Have you ever felt that familiar tension build up inside you, the pressure to say the right thing, the anxiety creeping in when you’re having a conversation with someone who doesn’t know Jesus? You want to be bold in how you share your faith. You’re just waiting for the other person to stop and finally share what you believe.
You want to boldly share your faith.
Or maybe you get too excited and start talking too much when someone asks you a question about your faith or shows even the slightest openness to gospel conversation. Before you know it, you’re delivering a complete sermon in three points, covering every aspect of the gospel you can think of, and ending with a prayer of salvation ready to lead.
But when you finally stop, the person doesn’t respond with as much enthusiasm as you expected. Instead, they just stare back at you with slightly misty eyes and the conversation fizzles out.
I’ve been there, and I’m sure you’ve been there too. Moments where we may have said the truth, but not necessarily the right thing for that moment. The words that person really wanted to hear. The answer to the deeper question they were actually asking. And the truth is, if you look back at the moment you suspected this was what you did, there’s no way to know what was actually going on. Because you didn’t ask the questions to find out.
Jesus asked…many questions.
One of the things I find so interesting about Jesus is that he asked a lot of questions. The Creator and Ruler of all asks about 300 questions in the Gospels. That’s a lot of questions for someone who knows everything about everything and everyone.
In Luke 10, Jesus asked a lawyer, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asked him, “What does it say in the law?” and “How do you read it?”
The man answered and asked who his neighbor was. Again, instead of answering directly, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. He ends with another question: Who is the neighbor in this story?
One of our greatest evangelistic tools is asking good questions.
Lawyers walk away having learned something about God’s heart for people and God’s kingdom. The questions he asks speak for themselves. Jesus doesn’t simply answer the lawyer’s first question, he takes the lawyer on a journey. Perhaps one of our greatest evangelistic tools is asking the right questions and taking the time to listen.
I remember one time when I was getting my nails done, the woman who was doing my nails asked me if I believed in karma. Instead of immediately answering her question with a no, I asked her what she meant by karma. Not because I don’t know what karma is, but because I wanted to hear why she was asking me. Ending the conversation with a curt “no” probably wouldn’t have led to anything. But getting her to talk about her beliefs ultimately meant making it clear that she wasn’t sure she had done enough with her life.
I was able to share the gospel with her in a really natural way.
After I asked her a lot of questions, she finally asked me if I was sure I was going to heaven. I was able to share the gospel with her in a really natural way. That’s because it was the right answer to the question she was asking: “How can I be sure I’ve done enough good in life?”
This doesn’t happen every time you ask a good question, but what does happen is that the person leaves feeling heard, cared for, and valued. And that in itself may open up opportunities for future gospel conversations.
Asking questions doesn’t always come naturally to us. That’s why the Being Human team has created a resource to help you. These conversation cards allow for deep conversations about life and faith. You can see the Being Human team using these cards at King’s Cross in London. It’s amazing how open strangers are to discussing deeper things and the opportunities these cards have to open up conversations of faith.
Get your pack now. I pray that it will be a useful resource for better conversations with those who do not yet know Jesus and those who do know Jesus.
Originally published by Being Human. Republished with permission.
Katherine Brown joined the Evangelical Alliance UK in 2023 as part of the Being Human team. Prior to that, she worked in student ministry, helping students share their faith with their friends. Catherine became a Christian while attending drama school and has a passion for evangelism, storytelling, and seeing young people grow in the church.
The Evangelical Alliance of England is made up of hundreds of organizations, thousands of churches and tens of thousands of individuals united for the Gospel. Representing our members since 1846, the Evangelical Union is Britain’s oldest and largest evangelical unity movement. United in mission and voice, we exist to serve and strengthen the work of the Church in our communities and throughout society. Emphasizing the important opportunities and challenges facing the church today, we work together to support Christians to act on their faith in Jesus and to speak out for the gospel, justice, and freedom in their areas of influence.
