Salvation belongs to the Lord. And my responsibility is, when I get opportunities to share the love of Jesus – to be the most loving, patient, and non-judgemental I can – whilst also being unafraid to share my faith.
Meeting people where they are
Evangelism is best done in dialogue, not monologue, isn’t it? And we can all be guilty of occasionally monologuing at people rather than dialoguing with them.
A dialogue requires seeking to understand where people are currently. We can do this by asking others how they find meaning or face certain challenges in their lives, and sharing how faith makes a difference in ours.
This helps us meet people where they are, as God so often does with us. But often we can be tempted to skip this stage of curiosity and rush through a script to get to ‘the point’.
Even on a broader church level, we often give people an altar call and have something ready if they say a big yes. Or maybe a course, if it’s a smaller yes – but that’s still a big commitment. What about those who aren’t ready for that? What about those who are curious but cautious? For years, I didn’t have a response for those people.
A Better Approach—Big Yes, Little Yes, Healthy Maybe
That changed one day when I was speaking at a church, I gave the usual call to salvation – the “big yes” moment. But then something unexpected happened. Words came out of my mouth that weren’t scripted or planned:
“It might be that you’re here today, you’re not ready to say a big yes. But I wonder whether I might challenge you to make an intentional decision to explore, to find out, to have a rummage around in the Christian faith.”
I called that a Little Yes. And then came the third category:
“It might be that you’re here today and you say, Mark, I’m not even ready to say a big yes or a little yes. I wonder whether I might gently nudge you to stay open-minded about the Christian faith... be prepared to say, maybe there’s something in this, but keep it a bit more healthy than that. A healthy maybe.”
And when I invited people to respond in those three ways, the room lit up.
The response I received was phenomenal. So many people responded to the gospel – both big yes, little yes and healthy maybe – with people who weren’t Christians coming up to me saying, ‘Well, I’m definitely a healthy maybe.’ And I left the event thinking wow.
It’s not a gimmick or a strategy. It’s a language that reflects reality. It helps us realise who is on a journey towards Jesus, and how we can serve them where they are.
And this approach can be expanded to how we share Jesus in everyday conversations. Perhaps someone isn’t ready to step into church, but they’d be open to go to an open mic night, or meet your Christian friends at the pub. Perhaps they are defensive when you share the gospel but are happy to hear testimonies of how your faith helps you in your everyday struggles.
