Evangelism seminar Part 4

[0:00] All right, so we're on the last outline here, the one called Proclaiming the Gospel. Do you guys have this? Oh, you're passing out. Thank you so much. You guys are doing a great job.

[0:18] Let me share a couple stories just to help you understand why this is so important.

[0:33] These are actual people that have come through our bridge course and have given their lives to the Lord. But I want you just to hear, I'm just going to share just the beginnings of their stories.

[0:47] So just listen to a couple of these. My name is Adam. During my teenage and college years, I began to think about God in a more negative light. My sister had lost her leg in an accident.

[0:58] One friend of mine was raped. Another friend lost a child. One friend watched his girlfriend die in a car accident. Another spiraled down a different devastating path. I couldn't understand why an all-loving God would do such awful things to good people.

[1:10] Would we just play things to him? Were we here for his amusement? I wasn't sure I believed in God at this point. I was selfish, egotistical, sometimes maniacal, angry at myself for my failings.

[1:20] I treated others poorly and took advantage of people that weren't my close friends. Little by little, I chose to destroy my body and chose to lie about it to the people who loved me the most. My name is Brian.

[1:33] I started by going back to the church I used to attend as a young boy. It was a grand church with fancy paintings, tall statues, big columns, and stainless glass windows. It felt good to be back in church, but something was still not right.

[1:47] You see, I sat in a pew that was blocked at one end by a huge column. I sat there because when it was time to receive the sacraments, I would not have to stand aside or move out of the way to let others pass.

[1:58] I was not allowed to receive communion because I was divorced and I hadn't confessed my sins to a priest in many years. I would sit there in the pew and imagine Christ was looking down at me from the cross, shaking his head in disgust, and I couldn't blame him.

[2:14] I was full of sin and I was ashamed of myself too. My name is Christy. When I was a teenager, I started a party and began to hang out with the wrong crowd. I got into a relationship when I was 18 that started to go bad.

[2:27] We had a child together and when the baby was four months old, my boyfriend ended up murdering our child. I was devastated and lost all faith in God.

[2:37] I rebelled against anything and everyone through medication, drugs, and alcohol and ended up having another child out of wedlock to a drug dealer. But none of it would cover the pain and anger I had inside.

[2:48] I lived a life of hate, envy, and resentment. I was in a very bad place and at one point I was even shot. I'm embarrassed to tell you all that I've been through. My life was incredibly toxic and it was all brought on by myself.

[3:03] My name is Carmen. I was born and raised in the country of Egypt. I grew up going to a Coptic Orthodox church, but after I got married and had two children, there was no room in my life or my husband's life for God.

[3:13] Our only concern was improving our own lives. We decided to move to the United States, but after the move, things got worse. After 19 years, my marriage fell apart and my husband and I got a divorce.

[3:24] I was ashamed and felt that I was unworthy in the eyes of God, that he would never accept me. I got remarried, but my life continued to go downhill. My husband was an alcoholic and all of our difficulties left me lonely, penniless, and an emotional wreck.

[3:38] Despair and pain took hold of me. I looked to therapy, took medications, and even tried fortune tellers to help me cope with my marriage. I was often sleepless and would cry continuously.

[3:49] Last one. My name is Pam. I grew up in the city of Philadelphia with my mom, my sister, and three brothers. My dad left when I was four and my mom had to work two or three jobs just to keep things afloat. As a child, this made me angry, but my mom wasn't angry.

[4:03] She trusted God. She was religious and always presented Christ as the answer to everything. She would come home every day to a house full of kids. She had to endure many day-to-day struggles as well as family members who were addicted to drugs.

[4:15] This resulted in my mother permanently taking in nine extra mouths to feed on top of me and my siblings and not including the other ones that she took in from the streets.

[4:26] My anger was fueled by other circumstances as well. Early on, I suffered years of sexual abuse that occurred often, was done in secret, and started as early as the age of two. As a child, I didn't know what to say or how to process being a victim to these horrific acts.

[4:41] I was tormented by nightmares and flashbacks of being attacked by one of my relatives and sometimes his friends being gagged, locked in closets, bathrooms, and dark basements. I would hear my muffled cries of fear and helplessness.

[4:53] Many nights, I cried in anguish, God, if you're so good, why do these awful things happen, especially to a child? I lived with this horrible thing bottled up inside for many, many years. I learned not to trust people, not to trust God.

[5:05] I could only rely on myself. I rejected the lifestyle my mom represented and the God she served. I was angry, bitter, hostile, and hated the world. At the same time, I was perpetually sick and was even eventually diagnosed with Crohn's, which weakened my immune system and made me very ill.

[5:22] I resigned myself to a life filled with despair, hopelessness, and pain. I found myself in destructive relationships with others. I was very unhappy and could not communicate with others without blaming or inflicting some sort of verbal pain.

[5:35] I was ruthlessly inconsiderate of other people's needs and feelings. I felt like I had to get out. The day after my 18th birthday, I left home. I just want to read those stories.

[5:48] There's others here, but this is what we're dealing with. This is what people all around you are facing, this kind of hopelessness, this kind of loneliness, this kind of confusion, the pain, the suffering.

[6:03] These are the people around us. They might look good on the outside, but inside life is destroying them, and the enemy is having his way, and that's why we're here.

[6:14] That's what we're trying to do. You'll see that quote at the top there by Jerem Barge where he says, Instead of retreating, isolating ourselves, and condemning unbelievers in our culture, Jesus calls us to something very different.

[6:27] He desires that we give ourselves to the understanding of the culture around us. He urges us to stop condemning the world and unbelievers. His passion is for us to listen to his prayer for us that we might be in the world as he was in the world.

[6:42] He's eager for us to imitate him and to give our lives gladly to love and to serve non-Christians. His desire is that we be like him and that we commit ourselves to developing intimate relationships with non-Christians.

[6:53] He wants us to teach our church members and our children to do the same, no matter what the belief system and the lifestyle of the people around us. All right, so let's get really practical here.

[7:06] So we've talked a lot about that, building friendships and how important that is. Now I want to talk, though, how do we share the gospel? Let's say you're building these friendships, you're developing these relationships, and now you're like, what do I say?

[7:17] How do I get into the gospel? That's what we want to talk about here. And again, this is where I think Christians have the most difficulty, and it's where that pain line can feel like a solid brick wall.

[7:28] I have an illustration that I think will help, and I think this hits your generation. How many people have here seen the movie Finding Nemo? How many are Nemo fans? Okay, good.

[7:38] This is great. Okay, so you know in Finding Nemo, when he is captured, he's put in that tank, and then when he's woken up in the middle of the night for that initiation ceremony, do you remember this?

[7:53] He's brought to the summit of a volcano that emits bubbles, right? Not if you're, it's okay, good. And this is what the puffer fish says.

[8:03] He says, Nemo, newcomer of orange and white, you have been called forth to the summit of Mount Wanahakalugi to join with us in the fraternal bonds of tankhood if you are able to swim through the ring of fire.

[8:19] And do you remember this? They all start to chant, Wahoo Wahee, Wahoo Wahee, Wahoo. And they're chanting this, and then they turn up the bubbles full force on the volcano.

[8:30] And the female starfish, remember, she kind of peels herself back and says, Isn't there any other way? He's only a kid. And it's real tense, and the Wahoo Wahee, Wahoo Wahee, Wahoo, it gets louder and louder and more and more tense.

[8:44] And then it crescendos, and then Nemo very nonchalantly just swims through. Right? Do you remember this? He just kind of like, all right, and he goes through. That reminds me, I think that is a great illustration for evangelism.

[8:59] Like, it can appear like this incredibly scary, there's no way you're going to make it through, this is scary, they're chanting Wahoo Wahee, it's scary. And it's like, you do it.

[9:09] And it's like, oh, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was, or that wasn't as hard as I thought. But it can feel like this death-defying thing that we're not going to be able to do.

[9:22] And it can feel just those fears, the scariness of it. And I feel that. I'm scared. But like Nemo, it's really not as bad as we think.

