How To Be Better Prepared For The Next Time You Talk With An Unbeliever
When Jesus left this earth to ascend back into Heaven, He left us with what is called the Great Commission.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Ever since that time, Christians have been learning how to talk with an unbeliever about their faith.
Glimpsing The Importance Of Our Mission
If you are worried that you might be the only person who struggles with getting tongue-tied at the very thought of sharing your faith, relax. You are not alone. Even the Apostle Paul asked for his fellow believers to pray that he might have boldness to share the Good News. Yeah, the Apostle Paul is not a guy known for being shy. Yet even he apparently struggled with the jitters about sharing his faith!
Here’s the thing, just because we are nervous, uncomfortable or even down right terrified of sharing the Gospel, God has still called us to this special task.
We are God’s ambassadors on earth. It is actually our privilege to reach out to those who are lost and in need of Christ! Even more so, it is our responsibility as a Christian to let the lost people we encounter know that God loves them so much that He sent His only Son to die for them.
This is a huge task. One that we shouldn’t take lightly. Why? Because Satan is the enemy of our souls and he does NOT want us snatching more people away from his dominion.
When we realize that we are a part of this epic eternal battle for the souls of humans all around us, it can be a little startling. And it can leave us feeling super unprepared to know how to talk with unbelievers that we come across in daily life.
How To Be Better Prepared For The Next Time You Talk With An Unbeliever
Okay, so you were surprised by a challenging conversation about your Christian faith and you don’t want to be so unprepared in the future.
Here are some practical steps you can take to help you be better prepared for the next encounter God sends your way!
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Watch Some Experts At Work
Check out some YouTube videos featuring Frank Turek, Sean MacDowell, Kirk Cameron, Nabeel Quereshi, and Gregory Koukl as they field questions like champs and provide great training for Christians looking to prepare to share their faith.
As you watch, notice patterns of how they deal with the most common questions thrown their way. Also, watch the ways they handle the most crazy off-the-wall questions. These videos are just a small taste of the resources available. (Personally, I love watching YouTube videos like the ones above when I need to be motivated to share my faith better.)
Don’t worry if you never get to the “Expert” level that these guys are at. If you had as many years of conversational experience as they did, you would be a bit of an expert at it too.
Don’t compare your humble beginnings to their years of experience. Instead let them inspire you to share God’s love well with others!
Learn Some Tactical Questions
Good conversations require good questions. Questions that make the person answering share from their heart.
Tactical questions are not questions that try to just be mean or drive a point. Instead, tactical questions will patiently and kindly search out where the heart of unbeliever is with God. As they answer these questions you will be able to start to understand why they believe what they believe.
Some great examples of these kind of questions are:
- What led you to that conclusion?
- Why did that ________ seem like the best answer to you?
- Can you give me some background as to why you believe this?
- When did you first become attracted to this belief system?
- How does this belief help you answer some of the big life questions about God?
These are just some basic examples of questions you can ask. If you want more help with learning to ask good questions, I highly recommend that you read Tactics
Finally, just remember that the more you listen and ask good questions, the more likely they are to ask questions of you as well. Be prepared to share your story too!
Keep Learning From God’s Word
Want to know how to share God’s Truth from the Bible? Well, you have to know your Bible.
This doesn’t happen overnight. It is an ongoing process but the more you dive into your Bible the more confident you will become in sharing the Bible truths with others, even unbelievers.
Find a Bible reading program that works for you. Over the past three years, I have had three very distinctly different methods that I have used. Each one has been great for a season. Just realize that sometimes you will have to change your reading program to fit a new time in life. Trust me, two kids later, I am learning to be flexible in finding what works. 🙂
Memorize Some Bible Verses
Often when conversations come along with unbelievers, we don’t have a Bible directly within reach. At best, we might have our phone and we could Google a needed verse. But that will feel awkward in the middle of a conversation that is flowing well.
Instead, try to memorize a few of the important Bible verses that will come up frequently when sharing your faith.
If you are unsure where you want to start, I would highly recommend the Topical Memory System
Practice Your New Skills In A Safe Environment
Grab your spouse or a dear friend and practice together. Pretend to be an atheist. Practice asking good questions. Rehearse the basic tenets of your faith and your own Christian testimony. Work out the rough spots where you find you stumble the most often.
If you have a Bible study group or a Sunday School, this can be a great activity for the entire group to participate in. Help each other all gain confidence in talking with unbelievers about Christianity.
Pray For Opportunities To Share Your Christian Faith
Finally, pray that as you are faithful in preparing, God will lead the people He wants you to talk to your way. God is the one who opens the doors to conversations.
When we try to do it on our own strength, we will fall flat. Instead, ask God to open your eyes to all the times He does want you to speak up and share.
Some Additional Resources
There are so many resources to train you how to share your faith. In this post, I share the six most helpful books I have found for Christian apologetics.
Another book that I would like to mention now that is not on that list is Greg Steir’s Dare 2 Share: A Field Guide to Sharing Your Faith
Basically, he breaks down 20 of the top worldviews that you will encounter frequently and gives you a basic understand of each one. Yes, it is basic and people may or may not follow exactly everything from one worldview. But this book is beyond wonderful at helping you get a manageable grasp of other religious points of view without overwhelming you. Perfect for starting out in your preparation to talk with an unbeliever.
In additions to reading good books, I would highly recommend that you find out if a local church in your community offers evangelism training or something along those lines.
Over the years, some of our pastors have held special Bible studies that focused on preparing Christians to share their faith well. These types of apologetics Bible studies were what helped me find many of the resources that I mentioned in this article. Definitely do not overlook the local church as a potential resource to help you prepare!
Your Turn
How have your prepared to talk with an unbeliever?
When you are more prepared, does it help you be more bold to actually speak up and share your faith?
If this post helped you, please take a few minutes and share it with another Christian who might appreciate these resources too. I truly want this to help motivate as many Christians as possible to start sharing their faith boldly!
Thanks for stopping by!
4 Comments
Paula Sauer
My husband is the unbeliever. He didn’t become an unbeliever until several years into our marriage. Now it has put a strain on our relationship. I pray about it regularly. He started listening to NBR I think it is. We usually end up in an argument when God is even mentioned. I don’t know how to handle this situation 😕
Amber
I will be praying for you and your husband. Show Christ’s love to him and stay faithful to God. Hugs!
Lea
Paula –
I have a similar situation with my sister. But, she is nearly always the one to bring up God. Then argues with me because she says she is agnostic. Sometimes I just don’t know what to do! However, while I still pray for God to change her heart, I also feel that if I continue to “push” my faith to her, she backs away and gets even more argumentative, so I have backed up a lot and try my best to NOT bring up the subject of my faith. I feel that continuing to talk about it is really pushing her further away.
Now that being said, I don’t live with her so my situation is different. I think you should just continue to pray for your husband and, perhaps, not bring up God. Continue to pray at meals but silently. Don’t try to convince him. But if he brings up God, I think I would have to ask him what precipitated his unbelief.
Terri Jolly
I watched as my grandmother lived out her faith in front of my grandfather for 30 years. She would always ask him to join her going to church each Sunday, but when he said no, she never nagged. I cannot imagine how hard it was for her to see no evidence of change in my grandfather.
One day I was at their house and my grandfather told my grandmother to “call that preacher man”. She did, and her and I watched my grandfather kneel in their den and ask Jesus to come into his life. He was 65 years old. He learned about God’s love by watching my grandmother.
Our loved ones are sometimes the most difficult to share the gospel with. Living out God’s s love for them, and praying daily they will come to know God, allows the Holy Spirit to His work. Just love your husband like God loves him.