Giving an evangelistic talk

We are all called to evangelism, in lots of ways - not just speaking from the front!

When speaking, it is not our power but God's, working through our weakness. You can do it with His help!

One principal to think about is: What does the person I'm serving need? We need to have God as our priority and those we are serving secondary to that.

What evangelism is

As Christians we have the idea of "Good News". There are many ways to articulate what the Good News is: forgiveness, restoration, rescued, relieved, saved, healed, given meaning, given peace, invited into a relationship, loved, known, empowered. Writing a talk that shares the gospel is knowing there are many ways to articulate it. You need to know which of the ways is best for your audience.

Acts 17:16-34 Paul is talking to the big thinkers of the city. He talks about the character of God and repenting and being saved from judgement. He first addressed the need that they do not know God.

Acts 13:16+ Paul was talking to Jews and Gentiles. He talks a lot about Jewish history to explain to them how Jesus is the Messiah.

Engage with your audience. Find out what matters the most for them. Find out what they are seeking.

A blueprint for talks

Identify

Capture your audience. Tell them you know them and understand them. Ask what they care about, what they are proud about, what they think about particular issues. What do they resonate with. Reflect back to them the views that they have.

Persuade/Fulfill

Show them what they seek isn't what they need. Give examples of the problem, and show them how Jesus fulfills that problem. Don't hold back on using scriptures to show this - stories that Jesus told are good for this.

Invite

This is to say given this information, here is the best way to respond. This doesn't always have to be a call to repentance. Give them easy ways to respond and explore more. A multi-tiered response is good - identify 3 different ways people might respond and give each of them something they can do.

Making points within a talk can use the classic State, Explain, Illustrate (can be reordered)