[9:35] You may have heard this quote, a guy named Penn Jillette. He is a very famous comic illusionist. They have a show on TV. I don't know if you've seen this. It's like a magic kind of show.

[9:46] But this guy, Penn Jillette, is a very vocal atheist. So he's clearly, he does not believe in God at all. And he had this conversation once where a guy had reached out and shared with him.

[9:57] Have you heard this quote? It's a great quote. The guy who shared with him did a really good job. He's a very compelling man. And this is what Penn Jillette said. He goes, I've always said, you know, and remember, he's an atheist, that I don't respect people who don't proselytize.

[10:13] Proselytize is just to share the gospel. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make society awkward, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?

[10:29] How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it and that truck was bearing down on you, there's a certain point where I tackle you.

[10:42] And this is more important than that. That's one of my favorite questions. I mean, this atheist is rebuking all of us and motivating us to show, which I do think is great.

[10:59] Like, this guy doesn't even believe, and yet his logic is leading him to say, you guys need to be doing this. And to respect somebody that does it instead of disrespecting him, which is kind of amazing.

[11:10] So how do we do this? Well, there are some bad ways to do this, like with Johnny and Chanchi. And one of the worst ways I've ever encountered, was more serious than what Johnny and Chanchi were doing, is a thing called the controlled conversation technique.

[11:25] Have you guys ever heard this? There's a guy named C.S. Lovett who wrote a book called Soul Winning Made Easy back in 1959. So this is, he was a salesman.

[11:37] So he used all of his sales techniques to write a book about how you can kind of like use your sales techniques to reach people for Jesus. And this is literally a quote from his book.

[11:49] This is what he says. Is that in your outline? Is it there? He says, You are in command. In much the same way the trained soul winner can bring his prospect to a decision for Christ.

[11:59] There is no middle ground as he moves with surety and deafness right up to the point of salvation. It is his conversation control that makes this possible. He knows exactly what he's going to say each step of the way.

[12:10] And he can even anticipate his prospect's responses. He's able to keep the conversation focused on the main issue and prevent unrelated materials from being introduced. The controlled conversation technique is something new in evangelism and represents a real breakthrough in soul winning.

[12:29] And this is what he says. So then later on, this is what he says to do. Get your prospect alone. Just so you know the prospect is the non-Christian, right? So you got that. Get your prospect alone. I love this.

[12:40] Lay your hand firmly on the subject's shoulder or arm and say with a semi-commanding tone of voice, bow your head with me.

[12:51] I love that. Semi-commanding. Don't be fully commanding. Just so. Bow your head with me. Note. Do not look at him when you say this, but bow your head first. Out of the corner of your eye, you will see him hesitate at first.

[13:03] Then as his resistance crumbles, his head will come down. Your hand on his shoulder will feel the relaxation and you will know when his heart yields. Bowing your head first causes terrific psychological pressure.

[13:19] That's horrible. Okay. This is not something we want to do. Bow your head.

[13:31] However, one of the things I will say is that I really appreciate about this book is that he actually took the time to try to equip and train people on a way to share the gospel.

[13:45] I do not think this is a good way at all. I think it's manipulative and unhelpful. But you know what I appreciate? This guy wrote an entire book on it. So how can I help others to do that? That's a lot more than anything that we've done, right?

[13:56] To help people share the gospel. So even though this guy deserves to be mocked mercilessly for what he's done and we should laugh at him, we also in a sense should say he's taking great pains to try to figure out how to do that.

[14:11] And for that, he deserves our respect. But he does not deserve us to imitate him, which we will not do. So there are a lot of good booklets and tools and methods that can help us.

[14:25] And one of the things that we've found that's been helpful is this little booklet called How Good Are You? Have you guys seen this before? Those are the ones there. Have you guys ever seen these before, some of you? Buckley's have.

[14:36] Hawkins have, I'm sure. This is, you might say, okay, wait a second. You're giving me a track. Is this like the controlled conversation technique? What is happening here? You just said we didn't like this.

[14:47] Are we going to turn into these obnoxious door-to-door salespeople that have to? No. Before you blow an artery, let me be clear. This is not what we're doing. We've already taught that evangelism is for everyone and that God wants to use you with your strengths and weaknesses to reach out in ways that fit your personality.

[15:06] But if we're going to be faithful to share the gospel, we have to know how to share the gospel. Like if you're going to share the gospel, what are you going to say first? What are you going to say second? What are you going to say third? Like we need to have a method, a way of sharing it.

[15:19] And I'll say this many times. The How Go to You booklet is one way to do it. It's not the only way. It's not the best way. It's just a way to get us started.

[15:30] And you may have a way that you'd prefer using, like Two Ways to Live, The Romans Road, Four Spiritual Laws, or maybe you've developed something else. That's great. And I want to encourage you to do that.

[15:40] But we have often found that Christians don't have a way of sharing the gospel. They can figure out how to build relationships, how to relate to non-Christians.

[15:51] But when they have to explain the message of the Bible, that's harder. Think of this like training wheels, okay? So when you're first learning to ride a bike, right, you put the training wheels on. It helps you to ride the bike. But then eventually you can take it off.

[16:02] So you don't need to always use this, but this is a way to kind of get you started and to share the gospel. Then you can kind of take the wheels off and do whatever you want, whatever works best for you.

[16:14] I have found in training people for evangelism over the last 20 years something very interesting. Whenever you introduce a certain methodology, a certain method, people react.

[16:27] They begin to just attack that and respond negatively. I'll give you an example. Has anybody here heard of FPU, Financial Peace University? Okay, so this is, okay, Hawkins, right.

[16:39] Buckley's right. So FPU is this course. It's a financial course. It's got Dave Ramsey. It's a very effective course. It's a Christian course about how to budget, get out of debt, and it's really good finances.

[16:52] When that was first, our church started to do this. My wife had talked to me about doing this course. I was like, no, we don't need that. I do pretty well with finance.

[17:04] I know what I'm doing. We kind of have things under control. I was immediately like he used this envelope. I don't know. I just heard some things about it. We don't need that. That's not necessary.

[17:14] I know what I have it all under control. And so it took her, you know, about, I don't know, maybe a year and a half or so of wearing me down until I'm like, okay, fine. We'll take the course.

[17:25] And so we took the course, and it was actually extremely helpful to me. And I learned things there that have really helped me financially to be a better steward with my money, saving those sort of things, like really helpful.

[17:37] I didn't do everything that he suggested. Now, I started out trying what he suggested.

[17:47] And then as I began to do that, I began to just make modifications of what I could do and did that. That was a much better approach. Unfortunately, it took me a year and a half to get to that point of humility to say, well, let me see what he's doing.

[18:01] Let me try to learn from him. This guy seems to be, you know, let me try it his way before I say what I'm going to do and how I'm going to change it. And that's a good idea in evangelism as well. I have seen there can just be like a knee-jerk reaction, like, wait, this little book, that's a track, ah!

[18:15] I don't use tracks, ah! And just this horrible, like, reaction against it. What I would suggest is more of a humble approach to say, hey, let me try this first. Let me see how this works.

[18:27] And then as I want to, I can make adjustments and change it. So that's kind of how I would encourage you to approach it. Let me give you a little bit of philosophy behind this for a second.

[18:39] My primary calling as an evangelist is to equip people to share the gospel. So my job is kind of to train, and your job is to kind of share. And sharing the gospel is just part of what it means to be a Christian.

[18:51] Again, we do not think evangelism is just reserved for those who are bold. We think it's for everyone. That means it's something we all have to work on. But there are different modes of evangelism, and they work together wonderfully.

[19:04] So I just want to hit this real quick. You'll see this in your outline. The first is initiative evangelism. This is where non-Christians are exposed to the gospel, normally outside of their natural relationships, through the initiative of Christians.

[19:16] So that's like going out and sharing the gospel, or sharing the gospel with somebody you don't know. Jesus' teaching ministry primarily centered around initiative evangelism. Okay? This is the main mode that he did.

