Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Christ Fellowship Bible Church
Here are some very pastoral and practical tips for you to consider as you proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are just some suggestions and practical ways that you can begin and engage in conversations with the lost. Some are common, some are specific, some are creative, some may need to be adapted to your particular context. But whatever the case may be, speak of His excellencies and go "fishing for men"!
- Open your mouth to someone tell them what God has done for your soul (Ps 66.16)
- Give someone a gospel tract and say: this changed my life, may I share this with you?
- Have family worship every day in your home. Open your Bible, read a portion (a chapter, section) and then discuss it. Sing a hymn that extols God and His gospel. Then pray together and reflect on the gospel as a family. In doing this, the powerful Word and the glorious gospel will be regularly brought before each person in the household (parents, spouses, kids). Engage in family worship even when visitors are over, when extended family is in town, when unsaved neighbors drop by, when church members visit. Continue the routine as a family every day and you’ll be blessed by how much gospel proclamation goes on by the reading, discussing, praying and singing of God’s Truth!
- Approach your neighbors that just moved into the neighborhood with a plate of cookies and a gospel tract and welcome them to the neighborhood, offer to serve them in any way, and encourage them to read the tract.
- Parents must faithfully teach and discipline the children when they disobey. When a child disobeys, the parent must lovingly take the child to the room in private to discipline the child. The parent must probe the heart with questions that search/reveal the motive as to why the child did what he/she did. Then the parent must open the Bible and show the child how the action was sin (against God; not just against dad/mom). Then the parent must discipline with the rod (for small, young children). Then, the parent must swoop the child in his arms and affirm his great love for the child, God’s great holiness, and Christ’s provision at Calvary so that the child doesn’t need to perish forevermore. Every discipline with a child is a gospel-proclaiming opportunity! Be faithful! Use it! Speak truth! Proclaim Christ daily to your children!
- Write a personal letter to a friend, co-worker, or family member and present the gospel simply, clearly and with specific application and exhortation to repent/turn from sin and believe in the Gospel. Invite their response for further discussion and follow up.
- Write a general gospel letter and share the good news of Jesus Christ with friends because you care about them and their soul, indeed, their eternal well-being. Then, go door to door in your neighborhood and put the letter on their front door or knock and hand it to them personally.
- Go to a local Jr high, High school or college and hand out gospel tracts to students on the public sidewalk as they are going to/from class.
- Drive to a busy parking lot (Wal-mart, mall, grocery store, fitness center, strip-mall, downtown area) and put gospel tracts on car windows just above the driver’s car-door handle. Don’t put the tract under the windshield wiper but rather put it by the door handle so people are sure to see it and can easily grab it and read it.
- When you purchase something (anything!) and people give you a receipt (at McDonalds, Starbucks, a grocery store, etc.), say “Thank you very much” and offer to give them a “thank you tract” — as a way of saying thank you to them.
- When you go to a restaurant and eat out, when the server comes to take your drink orders, ask the server for his/her name and then offer to pray for them and ask for one specific way that you can pray for them (you’ll be amazed and surprised at how friendly and amazed people are by this simple request). Then, when you pray for your meal, of course, pray for your server as they requested and for the person to have an open heart when they receive a gospel tract at the end. Then, when you pay your bill, tip them generously and leave a gospel tract there with a hand-written “thank you” on the receipt as a personalized way of showing gratitude to your server.
- At the local gas station, while you are filling up your car, put a gospel tract in the credit card slot at the pump for the next person to come and find the good news of Jesus Christ waiting for them. And, if there is someone on the other side of the pump, you could say: “Did you receive one of these yet today?” (They’ll almost always say “no” — and then you can give them the best news they could ever hear!).
- Get a piece of thick chalk and go to a few public sidewalks near your house, near a local school and clearly write out in big letters a verse of the Bible that is gospel-laden (e.g., John 3.16; 2 Cor 5.21; John 3.3; Luke 19:10; John 3.36; Isa 45.22; Rom 3.18, et al).
- A man of God can grab His Bible, open it, read it, and preach in the open air the saving message of Jesus Christ so that all who pass by hear the gospel loudly heralded.
- Go to a local abortion clinic and open your mouth for those who have no voice. Speak forth the gospel of Jesus Christ by pleading with the dads and moms to not murder their children because God hates the hands that shed innocent blood. Warn of coming judgment & call out for life, proclaim Jesus Christ, the Prince of Life, and admonish them to forsake their selfish, murderous ways and fly to Jesus Christ for eternal life & peace! You can do this almost any day of the week!
