How to Share the Gospel with Friends (4 Great Ways to Talk About Jesus)
In this post, I present 4 simple ways on how to share the Gospel with your friends and other loved ones. These ways are not separate from each other. Instead, I pray they’ll encourage you to adopt a holistic approach to inspiring people to seek Jesus in their own lives.
But first…
Why should we share the Gospel with others?
First, we gotta be honest. Many long-time Christians have slipped into a life of ‘quiet faith’.
In other words, a lot of believers truly love God in their hearts. However, they have chosen to keep their faith lowkey, seldom talking about it with others.
There are actually lots of relatable reasons why this happens.
For example, a Christian may be afraid of offending another person’s spiritual beliefs. Or he / she might be wary of being judged as a bigoted ‘Bible thumper’ – no thanks to negative stereotypes!
I think it’s always great to be sensitive to people’s feelings. No one wants to be a jerk! Moreover, an over-zealous Christian who condemns others – rather than loves them – can really rub people the wrong way.
However, moving away from the extremes… wouldn’t it be nice to help plant a mustard seed of faith in people’s hearts? To do our parts to inspire pre-believers to “give Jesus a try” – especially when they find themselves in desperate need for God’s aid?
In short, openly (but gently) talking about God’s amazing love with others is totally worth it, since it begins to introduce Jesus into their hearts and minds. And that’s always a good thing!
In fact, Jesus himself asks us not to be shy about our faith.
Using a lamp as an analogy to spreading our faith, he says:
The Son of God is even clearer when he says:
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
Mark 16:15
So why should we share the gospel with others? In short, Jesus desires for our lives to shine with God’s light – so that others, too, may know of and experience His glory first-hand. As the Bible also says, this includes our willingness to actively share the good news of His love, as He intended when He first blessed us to be believers (1 Corinthians 9:14; Luke 4:43; Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Timothy 4:2).
Thus, don’t hide your lamp under a bowl! Instead, here are 4 effective ways you can start telling the people around you about Jesus, starting today.
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How to share the Gospel (4 Effective Ways!)
1. Let your life be your testimony.
Giving your testimony of how you first came to accept Christ is a great way to share the Gospel with open-minded unbelievers.
I myself have been inspired by other Christians’ public stories of their encounters with God. As a former ‘hardcore agnostic’, I’ve also shared my own faith testimony with the hope of encouraging people to turn to Him.
Not sure how to talk about your faith journey? Here’s a quick video that’ll help get you started! Keep in mind this is just one out of many possible approaches. Ultimately, how you prepare your testimony comes down to what you’re comfortable with. Just remember to always be honest with the details, speaking from the heart!
In short, having a faith testimony is a great chance to talk about Jesus with your friends and other loved ones…
However, I believe an even better way to share the Gospel is simply choosing to lead our day-to-day lives in a manner that glorifies God’s goodness.
As Christians, this means habitually seeking to be Christ-inspired as we aim to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We do this by showing “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control”(Galatians 5:22-23) to others, as God asked us to (1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17).
But, of course, #realtalk here!
Even as believers, we will stumble with this goal. For example, we may sometimes get impatient with a loved one, say something uncaring that we later regret, etc.
Yet, don’t lose heart! Faith is a constant journey of humble learning and obedience. Most importantly, always remember that every conscious daily step we choose to take with God is a step that slowly helps us walk better in His ways.
Consequently, by letting God gradually transform our hearts (via regular prayer, reading the Bible, etc.), people around us will also start to take notice of the changes in us.
Such changes may be especially noticed by longer-term friends, family members, etc. who are able to directly compare what we were like during our ‘Before Christ’ days – and after.
Overtime, this will make many of them curious, asking “What changed?” or “Did Jesus really improve who he / she is? Can God possibly make me better, too?”.
Don’t be surprised if a few of them even start asking you to tell them more about your faith!
In short, let us actively desire to lead lives that shine the light of God’s love for others to see. This is among the best lifelong ways on how to share the Gospel with others – by humbly aiming to practice daily what the Bible preaches!
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2. Explain Jesus in simple terms.
Almost everyone knows the name of Jesus Christ!
However, not every person grasps why our heavenly Father sent His Son into the world (John 3:16).
