Stepping Stones: Practical Conversations on Relationship Evangelism

Hello Living Hope. This is week one of our 4 part series Living Hope Elders on Evangelism. We will kick off the series, hearing primarily from Tim Dance, our founding pastor. First, he explains what makes us an Elder led church. Then he talks about how he sees evangelism impacting his life and his role in leading the church into Jesus' great commission. It's very inspiring and insightful.

Hi Living Hope, this is the trailer for a series that will take the next 4 week. We are having a round table discussion amongst our 5 elders. They will both share their personal heart for evangelism, and discuss how they think evangelism relates to their specific area of ministry. Its a great encouragement to do evangelism AND a great way to get to know your church leadership team better too. Hope you enjoy and are inspired to share Jesus!

We work really hard on SteppingStones to help build trust and relationship with people. Which is good and loving. But it's not enough if we don't ever actually get to share the gospel message. So once you have permission and connection with someone, what do you say? Keith then Brian then Chris each give a concrete way to share the good news. Hope it helps you share the gospel with someone. Please let us know if you do [email protected]

In this episode, Keith shares another evangelism story, this time from the workplace (which for him was a green bean field) He boldly shared the gospel and only saw its impact a year later!

This episode is our first discussion with 5 people, and was a lot of fun! Crystal and Eddie and Mark and Lyndsey tell how signing up for T-ball changed their family and their lives. A great example of living on mission for Christ as a normal part of every day life.

In this episode, I mention 6 benefits I have experienced from doing evangelism. While evangelism is first about bringing Glory to God and loving others, it also benefits us too! In fact, I think God has designed evangelism to bless us as we go on mission, bringing His love to the world. I'd love to know any benefits you have experienced too. Email me [email protected]

This is our final In-Dept episode going back through the 8 stepping stones to evangelism. This one is Perseverance part 2. I would like us to pray and imagine what it would be like if a friend/family member/neighbor or co-worker accepts Jesus and is baptized. It can really help us to persevere, if God gives us faith to believe He will save them.. I discuss Romans 10:9-12 and Acts 2:38-41 so we can consider together, what God might do as we persevere in sharing Jesus with others.

This week is a devotional episode going more in-depth on the 7th stepping stone, Perseverance. Often, even after we share the gospel with someone, they will not understand or even react negatively. Especially with friends, family, neigbors and co-workers, it can take months or even years of faithful witness, before they are saved. That is OK! God is patient with us, and we should be patient with the people we love too. Gal. 6:9-10, 2 Peter 3:9 and 2 Tim 4:2 all show us how to love patiently and wait prayerfully until God brings a harvest!

During worship in December, Mike introduced a new song to us: Sing We the Song of Emmanuel. As he shared the lyrics, he both encouraged us to remember someone shared Jesus with us, and challenged us that now "It's our turn" to tell the world about Jesus. It hit me powerfully when he first shared it and i believe it's a word God wants Living Hope to hear again, and take to heart.