OUT OF MY DEPTH
WITNESS IN TRAINING
SHARING THE GOSPEL — IN 3 MINUTES OR LESS BY PAUL CARTER
I
recently asked a room full of Christian leaders to share the Gospel as they would to a 10-year-old child 3 minutes before they fell asleep. Then I asked them to share the Gospel as they would to a complete stranger on the subway who was getting off at the next stop. The results were a little disappointing to everyone involved. Most of us prefer to warm up to such things. Most of us would rather share the Gospel gradually, in snips and bits, over an extended period, within a safe and stable relational context. In general, I think that is a reasonable way to go, but there are also times when we need to be able to at least introduce the Gospel in a limited amount of time. The two scenarios mentioned above are both real and representative of several situations I’ve encountered in the past. I’ve had children ask me Gospel questions after bedtime prayers and I have watched the alertness drain out of them like sands through an hourglass as I attempted to say true things about God, about us and about how God has saved us through the person and work of Jesus Christ. I was sitting on the train once reading my Bible when a Hindu fellow in the seat next to me asked me what Christians believed about God. I had two, maybe three stops before I would say goodbye forever to this man so I wanted to say as much as I could in the time that I
30 SEVEN JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
had — but I quickly discovered that I authority of God’s Word and to function was not adequately prepared. as conduits for all the blessings of heaven. Since those two failures (along with That’s how it was supposed to be, but several others!) I’ve found great benefit unfortunately, the Bible tells the story of in memorizing a very short statement how our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell that captures the essence of the into sin by choosing to rebel against God’s Christian Gospel: Word in order to become autonomous ruling The Gospel is the Good creatures. Basically, they wanted News of what God has done in THERE ARE to be gods unto themselves, Christ to secure our salvation. deciding good and evil. From TIMES WHEN That statement has 17 that point on, humanity has WE NEED TO words in it and takes about 6 been on a downward spiral seconds to say. If I’m asked, BE ABLE TO moving further and further by a person on the subway away from God and our original AT LEAST or by a patron in line behind design and glory. INTRODUCE me at Tim Hortons, what a It takes 2.5 minutes to say Christian believes or what THE GOSPEL that at normal talking speed, Christianity is all about I which leaves 30 seconds IN A LIMITED will start with that line and to answer a question or to AMOUNT OF then build up from there suggest a website or a book based on the amount of TIME. that could provide further time that I have. information. To the person getting off the subway To be clear, I don’t imagine that at the next stop (3 minutes) I would add too many people will be saved by some version of the following: a 180-second presentation of the The word Gospel means “good news”. Gospel — but it could lead to an It’s pretty important to understand that. exchange of email addresses; it could The Bible is not a book that tells us what we lead to a friend request on Facebook; it have to do to earn salvation; it is a book that could lead to a website or a book or a tells us what God did to earn our salvation. Small Group. Your 180 seconds could What he did was send Jesus. Jesus did for be the seed that is used by God to us what we could never do for ourselves and begin a Gospel journey. he paid for what we had done in his body on the cross. God created human beings and intended for them to be ruling creatures. / PAUL CARTER To listen to Paul’s Into We were supposed to be under God but The Word devotional podcast visit the over everything else. We were supposed to TGC Canada website; you can also find rule over creation under the guidance and it on iTunes.