As an ex-agnostic, I totally empathize with this lack of understanding. It’s really not the easiest thing to digest as a pre-believer…
And that’s exactly why, as believers looking for how to share the Gospel with others, we must each learn to explain the meaning of Jesus’ work in simple, easy-to-understand terms.
This includes describing the purpose of his death and resurrection – and how us believing these events sets us right with God by saving us from our sins (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:2; Mark 10:45).
No idea where to start? Thankfully, there exists a few super easy illustration methods that’ll help you explain Jesus and the Gospel in a nutshell to anyone keen to hear.
Among these, my personal favorite is the Three Circles method. It’s a simple analogy of the New Testament that only takes 2-3 minutes to share with a pen and paper.
Here’s a quick video showing the Three Circles. It’s a breeze to memorize!
There are also many other simple methods you can use, including the Bridge and the 5-Color Message.
In short, whatever analogy you choose, being able to quickly explain who Jesus is really helps you in how to share the Gospel.
Also, try to always keep the following in mind whenever you use any of these illustrations with others:
- Avoid using cliched ‘Christian lingo’ as you explain Jesus – which can really make pre-believers feel alienated or confused. Heh, that means no over-the-top “Thus says the Lord!”s or “I feel led to share this with you!”s. Just talk like a normal person!
- While sharing, the person you’re talking to may start to open up about their lives, perhaps disclosing their inner doubts, worries, or fears. If this happens, please listen attentively and don’t talk over them. After first paying attention, you can then gently tell them about God’s desire to help them… without sounding like a one-way advertisement.
- If the person becomes sincerely open to the Gospel, you can choose to lead him / her in a prayer of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. That’d be an amazing outcome! However, don’t sweat it if this doesn’t happen on the spot. There’s no need to ‘force’ the situation or get defensive. Instead, just invite them to contact you anytime if they ever have any questions. Leave the rest to God’s will and timing.
3. Ask God for help.
You should also always ask God for help if you’re trying to share the Gospel with a particular person, humbly seeking His aid in prayer.
God may respond to you in so many different ways. For example, He could bring to your mind a specific Bible verse for you to share with your listening friend. Or perhaps the Holy Spirit will fill you with extra wisdom and confidence as you explain the Gospel to him / her.
In addition, and on rarer occasions, God may also sovereignly choose to share a word of knowledge about the person you intend to speak to.
The Word Of Knowledge … is knowledge received from the Holy Spirit to enable us to more effectively minister to the needs of people, to know and understand situations, circumstances, strategies of the enemy (kingdoms of darkness), etc. It enables us to know how to speak in the above situations with a knowledge that can surprise, baffle, disarm, open-up, bring answers, healing and understanding.
The Gospel Faith Messenger
In short, a word of knowledge is part of God’s spiritual gifts to all believers who genuinely seek to spread His glory to others (see 1 Corinthians 12:8).
In this context, this may involve a revelation from Him to you (e.g. a vision, a sudden impression or ‘knowing’ in your heart, etc.) that relates specifically to the person you hope to reach out to.
This supernatural word could then be a doorway for you to soften a listener’s heart to believing God’s Gospel in a way that we, by our own strength, cannot possibly do.
A real-life word of knowledge example.
Just to be ultra clear: words of knowledge don’t happen all the time! Only when God wills it.
However, when He does decide to reveal something, it very often leads to amazing and exciting outcomes!
For instance, there was one evening I was praying for my friend Kalli. Back then, I didn’t know if she was Christian or not, as we’d never spoken on the topic of faith.
Nonetheless, I felt a sudden desire to ask God to share a word of knowledge about her – since I was planning to meet her for dinner a few days later.
To my surprise, via a series of strong heart impressions, I felt Him telling me three distinct things:
- Kalli has been thinking a lot about going scuba diving;
- Of late, she’s gotten more free time from work to do the things she loves;
- She broke up with her boyfriend because she felt he didn’t understand the ‘deeper layers’ of who she is.
Here’s the coolest part! Personally, I wasn’t even aware if Kalli knew how to dive (I never asked her and she never told me). Moreover, we hadn’t spoken for quite a long while. Thus, I didn’t know what her work schedule was like, nor the specific reason why she broke up with her partner.
In other words, on my own, I had no idea… yet, I somehow had a feeling God was revealing these three things to me for a reason.
Thus, I decided to write all of these impressions down on my phone’s notepad, time-stamped and all. Just in case.
A few days later, I met up with Kalli for dinner at a ramen place.