[19:29] So he trained and deployed the 12 disciples, then the 72, all through initiative evangelism. They went two by two, go. They went to people they didn't know, and they were sharing the gospel.

[19:40] And we do this in our church on our second Sundays. We have an outreach called Second Sunday. Every second Sunday, we gather together people who help us with outreaches, and we do different outreaches. You guys remember that.

[19:51] So one of them is a gospel outreach, where we just train and equip people to go out and share the gospel. And they'll go out to parks, or they'll go to a mall, or go someplace, and they'll use this little survey that we, the spiritual questionnaire we have, and then share the gospel.

[20:03] We equip people to do that. Some people just go and watch and learn how to do that. So that's part of what we do. Now, one of the challenges in this mode is that out of all three modes, this is the most uncomfortable.

[20:16] Okay? But there are very important benefits when it comes to initiative evangelism. All right? The most, well, I can't say the most important one. One of the most important ones is that initiative evangelism is the best way to train people how to share the gospel.

[20:35] So it's very hard to train somebody if you're not sharing the gospel. Like, doing it with your Christian friend next to you, like, hey, let's practice this, and I'm going to share this with you, but you're a Christian just acting like a non-Christian, is not really an effective way to do it as going out and actually sharing the gospel with somebody.

[20:55] So the more that you do this, the more that you reach out and do initiative evangelism, you become more adept. You become more skilled at being able to share and being able to go through and talk to them about the gospel.

[21:08] Okay? So it's a great way to train. In a minute, we're going to talk about friendship evangelism. You don't need training for friendship. So you don't really need to train somebody how to be a friend.

[21:22] What Christians need help with is, okay, I'm a friend. I don't know what to say. What do I say first? And then what do I say second? And what if they ask this question? That's where you need more training, and that's where initiative evangelism is helpful.

[21:34] The other thing that it's super good at is that it's really good at motivating. In evangelism. There's a great quote. I didn't put it in here. I should have. By a guy named McCloskey.

[21:45] He says, if you want to gain a heart for evangelism, if you want to gain a heart for evangelism, then go out and be with the lost and see how lost they are. So what he's saying there is the best way to be motivated in evangelism is to do evangelism, to spend time with lost people.

[22:03] And there's something, and you'll see if you're able to go with us this afternoon, there's something you'll see. When we share the gospel, it does something in our own hearts, just like when that lady shared about how it affected her.

[22:14] Because when you're standing in front of somebody and you realize how lost they are, and they're sharing these answers that are wrong, and they're confused, and they think it's their good works, and you're thinking, God, why would you save me and help me to see, open my eyes to see the light, and that I would come to Christ and you would rescue me, and now I'm standing here in front of this person, they're lost.

[22:36] They don't know you. It breaks your own heart. It does something in our own hearts, and it motivates us. It actually fuels us. And I've seen it actually fuel relational evangelism, where you're out doing a gospel outreach and you're talking to somebody, and then you come back and think, why am I not talking to my neighbors?

[22:51] Or why am I not talking to my family? I've got to talk to my family about this. I'm willing to talk to somebody I don't even know about it. I certainly should talk to people that I do know. So it has that effect of really motivating us in evangelism.

[23:05] The next one is lifestyle evangelism. We've talked a lot about this is the friendship aspect. And we saw this. Jesus befriended and ate with Zacchaeus. Matthew had this Matthew party, we call it, where he had unbelieving friends and Christian friends all together.

[23:21] And we want to encourage this. Now, one of the challenges with lifestyle evangelism or friendship evangelism is that Christians sometimes hesitate to share the gospel with friends because they're afraid it's going to damage the relationship.

[23:34] They're afraid it's going to mess the relationship up. And again, it's very difficult to train people how to share the gospel through friendship evangelism. So you don't have to train people to build a friendship.

[23:48] It's not like, okay, you're here. Welcome to the evangelism class. Okay, you should, okay, first invite somebody over. Then preheat the oven to 350. Then stick casserole on. Then when they come to the door, greet them and make small talk.

[23:59] Take their coats. We don't need to do that, right? There's no training that's needed for that. So that's, again, where this initiative evangelism comes in for those training purposes.

[24:11] But friendship evangelism is really important because Christians are usually less fearful of sharing the gospel with people that they know. It's easier, in a sense, to do that.

[24:23] And historically, the gospel has spread along relational lines. So it might penetrate into a certain group through initiative evangelism.

[24:35] But the gospel primarily will spread along relational lines. So even we talked about millennials, Gen Z, those relationships they have. That's how it's going to go. It's through building those bridges, tearing down those plausibility structures, that people can feel comfortable.

[24:49] The gospel will spread through that. So that's why we place so much emphasis on building those relationships because you earn that trust to be able to bring the weight of the gospel across the bridge.

[25:00] And so that's really important. And then corporate witness, we talked about this. This is how non-Christians are exposed to the gospel and its effects through contact with a corporate body of believers.

[25:11] Jesus said this in John 13, that unbelievers will know we're Christians, we're Christ's disciples, by our love for one another. And this is really important in this day and age that we tap into this.

[25:26] This is why inviting people to church is so important because they get to come and see the effects of the gospel. Not just you. They can write you off as an exception.

[25:36] And they see a whole church of people who've been transformed, who are loving, who care for people, who have kids that actually sometimes obey. And they see that.

[25:49] They see the effects of the gospel in that, which is really important. One of the challenges of a corporate witness is that it can only impact those that are close enough to see and experience it firsthand.

[26:05] And some people just aren't interested in coming to a Christian event. One of the things you can do, inviting somebody to church might be too big of a step, but it might be just inviting them to your house, like with another friend.

[26:17] Or if you're doing something, you're watching a movie, or you're playing, doing a game night, or those sort of things, or your community group is doing something, our bridge course really works well for this.

[26:27] It's inviting people in. They get to see parts of that community. So even just think of small ways that they can be exposed to the community of the church. Now, one of the things that's amazing is evangelism works really well when you have all three of those modes going at once, when you have the initiative, the friendship, and the corporate witness.

[26:47] That's usually when you see stuff happen and people getting saved. And the bridge is a great example of that because we have all three of those. So when I stand up and do the message, I'm sharing the gospel.

[26:59] It's initiative. I don't know these people. I'm just bringing truth, right? And then they have the friendship part. They're eating together. So in bridge, they eat together. There's a meal together.

[27:10] And they get to relate, and they listen to the message together. And there's real friendship that's being formed there. They're talking and asking questions. And that friendship part is important. And then there's also the corporate witness.

[27:21] There's all these people serving them. They see the love that the leaders have for one another. We're hugging one another and friendly, and they can see we have genuine relationships. There's people that are being generous, taking care of their kids.

[27:34] There's people serving them food. And they see the difference in our lives. They're like, my goodness, why would these people do this? They might not believe what I'm saying in the message at all, but they're like, they can't ignore the fact that God's doing something here.

[27:50] Or they really enjoy the friendships that they're getting to know. They don't have good friendships. They're lonely. And they're developing these friendships, and that keeps them coming back, even though they don't believe what I'm saying.

[28:01] But then all three of these, when all three are working and God's word is going forth, they're building the friendship. They're seeing that corporate witness. Then we see God really using that to save people.

[28:14] All right. So let's take a look at this tract. Let me say before we go over this, this tract is not just designed for strangers, okay?

[28:31] So you don't just have to think. This is not just for, I've used this many times with family members, with friends, with coworkers. It's great to say, hey, I have a little book. Could we go through this together?

[28:42] Somebody that you already know. So it doesn't have to be for strangers. You can use this for friends or family members, coworkers, classmates. And as I mentioned before, it's a great way to share with kids, too.

[28:53] I use this with my kids all the time. It's also, the other thing I like about this is it's a simple outline that can be easily memorized. So it's kind of a way to catechize.

[29:05] So what we do in this is it's very, we use a law gospel approach. So we use the law to help show people their sin and then bring the gospel.

