because of this, intentionally or not, he can come across as insensitive or even obnoxious. This kind of person probably turns people off. However, if we can learn to sensitively approach people and give then an opportunity to interact with the gospel and are available to have a dialogue with them if they are interested, we won't turn people off. We can't expect to effectively share Christ with others if we are preaching and not listening. Yet, that isn't initiative evangelism in the power and sensitivity of the Holy Spirit. "If we initiate spiritual conversations with others, we are bothering them. People don't want to hear the gospel." This one is true... sort of. There are some people that will not want to talk about the gospel at this point in their life, but there are also others that do want to hear about it. Even if they aren't ready to engage in a relationship with Christ when we talk to them, they have a better understanding of how they can do that as time goes on. We can trust God to lead us to the right people. During the time I have spend doing initiative evangelism, most people are more than willing to talk about spiritual things. In my experience, people who don't want to talk are the exception, not the rule. If we are truly having a discussion with others around us instead of preaching, most people enjoy discussing spiritual things, and for us, that is our relationship with Jesus. "You can't really effectively share Jesus with someone until you have a relationship with them." This is the reason why the thought of initiative evangelism was difficult to me. I believed this to be true and even now I still think it is true. The question, however, is how long do you need to know someone to have a relationship with them. It is possible to have trust and rapport with someone else in 5 minutes. God calls us to share with those that we know and those that we don't. He is preparing their hearts for the moment that we talk to them. It is our job to show the greatest act of love that any Jesus follower can show by giving someone who is living in a state of death the opportunity to cross over into light; to play our part in Jesus to rescuing those around us. "Initiative evangelism means that I have to preach on street corners and knock on doors." These actually are legitimate forms of evangelism, and if done right, they can work well. However, most of the evangelism we will probably be doing in our daily lives will have a relational connection. Even if we were going door-to-door, I feel a relational connection is important. There are many ways to initiate, but what it comes down to is lovingly initiating spiritual conversations with others around us, both the ones we do and don't know yet, and giving them a chance to interact with the gospel. Also, here is a bonus myth that Jim "Train" King posted in yesterdays comments. "If we are going to initiate spiritual conversations, we need to have all the answers." From Jim's Post "The fact is in intiating spiritual conversations I think it's best not to come across like you have all the answers. Yes, know what and why you believe like 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." Key in on gentleness and respect. Huge behaviors needed in conversations with others." Next time we'll talk more about some ideas on how we can start conversations with those around us about our faith in Christ, but now I want to hear from you. What do you think are good ways to share with those around us while being relational.