What are the most effective ways to share the gospel? There are many ways to share the gospel! I'm going to go through some of the most used methods tell you what these are good for, what the weaknesses are in them, and how to use them effectively.
Questions method:
This is one of the best methods that I've learned about because it engages your audience encourages them to get more vulnerable and breaks down their own beliefs, so they see that they aren't consistent. How this method work? It's very simple you ask good questions which allows you to stay in the driver seat steering the conversation wherever you see the best path. This is also a great method because you learn what the persons world view is and can then shape the gospel towards the persons questions.
Example: I have not used this method much because it is newer to me, but it is very easy to use in day-to-day conversations. Recently I was getting a haircut and ways talking to the person cutting my hair then a door opened to start talking about our faiths I soon learned she was Jewish, so I started asking her about her beliefs. I steered the conversation to ask her why Jews don't sacrifice anymore she didn't really have an answer. I then asked her how she believed she could go to heaven without sacrificing, because as a Christian I believe that Jesus was the final sacrifice and paid the price for our sins on the cross.
She said that God says in the Old Testament that God says to the Jews he would rather have them obey then sacrifice. She then claimed that she has to do good works, love, and repent to go to heaven. I learned a lot more about the Jewish faith in the conversation and she learned a lot more about the gospel and near the end of it she said something like "God sent you here to talk to me." Just by getting into a simple conversation and seeing a door open to lead to conversation about faith. This conversation didn't lead to her being converted but it did plant a seed and put a rock in her shoe. Most of the time that is dall we are going to do.
For more resources on this topic read the book Tactics by Gregory Koukl.
EE: the five finger gospel presentation
This is one of the oldest methods, but it has shown to work for generations. EE starts out with two questions that engage your audience and get them thinking.
1. Are you at a place in your spiritual life that if you were to die today you know that you'd go to heaven?
2. If you were to die today and stand before God and he was to ask you, why should I let you into heaven what would you say?
The only problem with these questions arises when you ask them to an atheist. I've personally used this method, and it works pretty well on most people except as I said atheist will say they do not believe in God or heaven, so these questions are meaningless and can lead to a dead end. Unless you use questions (like we just went over in the paragraphs before) to ask and see why they are atheist. (This method was originally intended for new Christians or people attending church to see where they were at spiritually.)
The step to EE is the five fingers:
Grace: This is the thumb you can use the illustration of hitchhiking because when you hitchhike you receive free grace from the person picking you up. This is like God's grace it is not earned or deserved. Next bring up Ephesians 2:8-9 "For grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one can boast." We can do nothing to earn God's grace because it is a free gift if you even try to pay a penny for a corvette it is not a gift anymore but a good purchase or a trade.
Man: This is the pointer finger because it points out the sin in man. Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Sin keeps us out from heaven because God is Holy and cannot be next to sin. Have you ever lied, stolen, hated someone with your heart, etc.
God: Our middle finger represents God because our middle finger is the biggest finger and likewise God is the greatest most superior being. Many people have different views on who God is; he is all loving and lets everyone go to heaven, he is horrible and makes us suffer on this earth, he just watches from above and wants us to be good, etc. None of these views are correct God loves us, but he is also just "For by no means will he let the guilty go unpunished (Exodus 34:7)" but God is also love (1 John 4:8).
Christ: The ring finger represents Christ because he is the bridegroom. He loves us like a husband loves his wife. In fact, he loves us so much that he died on the cross so that whoever believes in him can have eternal life (John 3:16). Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of our sins God is paying us with death. But because he loves us so much, he made another way through Jesus.
Faith: Our pinky finger represents faith because it is our smallest finger and with Faith as small as a mustard seed Jesus tells us we can move mountains. With faith this small we can receive eternal life even though we have sinned and we cannot do anything except trust and believe in God to be saved. So, do you have any questions or are you willing to receive this gift?
I love this method because it gets to the point shares the simple gospel gets the audience convicted right away and shares the simple gospel. It also doesn't have very many weak areas where hard questions can be easily raised.
Three Circles Gospel:
The three circles method is newer, and I have not learned to much about it but as of now, I'm on the fence with it. It presents the gospel and you get to interact with the audience by drawing a demonstrative picture.
How does it work? First, you begin with drawing a circle and titling it "God's perfect world" then you explain that their used to be a perfect world before sin entered it and know because of sin (draw an arrow with sin above it to a new circle titled "Brokenness") we are now in Brokenness we do different things to try to get out of brokenness like (draw arrows pointing away from circle) relationships, making money, drugs, alcohol, etc. but all of these are like temporary and don't last long and we find ourselves in brokenness time and time again.
So, because of this Jesus came down to earth (draw an arrow pointing to a new circle titled gospel) lived the perfect life then died on the cross for our sins then rose to heaven so that we can have eternal life. (Now write above the line pointing to the gospel circle repent and believe). All we have to do is repent and believe to get back to the perfect world. (Draw a line pointing back to the perfect world). But before we go to the perfect world God calls out to go out into brokenness and be the light and share the gospel. (Draw a line through the middle from God's perfect world to Brokenness).
I don't like this method as much as some of the others because it does not get the audience convicted it does not do a great job explaining some key principles and leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation and hard questions that can be easily asked. It also does not see where the person is coming from and therefore you cannot shape the message to the person. Here are some examples of the weak areas and how to make it stronger. (We can use some of the other methods strong points to make this method stronger).
