Evangelizing Your Community - Lesson 8

By Stafford North

Conversational Evangelism Practice

Background Information for the Teacher

Objectives:

1. The student can draw the three outer rings on the Congregational Evangelism chart.
2. The student can demonstrate how to do conversational evangelism.

Preparation:

1. Students will need paper and pen.
2. Review Chapter 5 in North's Evangelizing Your Community to refresh yourself on situations in which to do conversational evangelism.
3. Be prepared with a list of situations in which you want students in your class to demonstrate doing conversational evangelism.

Theme:

There are many occasions every day when we have the opportunity to do conversational evangelism.

Lesson Plan for Teaching the Class

Introduction: (15 minutes)

1. Call the roll and check for visitors and new members.
2. Sing an evangelistic song.
3. Pray for the class and for the congregation to become more evangelistic.
4. Ask class members to report on their efforts in the past week at conversational evangelism.

Learning Experiences: (30 minutes)

1. Draw the three outer rings on the chart about congregational evangelism.
2. Read Colossians 4:3_6. Q: What does Paul teach us in these verses about our conversations? A: We should pray for open doors. We should speak clearly, act with wisdom, make the most of every opportunity, speak with grace seasoned with salt. Q: What does it mean to let our conversations be full of grace, seasoned with salt? A: Our conversations should be full of good will for others and should be adapted for the situation to be pleasing and not repulsive.
3. Tonight we are going to practice conversational evangelism. I will describe a situation and ask two or three of you to role play what it might be like in that situation to bring up something about Christ or His church. I will ask you to come to the front and will describe the situation. After each of these, I will ask what we have learned from this encounter. You can improvise as you choose. You can imagine you have a brochure or card from church about something coming up. You can make up church events that have happened or are about to happen. You can also make up people at church who have done something.
4. (Here is a list of possible situations. You can add others and choose those which best fit your group.)
   1. Two women friends are talking on the phone about their children who both are in the sixth grade at the same school-Robin and Lydia. Lydia's mom is a member of the church but Robin's mom is not. Ask the two ladies to talk about school things for a minute and then Lydia should turn the conversation to something about the church.
   2. Tom and John are riding in a golf cart together and are waiting to tee off. They are talking about their golf games and then Tom, a Christian, turns the conversation to something at church.
   3. Three high school students, Mary, Josh, and Sam are sitting together at lunch. They are talking about how their football team has just won a big game. Josh, the Christian, puts something into the conversation about the youth group.
   4. Jill and Betty are neighbors. As both are working on their respective flower beds, Betty works something into the conversation about the church.
   5. Ross and Jack are sitting together at a basketball game. At half_time they are talking about work. Ross is an engineer and Jack is a real estate agent. Ross, the Christian, works into the conversation something about the church.
   6. Sally and Anne are both teachers at an elementary school. They are visiting during a lunch break, talking about what has happened in their classes during the day. Anne, the Christian, brings up something about the church.
   7. Julie is a housewife. Phil is a plumber who has come to her house to do some repairs. While he is working on the sink, lying on the floor, they are talking about. Julie brings up something about the church.
5. Q: From these conversations, what do we learn about conversational evangelism?
6. It is not always easy, but it can be done and it is important that we all learn to use this technique as much as possible. It is a very inexpensive, virtually risk_free way to start spreading the word.

Application and Assignment: (3 minutes)

1. Next week, we will again ask you to report on conversational evangelism you have done this week.
2. Q: What are some things that would be good for us to talk about during the coming week?
3. Note on your sheet things you want to do in conversational evangelism. You might write: I will use conversational evangelism on my coffee breaks, with my fellow_students, with my neighborhood group, with the waitress where I regularly eat, with those on my sports team.

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