[29:16] This is a very Puritan or Puritanical approach. If you want to sound impressive, you can say, oh, yeah, when I share the gospel, I use more of a Puritanical approach. They loved using this like the law.

[29:28] They bring the law in first, show people their sin, and then bring the gospel. And then it's just very three very simple points, our problem, God's solution, and your response. So that's a good way of even just catechizing, thinking through, like when I share the gospel, I kind of just use that as a little outline.

[29:47] I kind of talk about, okay, your problem and then God's solution and your response. It's just a little kind of simple three-step way of doing that. You don't need to use the track to do that, but it's a way to do that.

[29:57] So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through this. I'm going to share some tips that I have found helpful. You don't have to use any of them. When I first used this, when I developed this track, I went to Westchester University Camp, sat down with somebody.

[30:10] I just read through it with them. I didn't do anything. I just read through it. I was like, oh, that was pretty. I didn't memorize any of it. I just read through it with them, showed them. We kind of walked through it, and I was like, okay, so that kind of worked.

[30:20] We kind of got through the gospel. You don't have to use these tips. I'm going to share them, but again, I'm just going to share them so that you can use them in the future if you need to. So one of the things that you can do if you're using this with someone you know, you could just ask them to take a look at it.

[30:37] But if it's with someone you don't know, you could say something like, have you ever seen this booklet? Or have you ever taken a How Good Are You test? Could be another way to do that. But we also have these spiritual questionnaires, which work great for getting into conversations, and we'll use these this afternoon.

[30:54] It's just great where you can come up to somebody and say, hey, we're just a local church in the area. We have a little spiritual questionnaire. We show it to them. It's short. Like, hey, it's just a couple of questions. Do you mind if I ask you some questions? We're just trying to learn about what people believe in this area.

[31:06] Okay, great. Number one, what's your spiritual background? So this questionnaire is really good, and you'll see this on the video, and it feeds into the track. So at the end, it says the last question, number five, is on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your goodness?

[31:23] And so they might answer that and say a six or seven. And then I would have the track bring the track out and say, okay, well, we have a little booklet here that talks about that. And I would say, you know, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your goodness?

[31:34] You gave yourself a six or seven. And this is usually people give themselves a six or seven. They think I'm not as good as some people. I'm no Mother Teresa. And so you can just go in that, go through that first line.

[31:45] And it's at that point that I say, do you have a second? Would you mind if I went through that? I asked permission to go through that booklet and give permission, and then we go through. But it really leads very easy.

[31:56] The spiritual questionnaire is a good way. It starts us off asking questions. We get to learn about their background. What do they believe? We ask follow-up questions. What did you think about that? And it gives us an ability to kind of customize and to know where they're at so that we can then share and go through the gospel with them.

[32:15] Okay? So let me go through this real quickly, and then I want to show you a video where we actually do it on the street. And you'll see how we do that. So it's just called How Good Are You?

[32:27] And it says how would you rate your goodness? It's a scale from 1 to 10. Usually people give themselves a 6 or a 7. They think I'm not as good as some people. I'm no Mother Teresa, but at least I've never murdered anyone. God knows I'm a pretty good person, and because of this, he will accept me into heaven.

[32:41] Okay? And it's usually at that point I ask them for permission to share. And then it says on the next page, did you know the Bible teaches that getting to God by being a good person is impossible? It's like trying to jump from one end of the Grand Canyon to the other.

[32:53] Some of us could jump further than others, but none of us would make it. What's the standard? The reason we think we're good enough to get to God is because we compare ourselves to other people. But when we compare ourselves to God and his standard, the Ten Commandments, we all fall short.

[33:06] Here's a quick test to more accurately rate your goodness. So then we kind of go through the Ten Commandments. So this is where we're going through the law with people. And I might say there, like somebody say, oh, you might be familiar with some of the Ten Commandments, or maybe somebody that's Catholic would be familiar with them, and then go through that law.

[33:22] And I'll just ask them the questions. Now, quick little tip. I usually skip one and two because it's just harder for people to grasp the idea of having no other gods or not making for themselves an idol.

[33:35] I usually just start with number three. It's just easier, and if I'm in a conversation where somebody seems very interested and they seem like they have time, I'll go back to number one and two and explain, like, is loving God your first priority, or are you devoted to anything more than God?

[33:49] A lot of people are like, no, no, no, they don't. And it kind of can sometimes get them off on the wrong foot where they think that the answer to the question is no each time. Like, no, I haven't done that. So helpful to start with number three.

[34:02] So I just started, you shall not take God's name in vain. Have you ever taken God's name in vain and said, like, oh, my God? Yeah, I've done that. And so, okay. And I'll say, so have I.

[34:12] You know, so have I. I think it's important to show humility, but you don't want to show humility on everyone and take the focus off of them onto you. So I'll have certain spots, maybe like twice.

[34:23] I'll say, yeah, I've done that too. I've broken that. Because they will assume you've kept all these and I've broken all those. They'll assume a righteousness that you have that they don't. So, and sometimes I'll add there.

[34:37] You don't have to add that. If they, you know, have taken the Lord's name in vain, sometimes I'll just add there. Yeah, the Bible actually calls that blasphemy. Sometimes I'll say that, but sometimes I don't.

[34:48] Number four, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In other words, have you set aside one day at seven to worship the Lord? And one of the things you'll see sometimes, again, I'm giving you things that you can add.

[35:02] Don't have to add any of them. One of the things that people think is that the law is kind of like, okay, have I generally kept them? Do I generally go to church?

[35:13] Do I, have I been to church before? The law is actually a perfection of state, a standard of perfection. Okay. So here's an easy illustration that can help with that. If you get pulled over for a cop, you were clearly speeding.

[35:26] The cop comes up to your window. You wouldn't say, well, officer, I generally keep the speed limit. I usually keep the speed limit. He doesn't care about that.

[35:38] He only cares about this moment right now where you have broken the speed limit, right? And it's the same with the law. It's not have I generally, it's have you perfectly kept this?

[35:49] That's kind of a way to help them to see that this is a standard of perfection, not just a general suggestion of what you should do. Number five, honor your father and mother.

[36:02] And I'll just say something like, have you perfectly honored and obeyed your father and mother? And usually that's a good one to kind of take people down. Although I will have some people say, no, I have. And sometimes I'll push them.

[36:13] No, I have. I said, have you ever gotten angry at him or you've ever like disobeyed him? Yeah, okay, well, that would be dishonor. Like sometimes you have to help people with it. But you can't get into an argument and try to force them.

[36:26] Sometimes you just have to be like, okay, you. Liar. Liar. Liar. Right. Yeah, exactly. Can I call your mom right now? Let's talk to her. Number six, you shall not murder.

[36:38] Now, usually sometimes I'll take a joke. There's people say, oh, my goodness. Thank God I've never murdered anyone. Well, Jesus actually says that anger towards another is murder. That if you've hated somebody, you've murdered them in your heart.

[36:50] And so sometimes it helps to just use that little scripture there to say that God's not just focused on the outward things that we do, but actually what happens inside. That if we've hated somebody, if we're angry with somebody, we're murdering them in our heart.

[37:03] And then the same with you should not commit adultery. That lust is adultery of the heart. That if you've lusted after someone, you've committed adultery. You should not steal.

[37:15] Have you ever taken anything that doesn't belong to you? You should not lie, including answering these questions. And you should not covet. And sometimes I'll say if you've stolen something, you had to covet it first.

[37:27] Sometimes I explain coveting. They don't know. People don't know what that is. It just means to want something too much. That's usually the definition I use. So I'll explain that. And then if I have time, if I feel like somebody's really interested, like you want to gauge how interested, if they seem to be slipping in their attention, you want to move through quicker.

[37:46] You want to just hold them captive there. If somebody's very interested, I might go to the first two and come back to that, okay? And it says if getting to God depends on being good, we've got a serious problem.