When talking about sin the three circles method does not explain what sin is very well in videos that I watch they often say that sin is just turning from God. People often don't get how serious are sin is to God that just one small sin keeps us out of heaven. Most people after telling them what sin is will ask questions or will be confused. So, you can walk them through a couple of the ten commandments. Have you lied? Stolen? Looked with lust? Hated someone in your heart? Have you done anything that is displeasing to God? Then you can go on to say that the wages of sin are death and separation because God is holy and just and cannot be next to sin.
When it comes to the gospel it is important to say why Jesus had to come to atone for our sins. Most people know the story, but they don't know what it means. So just telling them the same story that they have heard and do not know what it means is pointless. Ray Comfort says it the best. You can ask them what did Jesus do for us so that we could get out of brokenness? He died on the cross most will reply. Then Ray often will reply yes but if you get a grip of this it will change your life. You and I have broken God's law, we have sinned, so someone had to pay the fine. It is like a person guilty of speeding fines the judge can legally let you go if someone else pays those fines. Jesus paid our fine on the cross. His last words were "Tetalestai" "It is finished" "Paid in full" he paid our debt in full on the cross so that if we believe in him and repent, we will be forgiven and get back to God's perfect world!
Another thing is some people might not care to get out of brokenness because in the moment sinning is often fun. So simply saying we need to get out of brokenness is not going to do anything for some people. But telling them that brokenness leads to eternal separation from God which is hell instead of heaven will get their attention.
Friendships:
Probably the best way to share the gospel is creating a friendship and leading by example exposing your friend through good works. We can't be perfect on our own, but God can help us get out of sin, so showing the love of Christ to people and developing a strong friendship opens a door to a genuine heartfelt conversation that might lead someone to Christ. People often get this method wrong however they might think by just being nice and loving them is going to make them convert. This is not the case in most scenarios we still have to engage in conversation especially when the door is open.
Testimony:
Sharing your testimony is often powerful. Telling someone your real-life experiences show how God works and how he can change their life to if they put their trust in him. If you are raised Christian like me and don't a "powerful testimony" you still can use your testimony to show how God has worked in you because the best thing is your testimony is not over. A testimony just is how God has worked in your life. People often think of it as right after they accept Christ.
Example: My testimony started when I was very young, I saw the need for Christ in my life so I prayed to God and said that I believed in him and wanted to live like him. (or something like that I was 4 so I don't remember it exactly). Ever since then I've been a Christian it has not always been easy, but God has always been there for me. The times I feel the worse are when I'm not in the word and praying often. My life really changed when I went on a mission trip to Peru after that I started to read my Bible daily pray often and raise money for the mission in Peru. After raising money for Peru for about a year I felt the Holy Spirit put on my heart to stop and start raising money for my compassion kid. So, I started to out of nowhere.
When I was about ready to send the money to him, I got a letter from him. In this letter it said that his dad had just died and his mom was pregnant with their 5th or 6th. I realized why God put it on my heart to start raising money for Arfah. This is one story of how God has used me in my life. After this I continued to raise money for Peru raising over one hundred thousand dollars. This is how God can work! If he can work through a ten-year-old, he can certainly work through you.
A good testimony shows how God is working! It also gets your audience emotional and makes it more powerful than simply saying that Jesus loves you and you need to believe in him. This is one of the strongest methods that is easy to use in any situation.
Ray Comfort Method:
I love Ray Comforts method because it gets the audience convicted but in a loving way it shows how Jesus' death on the cross applies to our lives.
He uses pretty much all of the techniques interwoven together. He uses a question to get started off every time. He grabs their attention and lets them talk then he asks more questions to lead the conversation in a great way. He eventually gets to a point and from here he asks if they think they are good people. Most people reply yes. So, he asks them if they will be honest with him. He then tells them I'm going to walk you through a couple of the ten commandments which is called the moral law.
He asks them if they've lied. Stolen? Have you looked with lust? Are his go to questions. Then he says you have just told me that you're a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart, and we have only looked through three of the ten commandments so are you going to be innocent or guilty on judgement day? Guilty most reply then he asks them what did Jesus do for us guilty sinners so that we would not have to go to hell? Some people know and will say he died on the cross. Then he says yes but if you get a grip of this it will change your life.
You and I have broken the law, but Jesus paid the fine. If you have a stack of speeding fines the judge can legally let you go if someone else pays the fines. The wages of sin is death. God is paying us with death, but he can legally let us go because Jesus took our place on the cross. His last words were "it is finished" Paid in full" meaning are debt has been paid and all we have to do to receive the gift is believe and turn away from our sins.
Then he often asks if they have a Bible if they want a book that he has wrote. This is a remarkable way to share the gospel because you engage the audience by asking good questions you get out the clear gospel and most importantly you show them why they need Jesus. Ray often uses this analogy; There is a very healthy mean he works out and is in good shape, but he goes to the doctor, and the doctor sees that he has bad cancer. Should the doctor give him the cure or show him the X-rays?
If the doctor gives him the cure the patient will not understand why and reject it. But if you show him the X-rays, he will ask what he is supposed to do and be open to your advice. This is the same when sharing the gospel before you share the gospel you have to show the audience the X-rays then present them with a cure. He also uses another analogy; imagine you are in a plane hundreds of feet above the ground. Are you going to jump out trusting in your own ability to save yourself or will you trust a parachute? Today I have just hung you outside the airplane to place the fear in your heart of dying. Don't trust in yourself trust the parachute.
This is a great way to share the gospel for more research on this watch some of Ray Comforts videos I highly encourage you to do so.
Conclusion:
These methods are like tools in a toolbox they are useful some slightly more than others. Take these tools find the ones you see the most useful and comment which ones you see the best. Most importantly is to go and use these! Go! These are not the only methods but the methods that I know the best email us if you know of any other great methods that people can use.