We were both queuing up to enter the restaurant when, on her own accord, she began updating me about her life.
First, she started talking about her recent desire to go scuba diving.
I stared at her in surprise. She nodded. “Yes, I never told you or anyone about it. But I love to dive! Only my dive instructor knows though.”
Then, while still in the queue, Kalli went on to share details about her work life. Specifically, she told me how she recently gained back a lot of her free time during the past week, thanks to her telling her boss not to hassle her on weekends.
By now, you can probably guess how stunned I felt on the inside. Did God really reveal these things about her even before she told them to me?
We were finally nearing the front of the queue. That’s when Kalli started talking about her ex-boyfriend.
“You know, I broke up with him because… I dunno, I felt our relationship was very shallow. I don’t think he ever understood me on a deeper level. But I kept this to myself for a long time.”
That’s when I knew the moment was right, and God was calling for Kalli.
I immediately took out my phone from my pocket, right in front of her.
I said, “Kalli, you and I both know you never told me any of what you shared. It’s the first time. However… let me show you something.”
Right then and there, I showed her my time-stamped mobile note, written days before. She read all the three things God had told me about her.
Her eyes grew large.
“How could you have known any of this before hand?! There’s no way!”
And… that’s when I went all-in, sharing with her the Good News of Jesus. 🙂
Months have passed. Since then, Kalli has started attending Church on a regular basis, even enrolling in a Bible study class by her pastor!
She is also now openly Christian, and has gone on to boldly share the gospel with others. Her faith is on fire.
I mean, who’d have guessed? All of this was only possible because of God’s goodness, and the supernatural word of knowledge He chose to share.
Only He can touch Kali’s heart in such a profound way, in an instant – something I could never, ever do on my own, by my own effort.
In short, in exploring how to share the Gospel, I truly encourage you to ask for God’s help every time.
Pray to Him with a humble heart, seeking not your own glory but for any gift or revelation that may help your loved one accept Jesus into his / her life.
You never know! God may choose to share a word of knowledge with you. If so, act on it in faith!
If you’re looking for help with hearing God’s voice, I suggest reading Jack S. Deere’s Surprised by the Voice of God. A great read that has helped thousands of people better understand how God still speaks.
How is the Holy Spirit a Person? Read our explanation here.4. Understand the uniqueness of our faith
4. Understand the uniqueness of our faith
Letting your life be your testimony, being able to explain who Jesus is, and asking God for help are all great ways to share the Gospel.
In addition, it’s also really useful for us to learn more about what makes our faith unique – specifically, how Christianity truly stands distinct from other spiritual beliefs.
There are many resources that give a good answer to the above. Here are two videos to start with!
In short, Christianity is distinct for many reasons, among which is the comparatively greater amount of historical facts and archaeological evidence that support key Biblical claims. Moreover, the belief that we are saved purely by God’s loving grace – and not by our self-driven efforts to ‘earn’ salvation – separates our faith in Jesus from other religions (Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:10).
Grasping the Gospel’s uniqueness will help us better engage with people’s questions about Jesus, giving us the greater confidence to respond to “anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).
It also allows us to more clearly articulate to anyone why Jesus, above all other paths, is truly “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
A word of caution.
However, be careful. When you’re sharing the Gospel with someone, don’t ever fall into heated ‘religious’ debates, especially with a person whose main intention might be to argue with you.
Instead, always aim to speak with love, patience, and gentleness (1 Peter 3:15; Galatians 5:22-23), whatever the situation.
In other words, knowing what makes our faith unique will help you share the Gospel far more effectively. However, be sure to stay humble and don’t fall into the ego trap, for “God opposes the proud” (James 4:6; see Matthew 6:1-2; 1 Corinthians 13:4).
In addition, remember: it is ultimately always God’s choice to call anyone into true faith, in His timing (John 6:44; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Timothy 1:10). Not ours!
On our parts, as Jesus commanded, we should sincerely desire to spread the Good News to others, doing so publicly but with gentle compassion, not arguments.
At the same time, let God do the heavy lifting in people’s hearts, for “the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15).
Looking for more answers to popular Christian questions? Check out our other responses!
Thanks for reading my response on how to share the Gospel. If you’ve got any queries or suggestions on how to improve this article, feel free to drop me an email.
God bless you on your journey of spreading the faith. Amen!
