Coaching for Evangelism

[Jon Van Bruggen]

Here's a great article by friend and colleague Tom Clegg discussing the intersection of coaching and evangelism (article runs from pages 64-67). I wonder how many more of our friends, neighbors, and co-workers would be following Jesus today if we took Tom's approach of "asking" curious questions rather than sticking with our traditional approach of "telling" people about Jesus?

[Jon Van Bruggen]

@Chris. Great insights Chris and thanks for sharing those questions. I agree with you that approaching a conversation with an agenda is never helpful and can sometimes be harmful to a person's journey toward joining in the Kingdom way of life (not to mention the friendship!). One thing I've done with friends who are not followers is to preface any "spiritual" conversation we plan to have by agreeing with them that regardless of what we share with one another we will still be friends at the end of the conversation. This seems to go a long ways toward us being "equals," as you would say.

I'm curious, after having several spiritual conversations with a person, how do you discern when it's appropriate to ask what's preventing them from more fully believing in and following Jesus? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Peace!

[Chris Walker]

Connecting with strangers in conversation is an artful form of interrupting their day.

Whatever questions are used, they need to be appropriate, and not agenda driven. In other words, leading questions are just manipulative and non-genuine in my thinking. Agenda driven questions try to steer the conversation to my need or where I want the conversation to go.

That being said, questions open the doors to powerful and deep, and unique conversations. To ask questions without a pre-determined agenda lets the conversation go where it may and the two participants are equal.

A question I like to use when appropriate is

What do you do to take care of your soul?
How is [xyz action] working for you?
How does [their point A] and [their point B] connect?

In all this, I am listening for their spiritual thirst, their spiritual restlessness. I'll ask an appropriate question to help learn more about it.

Chris Walker
EvangelismCoach.org

[Jon Van Bruggen]

@James. I agree. As followers of Jesus we need to learn the art of asking those powerful questions that get at the hearts of the people we encounter on a daily basis. We don't do this in order to convert them to any religion, rather we ask these questions to put them in touch with the God who created them and gifted them with passions and skills, essentially to get the conversation going between them and God if even for the very first time. Compiling a list would be a good start but the power comes with knowing when to ask a question and what question to ask. This isn't as much of a science as it is an art.

Perhaps we can start a post allowing people to respond with the questions that have most impacted their lives.

[James Nored]

Hi Jon. Thanks for sharing this article. I am seeking to improve in engaging people in spriitual conversations, and this article has some suggestions for this. It would be great to compile a larger list of meaningful, spiritual questions that we could ask people.

I also am interested in finding ways to connect with strangers in conversations. Any suggestions?