[37:57] We'll take a closer look at our problem and God's solution in the next three points. Okay, there's the law, right? Here comes the gospel. Here's the three points. So top left, it says our problem. We're sinful when we break God's law.

[38:09] Sin separates us from God and brings his judgment. We're sinful. No one is good, not even one. For all have sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard. God created people to bring him glory and enjoy life and relationship with him.

[38:21] However, each of us has turned against our creator by violating his standard and living our own way, which is sin. God is holy. He's completely good and must respond in fierce opposition to our sin. And then it says because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

[38:39] Sometimes, again, if I feel like I have time, I'll underlie the word unrepentant and say, does any, do you know what that, what do you think that means? Is unrepentant. That sometimes might be a hard concept for people to get.

[38:54] Then just go. Turn the page. The final judgment for those who die in their sins is eternal separation from God in hell. And so this is, you know, where the bad news gets really bad.

[39:07] And we want people to see, you kind of see the little people in there. I don't know if you see those. There's also, and again, because we've used it so much. There's also, if you see the little guy that's looking down to the abyss, he's actually on the head of a goat, if anybody could see it.

[39:22] We call it the death goat. So you kind of see he's near one of the horns. And you could see two, like two little eyes. Do you see, does anybody see that? No. The death goat. Oh, yes.

[39:33] You see him? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. He's kind of on one of the horns. I thought you meant he was like a small one. No. You can see the right eye of the goat.

[39:44] Yes. Yes. You can see that. And you can see the horns. He's on one of the horns. Is that on purpose? Yeah. Yeah.

[39:55] It was. Well, goat, like, represents the symbol of, like, Satan and demonic and stuff like that. One of the guys in our church that designed this, it was his senior art thesis project.

[40:07] So, so he, he, he, no, it wasn't Dan Lee. It was, it was, it was, um, uh, Steph, Nate, uh, Bomberger. It was Stefan's brother, um, Matt Bomberger.

[40:19] Yeah. You remember him? I think so. He was in the Riley band. Remember Riley? Yeah. He's part of that. So, so there's a death coat for you. You don't have to show that to them though.

[40:29] But if you're showing kids that can be helpful to find the death coat. Um, so this is really serious though. When you get to this page, I mean, this is, this is the place where people will object. Like when you get to this hell spread and you talk about how people say, oh, well, you know, I don't really believe in the Bible.

[40:45] And so what do you do if somebody says that? Like, oh, I don't really believe this. You could say just there, like say, you know what? That's, you know, that's a great question. Would you mind just if we finish going through this just so you know what the Bible says?

[40:57] All right. So you can kind of sidestep that a little bit because again, our goal is to get the gospel out there. All they have is the bad news. We don't want to just leave them with the bad news. So here comes the good news.

[41:07] The next page is God's solution. Jesus lived a sinless life in love. Jesus died as a substitute for our sins. And there's John 3, 16. Then it says, even though we turn against our creator, he loves us and sent his son, Jesus to save us from his judgment on the cross.

[41:23] Yes, God, the son endured the holy wrath we deserve so we can be forgiven and accepted by God. And it says, Jesus' death for Christ died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. Now, one of the things you can do there is sometimes I'll ask them, who do you think the righteous is when they read that verse, that first Peter three verse?

[41:40] Who's the righteous here? And a lot of times they'll get that wrong. Christ said once he died for the righteous us, like.

[41:51] The righteous were righteous, which is a liar. No, we're not the righteous. So but that's hard for them.

[42:02] So and so they'll say they'll make it and I'll say, is it us? And I'll say, well, no, look again. And just you're making them kind of look at that verse and help me to see, no, the righteous there is Christ for the unrighteous is us.

[42:14] Right. So helping them see that and even just drawing a little arrow, you can draw an arrow of that guy coming across the cross to get to God. And this is Jesus. Next page.

[42:24] Jesus is alive today. After three days in a tomb, he rose from the dead and was seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses. Having conquered sin and death, he returned to heaven and now reigns as ruler over all. However, it's not enough to simply know these truths.

[42:36] Next page. Number three, your response. You must turn from your sins and trust in Jesus alone. Only then will you be forgiven and accepted by God. And there's two scriptures there.

[42:47] Acts three, repent then and turn to God so your sins may be wiped out. And John three, whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him. Now, this is really cool. This is an important part to get to these cars.

[42:59] It's very helpful for people. So think of it like driving a car. The red car represents a self-directed life where you're in the driver's seat. The white car represents a Christ-directed life where you trust Jesus for forgiveness and let him decide which way to go.

[43:16] So which car are you in? Now, when you show this to people, they stare at it and they see the little red Mustang and they think, hmm, that guy's driving a car.

[43:29] It looks like he's going off into some flaming abyss. That doesn't look desirable. The guy in the white car looks like he's in a lot better shape. He's smiling.

[43:40] But I don't know if I could say that Christ is really driving the car. Like, is he really deciding which way I go? And they stare at it for a while because they get caught in between.

[43:52] Sometimes you can give them an out, which I like to do and say, well, maybe you feel like you're in the pink car, which the pink car is you're driving and Jesus is in the passenger seat.

[44:06] They're like, yeah, yes. That's the car I'm in. The pink car, it's like I'm driving, but I kind of have Jesus next to me. They want that. A lot of people are desperately looking to get out from between these two choices and get kind of a middle road where I'm basically in control.

[44:22] But I kind of, Jesus is my co-pilot. You know, he's kind of with me. And, you know, if I crash the car, maybe he can miraculously fix it. If I get lost, maybe he can give me directions.

[44:33] But generally, that's what they want in the pink car. And then what I'll say to people is actually the Bible, the Bible calls that hypocrisy. Okay, that's the worst word you could ever use for someone.

[44:46] That's actually what the Bible calls hypocrisy because there's no such thing as a pink car. It really is only one or the other, either a red car or a white car. Either you're in control of your life, you do what you want, you call the shots, and then you're in the red car.

[44:59] Or you've surrendered your life to Jesus and you belong to him and he's leading and you're following. Jesus isn't interested in being the co-pilot.

[45:10] He's interested in being Lord and being king or not at all. So that's often where that's a helpful point to kind of interact on that.

[45:22] And then it says, which car would you like to be in? And then the next page says, Jesus calling you to trust him. And it has a prayer that people pray. I never really get to that unless it will be hard for me to pray for somebody that I've just met like that.

[45:36] I really want them to think about it. I have done that at times where if they say, yeah, I want to be in that white car, then I will go back again over the gospel to make sure they understand counting the cost.

[45:48] And at times I've prayed, but very rarely. Normally I'll just say, listen, I want you to come to bridge. I want you to go to the bridge course and watch these videos. I want you to come to church. Read this track over again.

[46:00] And I'll just say like at the end, just read this booklet over again. And if this prayer captures your heart, if this is what you really think, then pray that prayer to Jesus and he will save you. But I usually kind of let them do that.

[46:12] Not they are with me because there's things to think about. There's questions. It's very hard. Think of it like marriage. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, we're marrying Christ. It's very hard to meet somebody, you know, and talk to the, you know, for the first 10 minutes and then get married to them.

[46:27] Like you need to think about some of those things. So I usually just send them home with this, ask them to read it, to think about that, to go to the bridge course and watch some of those videos, to come to church and to get involved in stuff.

[46:39] But that's what this is. It talks about the bridge course in church kind of as the next step. And then the back page has an invitation to the bridge course on it. And the bridge course has been really amazing for us.

[46:51] We've just seen so many people come to Christ. All those stories I read in the beginning are people that have come to the Lord, but there's great videos on here. We actually have people all over the world are watching these videos and we're getting thousands of people going through these videos because they hit those topics.

[47:07] So you can just point people to this website. This is something you can go through with people. You can take them through the course. Hey, let's watch a video and then discuss it.

[47:17] We have discussion questions. It's simple. So this is a good next step for them. And then on the back is an invitation to church. Ours are pre-printed, yours are not.

