Effective evangelization doesn’t come without practice. I’ve been privileged to be part of God’s work evangelizing some of my friends and family members, bringing them either to Christ or back home to the faith. My husband is one of those individuals.
Effective Evangelization Mistakes
The miracle with my husband’s conversion isn’t that it took 18 years to happen. It’s that it happened at all.
Given the sheer number of mistakes and errors I made, the poor example I set, it’s a miracle that God could still intervene and open my husband’s eyes and heart to the faith. I offer these five tips based on what I learned from my humble efforts.
1. Let the Lord Lead the Way
“And began to proclaim: When you shall see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the race of Levi carrying it, rise you up also, and follow them as they go before:” – Joshua 3:3
It’s important to remember that your success is not going to come through hustling hard, being a genius, or being a really, really good person. You can be all of those things and fail.
This work does not depend on you. It depends on Him. Let Him lead the way. Let Him direct your steps and clear your path.
Allow God to leverage what your instincts tell you to hide: your faults, your failings, your weaknesses, and your mistakes to His strategic advantage. It’s hard, but it’s necessary to humble yourself and allow all the parts of your past to be used.
2. Keep Your Ego Out of This
It’s not about how good or how worthy you are, but about how Great and Worthy God is. The moment that you allow your ego to take over, you will end up tripping over your own feet. Love flees in the face of ego, and love is what is needed most for this work to be done.
3. Lean on Your Story
The story of how God worked in your life to conquer the giants you couldn’t will do the heavy lifting in the conversion process. You don’t need to be an expert or have all the knowledge. All you need to know is your own story and what God has done and continues to do in your life.
4. Become Comfortable with Your Imperfections
Don’t think you need to wait until you’ve got everything together. Don’t think you can only do this work when your life is where you want it to be. Don’t think you need to be perfect to do this work.
You’re never going to have it all together. Your life is never going to be exactly where you want it to be. You’re not God, so you’re also never going to be perfect.
God needs your honesty and your humanity, not your perfection. He doesn’t need your life to have everything together. He needs your mess. He doesn’t need you to be perfect. He will perfect you.
5. Be Patient, Be Obedient, and Wait on God’s Timing
The first conversion that must take place before He can help you convert someone is your own. God will take the prayers you’re offering on their behalf and use them to refine you into the person you must become to lead those you pray for to Christ.
The more obedient you can be to the Lord while you’re waiting, the quicker God can work through you to answer the prayers you’re offering. But ultimately, the timing belongs to God. He alone knows when the other person is going to be ready to open up to receive Him.
At one point, while waiting on my husband’s conversion, I asked God why He takes so long. His response? “Because what I build, I build for eternity. If I built it at the speed you want it built, it would not last.”
Learn Effective Evangelization Strategies with Turning Problems into Prophets
If you’d like more detailed strategies, we offer a free course, Turning Problems into Prophets, to help you get the steps you need to share your story and turn the problems in your life into tools for effective evangelization.
