Taking away the pressure of evangelising.
Carl, a Bible sharer in Essex, shares with us his experience of using The Word One to One.
Q. Thanks for joining us, Carl! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name’s Carl, I’m married to Sarah and we’ve got two daughters, Lyra and Sophie. We live in Brentwood in Essex, and we’re members of Immanuel Church Brentwood. I work in the City of London, and I’ve been quite involved in the ministry to city professionals there.
I’ve been a believer for six and a half years, and my wife for six years, so we’ve not actually been Christians for that long! Before becoming a Christian, I was never looking for God, but in His kindness He came and found me and Sarah. From the moment a reverend offered to pray for our family, God led us towards accepting Him as our Saviour and putting our trust in the truth of the gospel!
Q. Who have you been reading God’s Word with recently, and how did you begin sharing with them?
I’ve read with a few different people, primarily with those in and around my workplace in the City of London. I read with one colleague after spending two years trying to argue him into the Kingdom of God – of course, I got nowhere doing that and we kept getting stuck on the issue of creation! In the end, out of frustration more than anything else, I invited him to open the Bible with me and he agreed. I then panicked, as I’d never read the Bible with someone else before, but thankfully I knew about The Word One to One resources. I bought a pack of the notes, met up with him, ran a terrible first one-to-one but we did manage to read the first episode of John together.
We then went our separate ways, came back together a week later and God had turned all his lights on – he’d become a Christian, which was a huge encouragement to me! It showed me that evangelism really isn’t about me or my abilities, it’s all about introducing people to Jesus and allowing them to hear His Word, which really takes the pressure off.
Currently I’m reading with a colleague, and I’m also reading once a month with a group of non-Christians in a company in the city – we meet on the last Friday of every month, and we work through one of the episodes online with half an hour for Q&A afterwards, so that’s been great. I’m also reading with a Christian and his friend who’s not a believer yet.
So yeah, I’ve used the notes with new Christians and more mature Christians to help them get going with using the resource, and I’ve found that The Word One to One is not only a great tool for evangelism, but also for discipleship! Sharing the Word doesn’t have to be difficult at all – it’s just simply asking people in an open and friendly way to explore what you believe!
Q. How have you seen God work in reading His Word with others?
I love using the first episode of John’s gospel as an introduction because those claims that John makes are so big and exciting! It doesn’t matter who I’m reading with, they always really enjoy that first session and it challenges the preconceptions that they might have.
In that small group I mentioned, they come with preconceptions about religion, the church, Jesus and Christians in general, and their questions tend to be more focused around those general things at the start. But once you get the Word open with them and after you’ve read the first few episodes together, I find that their questions change – they become more about what they’ve read so far in the gospel and responding to who Jesus is and what He says and does.
I’ve seen the Word work in every single person that I’ve read with: it’s changed the way they think and challenged their preconceptions, so much so that those preconceptions often drop away and aren’t on the surface anymore.
And whether they stay engaged with reading the Word and eventually become believers, or whether they’re really challenged by what they read and walk away, you can be confident that God’s Word works in every single person who reads it, which is remarkable!
Q. Do you have any advice you would give to someone who’s thinking about reading the Bible with someone else?
Just do it and take the plunge! My favourite verses are in John 10 where Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life, and no one can snatch them out of my hand.” So trust Jesus that your friend’s salvation does not rely on your abilities to run a great one-to-one, to answer all their questions, to know everything about the Bible and church history – simply trust that the Word of Jesus is powerful and if they are Jesus’ sheep they will hear His voice and follow Him!
When you start opening the Word with your friend and doing the sessions together, you’ll soon find that it becomes the highlight of your week, I guarantee! No matter how the sessions go, you’ll be so excited that your friend is hearing the Word of God.
Learn more about how to pray for your Bible sharing sessions.
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