[47:27] What I'd like you to do, we're going to put a video on now, if we can show that other video, is for you guys to write down the information of your church. So the name, what is it called? Trinity?

[47:38] Cambridge. Trinity. Trinity Cambridge. And then where do you guys meet? What's the name of this school? What's it called? Kennedy Longfellow. What is it? Kennedy Longfellow. Kennedy Longfellow.

[47:49] Oh, good. Yeah, we have Longfellow. Right. Kennedy Longfellow. They couldn't make up their mind. Do we want a president? Do we want a poet? Let's just do... No, two separate people. Okay. Ah, good.

[48:00] Thank you. Okay. Kennedy Longfellow, 10 a.m. 10 a.m., right? So write Kennedy Longfellow. And people would know Kennedy Longfellow, right? Elementary school. They're going to know this. You don't...

[48:11] They might not even need to put the address. If you just put Kennedy Longfellow, would they know that, like, or can look that up? All right. I would just say Kennedy Longfellow, 10 a.m., and then website, because that gives them everything.

[48:25] So let's... I want to show you this video where we actually take this out on the street to see how it's done. And while we're doing that, if you guys wouldn't mind just writing that information down on the tracks.

[48:36] And there's some extra ones there. Everybody should get, like, maybe, like, three or so tracks if you have it. Okay? So let's... That one lady at the end, she's...

[48:46] You can see she's convicted. She's... She's starting to see it. You can see the conviction that's happening when she says, I'll consider that. And you can see the effect that the law has on people.

[48:58] It's like they're not justifying themselves anymore. And that's one of the reasons I didn't mention the law is so important in this, because the law makes us knowledgeable of our sins. So if you look, you know, Romans 3, and I think I put this in your outline, it defines what thoughts and actions are sinful.

[49:13] It reveals our guilt and stops us from making excuses. And in Galatians 3, there, it tutors us and leads us to trust in Christ. And so you can see how people start out feeling really good about themselves.

[49:24] But as you go through the law, they become more convicted and see their sin more. So, yeah. So a couple tips that I'll give you, because what we're going to do now, and I hope you guys can join us.

[49:39] We're going to... I think Sean went out to grab some pizza, and we were going to just do a gospel outreach and go out and look for opportunities to share the gospel. Now, what we do there, again, before you get scared to death, is we'll partner up with people who have more experience.

[49:52] So if you want to just go and watch and observe how that works, you can. And we can do that. A couple things that I found very helpful. When you're doing this, again, what I do is I like to put a tract in my pocket.

[50:09] Hold... Can I borrow this for a second? Is hold the questionnaire and say to somebody, does anybody have a pen? And to hold a pen and say, hey, listen, we just have a little questionnaire here, spiritual... We're a church in the area, and we're just asking people about their beliefs.

[50:22] Do you have a second? And I show it to them, so you can see it's short, five questions. Great. My name's... Then I introduce myself. My name's Jim. What's your name? And, oh, this is my friend Kevin. So write down their name, and then go through that, just like I showed on the video.

[50:36] And then when you get that, you circle their answer. And after that, then I come out with a tract. And you have to be somewhat careful, depending on where we're at in certain places. Like, you can't be flashing a lot of, like, literature.

[50:49] Some places, you're not allowed to give out literature, so you don't have to give them anything. Usually the laws, like in malls and different things, is you're not allowed to solicit, like, hand stuff out. But you can talk to them, and at the end, like, people will say, oh, could I have that?

[51:04] Sure. That's perfectly fine. What you can't do is just be, like, pounding it out. So I'll bring the tract out at that point, and then I'll get into a place where they can see it, and I'll circle it.

[51:15] So I would not want to be doing this, like, if I'm sharing the tract with you where I'm reading it to you like this. I don't want to do that. I need to get somehow next to you so that we can go over it so you can see this, right?

[51:28] Not me reading something to them, like, so that you both can see it, and you can read through it with them. And hold it out so he can see it. Put your hand on the shoulder, right? Yes. And say it in a semi-commanding tone of voice.

[51:42] That's only the prayer at the end. That's just at the end. So you want to get where you're doing this. Now, the other thing is when you're reading through it, read through it. And then when you're looking up, you can talk to them, like, if you're having a conversation.

[51:56] But you don't want to be, like, interrupting yourself because then they don't know where to focus. And I found it's really helpful to read through this because it keeps them focused on the pictures, the page, the words, and it keeps them focused on the gospel.

[52:09] Okay? So this will help keep kind of moving forward. And you can just read through that as I'm reading through this. And then I'm checking the laws. So, like, I might say that. And if I'm interacting, okay, yep, we've broken that one.

[52:20] And you saw how they were doing that. They kept kind of interacting with the laws. But make sure that they could see it. And I find it's helpful to have a pen. You know, then you can kind of check this stuff off. And even though you saw little things, like they drew a little arrow across the cross, like where he got sick, you can just kind of do that or underline.

[52:36] Do you know who the righteous are here if you want to add that? Again, you don't have to add any of that. Okay? So those are just a couple tips. You can share with larger groups, I have found.

[52:51] But you might be scared to do that. It's kind of intimidating. You saw the one guy, Matt, was sharing with those other hippie kids. Yeah, in that circle. He's the guy that designed the track, that guy, Matt. So he's the one that developed this.

[53:03] He was sharing in that circle, which you can do. And I've actually found that it helps sometimes for them to outnumber you.

[53:13] Like if you're sometimes, you know, we definitely want to go two by two. But sometimes it can be a little intimidating if it's two of us and one of you. Sometimes it's helpful to have two people and then say to share it with two people.

[53:25] And say, hey, can we ask, okay, what would you say to the answers? What would you say? What would you say? And sometimes you'll find one person that might be more interested in another. Or even a group. Like Matt, there was a group of like, I think there might have been more than just two people there.

[53:36] And then just take those answers. They got the numbers. You're the minority. You're one person. There are four people. You might want to leave that to the experts. But it does help to do that because you'll get some people that will kind of start bailing out of the conversation.

[53:49] Other people that are more interested and it kind of weeds them out. Okay. Any questions at all about, we got some time here, about sharing the gospel, the booklet, reaching out to loved ones, neighbors, any questions?

[54:06] Yes. Just to say, set expectations for the group. Like, you know, what about today? Like, again, this is more just setting expectations kind of costly. What percent of the time, right, do you actually get through the survey to the booklet?

[54:20] Yeah. And then once you open the booklet, like, you know, how many pages do you get through for the book? Because I think I'm going to be all, like, disappointed if, like, I didn't finish the book. Yeah, yeah.

[54:31] And it's, that's a great question. And it's funny, some people, it's really funny, it all depends. And this is, you know, we're up here in Boston. We're in the northeast.

[54:42] It's a hard area. But they're down, you know, in Philadelphia. Younger people are usually much more open than older people, okay? So if you get someone that's older, I often, I will do those because sometimes the spirit leaves, but it's just harder.

[54:57] They just feel like you're scamming them. They're just, they've been burned. They're all burned over. They're boomers, whatever. They don't want to talk about that. So you can get people that are like that. So, but if you usually go to young people, like, if you're on a campus, people are very open.

[55:11] Campuses a little bit are still more trained. Like, if you're on a campus, people are wide. These guys were in a park in Philadelphia, in Center City, Philadelphia. So they're just down there in the middle.

[55:22] If you have people from, I found that people from different ethnicities are more open than people who are just white, middle-class Americans. People who are younger tend to be more open.

[55:34] So you can kind of start there. But, yeah, people will be willing to go through it. They'll definitely, people like to answer questions. So if you have this survey.

[55:45] But usually you'll be able to get through that. And once you get into it, usually, you know, I think you'll find it's more successful. You'll be surprising how successful it is. Sometimes you'll get people that won't, just won't want to do it.

[55:57] And that's fine. You say, okay, no problem. Like, just be respectful of people. It's okay if they don't want it. They might have somewhere to go. And often don't look for people that are kind of in a rush. Like, if somebody's like, okay, can I talk to you? There's somebody that's sitting down.

