It comes from Tim Chester & Steve Timmis on the Resurgence blog. Below are some excerpts:
How can we talk about Jesus in the context of everyday life? If church and mission are more than an event to which we invite people, if they are about ordinary life with gospel intentionality, how do we do everyday evangelism?
The first answer is to do everyday pastoral care. Think of your Christian friends as an opportunity to practice! If you find it hard to talk about Jesus with Christians, then how do you expect to talk about him with unbelievers? As you get more in the habit of talking about Jesus in the everyday with Christians, you may find it easier to talk about him with unbelievers.
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Many current evangelistic approaches assume a Christian culture, but, as we have seen, we live in an increasingly post-Christian culture. People are biblically illiterate. They do not start with the basics of a Christian worldview. Guilt, faith, sin, and God are all empty or confused concepts for them. They probably will not be converted through a ten-minute gospel presentation on the back of a napkin. They need a lot of nudging. They need a lot of gaps filled in, or else they will start with a deep-seated antipathy toward Christianity. They are most likely not going to welcome a four-point gospel presentation, however well practiced.
If we could place people on a range of one to ten depending on their interest in the gospel, where one is no interest and ten is a decision to follow Christ, lots of evangelism assumes people are at around eight. We teach our gospel outlines. We teach answers to apologetic questions. We hold guest services. We put on evangelistic courses. We preach in the open air or knock on doors. All these are great things to do, but about 70 percent of the population is at one or two.
Many of us know how to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?” But we do not know how to begin a conversation about Jesus. Our only hope is a crass, awkward change of direction, like crunching the gears in your car.
