This week starts a new season
for Small Groups. I get excited around this time because it’s
a new opportunity for the church to come together in community and continue
to challenge ourselves to grow spiritually. I’ll be leading
a Share Your Faith Workshop over the next 8 weeks. It’s the
second time that I am leading the group and my experience with the first
group last session was amazing. The material comes from Evangelism
Explosion and it’s geared towards teaching people in attendance relational
evangelism. I’ve learned that everyone has a story and we can
use our testimonies as opportunities to witness to people. Changed
lives through the power of Christ can challenge others. Our before
Christ and after Christ stories can show what the power of God does
to bring about change. When we share our testimonies and talk
about how things are now that Christ is in our life it can plant spiritual
seeds and challenge the person hearing who only has a before Christ
story to want Christ in their life too.
The material used in the class
is unique in that it is all DVD based and teaches people engaging stories
that explain Faith, God, Christ, Man, Sin and Grace. After telling
the story the material teaches how to explain what the story meant by
using Bible verses and explaining how it relates. I like how this
equips us to be ready for any opportunity that may come our way to share
our faith. I’ve seen that as I’ve shared my faith with friends
it’s often through answering questions that they may have. As
I answer questions this material fits very well into a normal conversation
and I will sometimes share a story relating to one of the topics and
use the material to help answer the question in a more impactful way.
If you’re interested in learning how to share your faith in a new
way or want to grow in your confidence and ability to share your faith
you can e-mail me at mikeh@newlifechicago.org. I’d love to have you join
us as we start this next Small Group session this week. I can
guarantee you that 8 weeks focusing on this evangelism material can
equip you to be prepared to share your faith for the rest of your life.