[56:10] Like, let's say you go to the mall. There's a food court. Like, hey, we're doing this. Could I ask you a couple questions? Somebody that's got nowhere to go. Like, one of the things that's worked really well, like, when we've gone to different places, people in Outback on smoke breaks are just kind of sitting there.

[56:25] The only thing is what I've seen is the rise of the smartphone, and people are always on their phones. But people are just always on their phone. They don't care about it. Like, they just do it like robots.

[56:36] Like, we just look at it. So they'll be just like, oh, yeah, and they'll just put their phone down and do that. So sometimes you have to kind of go through that. But people are willing to do that. But now one time I did it with somebody, and some people are just afraid of books.

[56:48] It's like I was talking to them, and they were having a good case, and I brought the booklet out. And they're like, oh, yeah, well, I don't want to. And I was like, okay. And then I'd put it away, and then they'd start talking again, and we would start having, you know, a good conversation.

[57:01] And I said, well, let me show you something about it. And they're like, no, no, no, no. And so then we just talked. I mean, I'm sure she probably talked to her for about a half an hour. But if I brought this up, it was like, oh, no.

[57:12] So it was just like, I don't know. They had a serious aversion to. And a lot of times I like to ask people when they describe what their experience has been. Like people that have had bad experiences in church, and it makes, and I'll say, like, tell me about, you know, what was your experience?

[57:32] Like, tell me about that. Like, what happened? And, yeah, that's really difficult. I can see why that would be hard. We have a guy that in our church, he got saved several years ago through our bridge course, and he's a good friend.

[57:47] He sits with me and my family on church, and he's a little bit younger than me, but his wife is not a Christian, and he's been trying to reach out to her for years, and she just, she's very Catholic, and she just, she's been to a couple of the bridges, but she just, and he'll play the messages from church on Sunday.

[58:08] They'll sit and listen, and she just came out last week that she actually had a good friend who, whose dad was a Christian, and she was Catholic, but her friend was, you know, more like an evangelical Christian.

[58:25] And dad was very religious and quoting scripture, and the dad abused the daughter, and she found out. So she, that whole thing is just like, he was like religious and Christian, and this is what he did.

[58:42] And she's like, I don't, and so, okay, now you're seeing, like, there's stuff in there, stuff behind. It's not just this person's angry. They're just coming out because this is what they've experienced.

[58:53] So, so sometimes just in that survey, just asking follow-up questions and getting to know people. But if people have time, a lot of times people will go through, and it's okay if they don't just, you know, go on to the next person and trust that God's going to lead you to the right person.

[59:06] So, so that was a great, that was a great question. Good. Other questions? Who else had? Yes. I found that going from, like, the first page, to, like, how do you, like, how do you, like, so, like, the second page Bible teaches, like, getting to God, trying to be good person is impossible.

[59:23] I can, like, I was a little confused, and then I can see some people, like, not, like, getting to the page of, like, getting to God, it was, like, goodness, or, like, like, some guy, the guy from the video was saying, like, I don't think I'm going with Jesus, but, like, I don't think I'm going to hell.

[59:43] Yeah. I feel like there's, like, not everyone's going to think that. Yeah. People would, like, get to that. Yeah. Right. Or, like, even the one, did you hear Matt Bomberger said, yeah, if there is a God.

[59:56] Because he said, well, I don't even know. Okay, well, if there is a God, then, and then he just kind of kept going through it. So, again, the hard part is people don't know what they don't know, and they don't know the gospel.

[60:07] So that's where some of your goal, like, some people are going to be way back before the track. Like, I don't believe in the existence of God. I'm an atheist. I'm way back over here.

[60:20] And that can be harder, like, and so, you know, do you have a conversation about science and evolution? You could do that, like, but that often happens better. Like, you want them to say, well, can I just show you this so you know?

[60:31] Well, a lot of people don't really know what the Bible teaches, and they don't know what the true message of the Bible is. So could I just go through this? But even so, most people, which is surprising, and I, this, so this track was designed in the Philadelphia area.

[60:49] This is where I am. It's a very Catholic area, very much kind of, you know, good works. But I've used this in so many different places, different religions. There's just a sense of just this idea that we're going to be good enough to get there.

[61:00] Whether that's Buddhist, whether that's Islam, whether that's Judaism, whether that's Catholicism, Christianity, just even people that are not, have nothing to do with God, yeah, I'm basically a good person.

[61:11] So it really hits on that idea that there's a sense we have to earn or merit. And that's pretty universal. Not everybody thinks that. But it's still you want them to see, like, there's a standard.

[61:24] And most people will compare themselves to others to come out feeling okay about themselves. Even if they're not a Christian, they just kind of feel like, yeah, in general, I'm a good person. So, but again, I think the world is changing.

[61:38] You have people that aren't in that. Just say, well, would you mind if we just went through this so I can kind of show you what this would go? Oh, yeah, sure. Because the gospel is the power of God for salvation. That's what saves people. And that message can change them, regenerate their hearts, and save them.

[61:52] So that's why we want to try to, if we can, get them through it. So, like, for instance, I was talking to a guy at University of Louisville, and he was a Ph.D. science guy who's a teaching assistant and all this stuff.

[62:05] So we, he had these questions, but we went through the track. I got all the way through it. And then we started talking about science, and we went, we had probably, like, I don't know, we probably talked for, like, 25 minutes or something.

[62:19] And had this, all this conversation about Lucy and, you know, and evolution and these different kinds of things that we really got into. It was a great conversation. But I was really glad that didn't happen first, that I now know that he knows the gospel.

[62:34] He actually has that track, and he heard what the gospel is. Now we're wrestling over here with evolution and all that stuff, which is helpful. Probably not going to argue him away from that.

[62:46] But the gospel is what can change his life. Does that make sense? Am I answering your question at all? Follow up on that. Is it the right way to respond if someone's like, oh, but, like, I don't think I need to, like, believe in God to be good?

[62:57] Then would you, like, would it be a good approach to say, like, oh, yes, I understand, but the Bible says this is the case. Would you, like, want to hear about that? Yeah, or just say the Bible says that you don't have to be good to get to heaven either.

[63:13] That the Bible actually says nobody's good. So you could throw them off by that, because if they're thinking that you're saying you have to be good to get to heaven, you're going to show them, no, you can't be good enough to get to heaven.

[63:29] Right? Or, like, if their response is, like, I don't really care. Like, I don't think there is heaven or hell. Mm-hmm. Or, like, I don't think that's relevant to me.

[63:39] Yeah. I don't really care about heaven or hell. Yeah, yeah. Then I would just say, you know, do you think it's possible that heaven and hell are real?

[63:51] So sometimes if you just word it in those phrases, do you think it's possible? Well, I don't really believe in the Bible. Do you think it's possible that, you know, God could have inspired people to write down what he wanted them to write down?

[64:06] Do you think that's possible? Yeah, I guess it's possible. That's what I believe. So sometimes you're just getting them to gain a little bit on what, you know, do you think it's possible that there is a God?

[64:16] Do you think it's possible that God has laws and that he requires certain things from us? Yeah, that's what I believe. But you're not trying to get them to say, like, okay, here's how good you have to believe.

[64:28] So you'll get people that will say that, but they'll say, do you understand? Have you ever read the Bible? You know, a lot of people have tons of opinions about it, but they've never even read the Bible. Have you ever read it?

[64:40] No, I haven't. Okay, well, I think it would be helpful to read something before you disagree with it. And a lot of people misunderstand the main message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is not be a good person and you'll get to heaven.

[64:51] It's actually the opposite. So can I show you that real quick? So things like that that can kind of help. Does that make sense? Those are good questions. Good. Who else? Yeah. So something I've encountered, like, in this area especially, we'll be talking about things like this very quickly.

[65:11] People want to know, like, what's your church's stance on, like, LGBT? Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. I know that... Gotta go. Well, I know that that shouldn't be the focus.

