US Mission Network

Start the Conversation

 

Okay, so you’ve been praying. God has placed people on your heart who need to hear the gospel. Now how do you start that conversation?

Spend time exploring their stories and experiences. The first step is to start listening and asking good questions.  As you build trust, your friends will become more open to sharing their struggles, their doubts, and the things they believe, or don’t believe, about God.

How well do we listen?

Being a good listener is one of the key qualities of a good friend. If you have experienced this, you know how incredibly powerful it is to experience being listened to and understood by a friend.

You can practice and improve in that kind of listening by remembering to:

  • Focus
    Give them your undivided attention. 
  • Invite
    Invite them to share more. Say something like, “Tell me more about …” That gives both of you a chance to understand more about their experience.
  • Ask
    Ask permission to go beyond. When something makes you curious, start with “Can I ask you about …?” This shows your respect for their courage and being vulnerable with you.
  • Connect
    Connect your story to their story. As you listen deeply, you can begin to feel connected to your friends’ stories through your own past experiences and emotions. Now is the time to start building that bridge. “I can relate to that …” is a great lead in.

Challenge: Ask one of your friends a “SomeTime …” question.
You can ask or say:

“Sometime I would enjoy hearing about your spiritual journey...would you be up for that?”

You are setting up a future meeting with them to have an authentic, meaningful conversation.

 

Continue to STEP 3

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