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Read the gospels straight through, and Jesus's conversations don't look much like the evangelism most of us were trained to do. He didn't use a script or an opener about where you'd spend eternity if you died tonight. So did Jesus evangelize at all? John Hopper, Mary Jo Sharp, and Blaine Larsen work through what Jesus actually did with the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, Matthew, and the rich young ruler who walked away without saying yes. What emerges is a pattern any Christian can follow: personal, question-driven, and built around the person in front of you instead of the presentation in your head.

Search Ministries has been doing relational evangelism in the United States for almost 50 years. Everything we've learned is available to you in the Reach Video Series at https://reachothers.org

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If God already knows who will be saved, why does sharing Jesus matter? It's one of the oldest tensions believers run into, and it sits underneath questions about God's sovereignty, free will, and what the Great Commission actually asks of ordinary people. Some resolve it by deciding God has it handled. Others resolve it by carrying the weight of every conversation they didn't have. Blaine Larsen, John Hopper, and Mary Jo Sharp work through why both of those break down, what Romans 10 says about how the gospel actually travels, and what it looks like to share Jesus without knowing how any of it works behind the scenes.

Hosted by John Hopper, Mary Jo Sharp, and Blaine Larsen. The Reach Podcast is produced by Search Ministries, which has been doing relational evangelism for almost 50 years.

Have a question about sharing your faith? Submit it at https://reachothers.org/podcast

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Have a question about sharing your faith? Submit it at https://reachothers.org/podcast

Most of us could pick the gospel out of a lineup, but when we say it out loud, we often feel stuck. In this episode, John Hopper walks through four ideas to help you in gospel conversations: what God is like, what we're like, what Jesus has done, and how a person responds. It isn't a script or a diagram to memorize, and it doesn't have to happen in one sitting. 

Hosted by John Hopper, Mary Jo Sharp, and Blaine Larsen. The Reach Podcast is produced by Search Ministries, which has been doing relational evangelism for almost 50 years.

Want to get better at these four? The Reach Video Series walks you through them: https://reachothers.org

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Have a question about sharing your faith? Submit it at https://reachothers.org/podcast 

A listener’s brother walked away from faith over one thing: he can’t reconcile a good God with the suffering he sees. In this episode, John, Mary Jo, and Blaine unpack why our instinct to answer with an argument is usually the wrong first move, and what to do instead. They dig into the difference between the intellectual question and the emotional one, why getting them mixed up shuts a conversation down, and what it looks like to be present with someone who is hurting before you ever get to the answers.

Want to grow in sharing your faith? Check out the Reach Video Series at https://reachothers.org

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Have a question about sharing your faith? Submit it at https://reachothers.org/podcast 

A listener's friend told her the Bible is full of myths, and all she could say back was "no, it isn't." In this episode, John, Mary Jo, and Blaine walk through a better response, starting with a question that puts the claim back on the skeptic. Then they get specific: a tunnel carved through solid rock under Jerusalem that John has personally walked through, a six-sided clay prism where an Assyrian king brags about trapping Hezekiah "like a bird in a cage," and a list of facts about Jesus recorded by ancient writers who were openly hostile to Christianity. The evidence for the Bible's historical reliability is more concrete than most believers realize, and this conversation gives you the pieces to use it.

Want to grow in sharing your faith through everyday relationships? Check out the free Reach Video Series at https://reachothers.org

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We all know someone who isn't hostile to Jesus, but they're just not in a hurry. They'll get around to it. Maybe someday. In this episode, John, Mary Jo, and Blaine talk about what's actually going on underneath that mindset: the quiet belief that following Jesus would be less satisfying than just living life on their own terms, and the assumption that there's plenty of time to deal with eternity later. They get into how to share what Jesus has genuinely done in your own life, why your behavior is often the thing that wins people over, and what scripture says to people who think they're in control of the timeline.

Submit a listener question at reachothers.org/podcast

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Have a question about sharing your faith? Submit it at https://reachothers.org/podcast and we may answer it on a future episode. 

What do you do when a friend starts deconstructing their faith and stepping away from church? Can you still talk to them about Jesus? In this episode, Mary Jo shares her own deconstruction story, including the moment at a church door that set it all in motion. John, Blaine, and Mary Jo walk through how to stay in the conversation with someone who's questioning everything. It's less about having the right answers and more about being the right kind of friend.

Want to grow in sharing your faith? Check out the Reach Video Series at https://reachothers.org

Support the show

Have a question about sharing Jesus? Submit it at reachothers.org/podcast, and we might answer it on the show.

Someone tells you heaven sounds boring, and you're not sure how to respond. It's a moment many believers have faced, and the answer runs deeper than you might expect.

John Hopper, Mary Jo Sharp, and Blaine Larsen unpack why the cloud-and-harp version of heaven most people picture isn't the full story, what the Bible actually describes, and why what you believe about heaven shapes how you share your faith. 

Ready to go deeper? Start the free Reach Video Series at reachothers.org

Support the show

Have a question about sharing your faith? Please submit it at reachothers.org/podcast and we may answer it on the show. 

You want to share Jesus with someone you care about. But you've seen what it looks like when someone comes on too strong, and you don't want to be that person. So you wait. And the conversation never happens. In this episode, Blaine Larsen, Mary Jo Sharp, and Dr. John Hopper talk through what it actually means to be too pushy, why evangelism is a process and not a one-time event, and what a natural gospel conversation actually looks like in real life. 

Ready to go deeper? Start the free Reach Video Series at reachothers.org.

Support the show

Have a question about sharing your faith? Submit it at https://reachothers.org/podcast and we might answer it on the show. 

Someone you love might die without ever hearing the gospel from you. Or maybe they already did. Either way, the guilt is the same. Was that on me?

In this episode, Blaine Larsen, Mary Jo Sharp, and Dr. John Hopper unpack one of Search Ministries' core principles: God is responsible for the results. Saving people is his job, not yours. But that doesn't mean you have no role. It means the weight you've been carrying was never meant to be yours in the first place. 

Ready to go deeper? Start the free Reach Video Series at https://reachothers.org.

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