Twenty-one years ago, a parachurch worker tricked me into going with him to tell an unbeliever about Jesus. I was mortified when I figured out what we were doing. But then I saw my friend explain the gospel clearly, and I wanted to know how I could do that too.

I’m better at evangelism than I was in college. But it’s still really hard. And I’d guess it’s hard for you and the members of your Small Group as well.

So, how can we help our groups—and ourselves—grow in giving the gospel to our dying world?

Talk to Each Other

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)

The word “consider” in Greek literally means “consider.” We’re supposed to think about how to help each other love others and do good works.

Consider having a simple discussion about evangelism at Small Group. Ask something like, “How can we help each other evangelize more?”

Your group will come up with ideas. Then you can implement them together! 

Or have each Small Group member write down the gospel in a sentence. Then you can share these with each other. This allows you to encourage each other andgrow in the skill of using our words to express the truth.

Talk to God

Small Groups often pray at the end of their gathering, but what if we prayed first?

“Wait,” you’re thinking, “I thought this was about evangelism?”  It is!  Like we see in the Lord’s Prayer, prayer accomplishes two things:

First, prayer addresses our own hearts with the realities of the gospel (“Our Father,” Matthew 6:9).  Why not begin your group time in prayer thanking God for how he’s saved us?

• You can use a prayer in the Bible (like Ephesians 1:3-14) as something to read together
• Then you could spend a prolonged time giving thanks to God

Doing this will cultivate motivation for evangelism.

Second, prayer asks God to do what only he can do: give people new hearts (“Your kingdom come,” Matthew 6:10).  Part of asking for Christ’s “kingdom to come” is asking for the Holy Spirit to come and give spiritual life to the spiritually dead: making worldly people worshiping people.

Why not have everyone think of 1-5 unbelievers in their lives to pray for?  You could pray for these men and women every gathering. You could also commit to praying for six months (or another period of time) and see how the Lord provides.

Talk to People

“Uh-oh,” you’re thinking; “Here comes the hard part.”  Maybe. But it may be not as hard as you think.

Colossians 4:5-6 says, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

• Paul assumed that the Colossian Christians were regularly around unbelievers. God says that we should think of those times as opportunities. Why not ask your Small Group where they have the most contact with unbelievers?
• Additionally, God said we should grow in joy-giving speech. How about asking the group how we can grow in kind speech—especially with unbelievers?

Finally, how about working together to pick people to invite to church? A number of people are likely to come to church if they are simply invited. That invite might be the tool God uses to bring a lost sheep into God’s Kingdom.