[65:25] Yeah. What we're talking about. Yeah. But when... I imagine... Yes. What is your way of guiding the conversation? Yeah.

[65:37] So, again, just say, hey, that's a great question. Can we talk about that after we get through this? Because as soon as you talk about that and they have you pit, boom, you're out of the conversation.

[65:49] They're not going to hear. You know what I mean? It's kind of like if I was in the Philadelphia, as I said, I'm a Cowboys fan. They're not hearing anything else at that point. They're just like, I can't listen to this guy.

[66:00] He's an idiot. Like, you can't... Like, he has a Yankee sweatshirt on. This is, like, ridiculous. Like, as soon as they see that, they're like, this guy, I'm totally against... I hate this guy. I hate Christianity.

[66:11] They're just going to trash everything. So you have to be, I think, be careful there. So I would try to push it to the end to say, you know, that is a great question. And then I would just wait till the end.

[66:24] And then wherever you can, you... And I have an answer for that. But wherever you can, I like to ask them questions. Well, have you ever read the Bible?

[66:35] Or what do you think the Bible says about LGBT? Or what have you seen? What's your experience been of how Christians interact with the gay community?

[66:50] So part of it is just drawing them out, seeing what they say first. And then, you know, and then even looking where you can from, what do you think... How do you think Jesus...

[67:00] What do you think Jesus would have done with the LGBT community? Oh, I think he would have loved them. I said, yeah, I think you're partially right. I think you would. And there's actually a story in there where a woman that was caught in adultery...

[67:13] So... And Jesus showed her mercy when everybody else was trying to condemn her and stone her. But then you know what he did at the end? He said, go and sin no more. He didn't ignore the sin.

[67:25] And so I often tell people, I'll say, I think there are a lot of sexual sins. I think there are a lot of things that are sin in the Bible. Not just homosexual sins or homosexual sex, but adultery, pornography, people abusing others, rape.

[67:45] I think there's tons of sexual sins and they're all sin and God's against them all. And I think homosexual is one. But God's posture toward us is that he loves us and he forgives us and he calls us to change.

[67:57] So there's ways of doing it. But the problem is, once you do that in the beginning, it's like, the conversation is blown up. Now we're not having a conversation anymore. You've been stereotyped.

[68:10] You're some kind of Republican. We're against you. You know what I mean? You lose your ability to have that conversation. So sometimes questions will go away, too. Well, how do you know the Bible's through?

[68:21] Well, that's a great question. Let's talk about that at the end. And sometimes just in that gospel conversation, they'll forget about it. Part of it is trying to sniff out. Some questions are kind of like smoke screens.

[68:32] It's not a real question. It's just designed to blow things up. It might not be a real question that they have. So that part of it is trying to sniff out. Do they really have a question about that?

[68:42] Or are they just trying to dismiss everything and judge and write everything off? You know what I mean? Like, well, what about evolution? Do they really have a question about that? Maybe they don't. And so it's hard to discern that.

[68:53] Yeah, John, what were you going to say? I don't know if it's helpful. But I think, like, one thought, at least, like, in interaction with a lot of folks who identify as... Yeah. I think this lends to the generational discussion, even though I don't think it's convenient with just...

[69:07] Yeah. Well, I don't think Gen Z event. Nothing against Gen X and humans, but they actually propagated most of the stuff in the culture. And millennials just deepened it up. But, like, maybe this is another track at some point.

[69:21] Or something to use. Yeah. Instead of, like, identifying based on morality, per se, or, like, how good my life is, it's about how loving I am and what my identity is. And so it almost becomes its own animal.

[69:34] And, unfortunately, it's, like, I think what you've said is probably the best approach right now. But, like, when it becomes not just a perspective, but a cultural group, which it is now, it's, like, like you mentioned yesterday, it's, like, they sense it as racism.

[69:50] Yeah. Like, even if we go to scripture, it's, like, like you're saying, they completely shut down because you're not just, you can't compare my lifestyle to rape because this is who I am.

[70:01] This is my identity. Yeah. So, like, it's going to take, that's where it's, like. Yeah. I find it extremely challenging in terms of, I think, yeah, I think going through this is good for them to ruin it first.

[70:15] But then the process of stripping away identities is, like. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, it's, it is, well, and part of it, it's just the stereotypes. I mean, we are under massive stereotypes.

[70:27] And, and the problem is a lot of Christians reinforce it. So I'll give you an example. I was at an abortion clinic that I go to periodically. And, and there were these, so, so there's people going in for abortions and we're trying to talk to them.

[70:42] There's a group. Most of these people are this Catholic group. And some of them are just yelling, screaming at people.

[70:53] It's a death house in there. It's a death house. And doing terrible things like pretending to the kid going, eh, mommy, no, don't. Like mocking and just being angry.

[71:05] And so I, you know, one time I was there and this and, and, and I have this. And I can tap into this boldness that I have at times. And I was like, okay, what do I do?

[71:16] Should I say something? You know, and I was like, I'm tapping into the boldness. I'm like, excuse me. And I talked to the Catholic woman that was doing this. And I said, I just started asking her all kinds of questions. I said, hey, I just want to talk to you about, you know, kind of what you're doing.

[71:30] You know, how, how you're approaching that. You know, have you found that to be effective? And yeah, I have. Well, you know, some people need to be scared. And I said, I said, yeah. I said, do you, what do you think they think about us?

[71:43] What do you think their view of us is as kind of a pro-life thing? And she just couldn't answer these questions. I said, I think they think we hate them and that they're the enemy.

[71:57] And I think that what you're doing is reinforcing that because you're coming off so angry. You're reinforcing like we're against you. And so I actually suggested a better way of doing that is to relate to them.

[72:11] And so when they get out of the car, they, I say something like, I know this is really a hard choice. So I'm just trying to reconnect with them.

[72:22] You know, I know this really hard choice. And I also appeal to their conscience. I say, but I, I know, you know, that this, this baby's real and, and you don't have to make this choice. There are other options and we can help you with that.

[72:34] So I'm trying to be sympathetic, not, you know, like that. We reinforce those stereotypes. Evangelism, you have to work so hard to undo those stereotypes.

[72:46] One of the things they think when you, when they raise that LGBT issue is you are self-righteous. You think you're better than others. You think you're morally superior. So you have to work to undercut that, try to cut that out.

[72:59] That's part of why I say there's, I think, I think I'm the biggest sinner that I know. And I've committed sexual sin. I've lusted. I've looked at pornography when I was younger.

[73:10] Or I've treated women in ways that are, are not godly. And that's wrong. And I shouldn't do that. Like, I want to immediately try to undercut.

[73:21] And I think lots of things are sin, not, not just homosexual sex. I think there's other, there's plenty of ways to sin. And I've sinned. And I think the reason that Jesus came was not to save people who think they're righteous or better than others.

[73:34] I don't think I'm better than you. To save people who are sinners and people who are knowledge of sin. Like, I'm desperately trying to undercut where they're placing me, right? Where they want to get me into some angry, Republican, conservative, you know, whatever.

[73:50] Like, they have me in those stereotypes, and that makes it really hard. So start out by trying to undercut that. So even the pro-life thing, I was trying to help them. We have to undercut and say, no, we're not angry.

[74:01] We care. We love them. We sympathize with a girl in college who has gotten pregnant and is being told that her life is ruined because she's going to have a baby. And she can't. That's something we need to come alongside of her and sympathize with, not come up and yell at her.

[74:18] So do you see what I'm saying? So how do we get out from under that? How do we get out from under that stereotype to kind of pave the way for the gospel? That's also, again, why community is so important because when they see more than one, they say, okay, these people aren't angry.

[74:35] They're actually loving. Okay, they're not as crazy as I thought. They're not weird conservatives. They're, like, loving, kind. They care about their family. They love other people. They start to see that.

[74:45] Do you see what I'm saying? And that undercuts their stereotype, and that's a big part of what we need to do. All right. Let's, we should approach. Should we?