| Greetings!
Welcome to Summer! The weather is heating up, beaches are calling, the Olympics will be starting in a few days, and salvation is available to all who call on the name of the Lord. This could be a great summer, and here are four ideas to help!
1. Find out how you can Win a Resource that God might use to move a friend or loved one toward Christ. 2. Discover what we think is the BIG word in evangelism in our Confidence Builder section.
3. Consider which of our Ministry Partners could assist you or your church with the spread of the Good News!
4. Have fun!
Oh, and here's an extra one. Contact us if you have questions about evangelism...it would be our privilege to help!
Sincerely,
Scott McIntyre
Share the Savior:
Someone You Love Needs Him |
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'IF' - A BIG Word in Evangelism
You start sharing a passage from the Bible with a friend, and all of a sudden, you're in an argument. They won't believe what you think the passage so clearly teaches, and you're both on the verge of calling each other idiots.
What if there was a simple way to defuse these arguments before they start? If such a method existed would you want to learn about it?
If your answer is yes, don't stop reading.
The 'IF' Strategy
The #1 principal of this strategy is: Always keep your 'if' ready.
The moment your friend adopts an argumentative stance on any passage or biblical issue, take a firm but gentle grasp of your 'if' and turn their position around like this...
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When they don't believe the Bible is reliable say, "If the Bible is reliable regarding this issue, what does that mean to us?"
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When they won't apply the Bible to themselves say, "If this passage is true, how would that affect you and I?"
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When they refuse to accept the Bible's authority, say, "If the Bible really is God's authoritative disclosure to man, how should we respond to it?"
The second principal is like the first: If at first you don't succeed, use your 'if' again.
People confronted with the 'IF' strategy may not want to give you the obvious answer to your question. To do so, would be to intellectually assent to the potential truth of your position. Instead they'll likely repeat their first argument hoping that will clinch a victory for their side.
Friend: "Look, I already said that I don't think the Bible is reliable, so your iffy question doesn't matter."
Principal #2: Acknowledge as much of their statement as possible, and then apply your 'if' again.
You: "I know you don't trust the Bible, and I respect your opinion, and the right to hold it. Believe it or not, I'm not trying to change your mind, I just want to be sure I've communicated clearly what I believe. So, if, and I know this is a big IF, the Bible was reliable about this issue, what would that mean to us?"
By approaching the truth of the Bible this way, there's much less chance of raised voices, especially on your side, and a greater likelihood that your friend will assent to your position. After all, you're only saying, what if!
And if that isn't a good enough reason to utilize the 'IF' strategy, here one from the Bible...
Don't Miss Our Next Issue - We'll share Principal #3, and answer a surprising question. . . Who and what will take over further discussion with your friend? |
| Training Tools |
Real Life Solutions
In every day life, problems come up when we try and communicate our faith to those we love. Often, the 'solutions' from books we've read or sermons we've heard don't' seem to help; sometimes they don't even fit. What's a Christian to do?
We think asking a present day question might be a good idea. So we encourage you to write us and tell us what's not working right now. For our part, we'll seek God's wisdom, provide you with a suggestion or two, and perhaps use your question as an article in this section in an upcoming issue of the Eleven Twelve Project.
Together, with the Lord, let's look for solutions to those real life, evangelism problems. After all, we all want to share the Savior, and someone we love, needs Him!
Coming Next Issue: Our third installment of How to Witness to a Pagan. |
| Equipping Events |
November 5-7, 2008 - San Diego, CA
The National Outreach Convention is billed as the single largest gathering of church leaders, and resource providers for the sole purpose of outreach.
With 50 workshops, 120 exhibitors, and 2,000 church leaders attending, this could be the convention God uses to change the evangelistic direction of your life or your church.
Keynote Speakers include David Anderson, Erwin McManus, and Francis Chan. Information about registration and pricing are available online.
For information about other upcoming conferences, visit the Events page of Share the Savior. |
| Ministry Partner of the Month |
Partners in Review
It's summer...the traditional time for ministries to take some time off, but not in our section on Ministry Partners.
Instead of highlighting one of our Ministry Partners in this space, like normal, we're listing all of them. We encourage you to visit their websites, read more about them, and consider how they could assist you or your church in the work of evangelism.
- Church Sports International - Utilizes sports to empower churches to carry out the God-given tasks of worship, evangelization, and edification of the body of Christ
- Forgiveness Ministries - Helps people practice biblical forgiveness, making them better able to reach others with Christ's love.
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International Students, Inc. - Uses friendship to help meet the needs of international students in our culture, including introducing those interested to the gospel.
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OnMission.com - Provides articles (online and in print) to help you share Christ with those you love.
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Stand for Truth Ministries - Equips believers to stand for the truth of the historic Christian faith, grow more intimate in their relationship with God, and lovingly and biblically engage the culture for Christ. |
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Our next issue will mark the first anniversary of the Eleven Twelve Project. We can't wait to get started on it, and hope you feel the same about reading it.
Until then, may God continue to bring about in you, a deeper love for Him, and for your friends who are far from salvation.
Sincerely,
Scott McIntyre
Share the Savior | |
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Christians can be critical, insensitive, religious know-it-alls (such as Mr. O.B. Noxious above), or they can be like an information booth at a spiritual rest stop, on life's faith highway.
Which one works best for evangelism? |
| Help Sustain
Share the Savior |
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Go Shopping...Please!
If you buy one thing online this year, there's a good chance we could get a donation, and it won't cost you a dime!
Go to GoodShop, verify that Share the Savior is entered as the charity you want to support, then shop at more than 500 great stores. A portion of your purchase price will go to us.
Helping Share the Savior just became about as simple as clicking on a link. |
| To find out more about sustaining the work of Share the Savior, click here and visit our Support page. |
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In our last issue, we offered a free evangelism resources to readers who could tell us how the word 'if' might be useful in evangelistic discussions. None of those ideas made it to our desk, so the gifts went unclaimed. This issue we'll try and guarantee a give away, or maybe two!
The fifth subscriber to view the newsletter will receive a free resource to help with their evangelism efforts...that should guarantee a winner.
The first person that sends the newsletter (using the 'Forward email' link at the bottom) to someone they think might be interested in receiving it, will get two free resources...one for them, and one for their friend who received the forwarded newsletter.
Giving away evangelism tools is fun. The fact they could be used by God to draw someone to Christ, is ministry! Help us make it happen! |
To visit the Archives, where you can browse all previous issues of the Eleven Twelve Project, click here.
New issues are published approximately every six weeks, and will be added to the archives shortly afterwards. | |
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