Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who doesn’t know Jesus and felt that familiar tension build inside you, the pressure to say the right thing, a sense of insecurity creeping in? You’re wanting to be bold in how you share your faith; you’re just waiting for the other person to pause so you can finally share what you believe.
You’re wanting to be bold in how you share your faith.
Or perhaps someone asks a question about faith or shows even the smallest bit of openness to a gospel conversation, and you get so excited that you end up over-talking. Before you know it, you’re giving a full three-point sermon, covering every aspect of the gospel you can think of, and gearing up to lead a salvation prayer at the end.
But when you finally stop, the person doesn’t respond with the enthusiasm you hoped for. Instead, they just look back at you with slightly glazed eyes, and the conversation fizzles out.
I’ve been there, and I imagine you have too. Those moments when we may have said true things, but not necessarily the right things for that moment. The words the person really needed to hear. The answer to the deeper question they were actually asking. And the truth is, when I look back on the moments where I suspect this is what I’ve done, there’s no way to know what was really going on, because I didn’t ask any questions to find out.
Jesus... asked a lot of questions
One of the things that I find so interesting about Jesus is that he asked a lot of questions. The Creator and Ruler of All asks about 300 questions in the Gospels. For someone who knew everything about everything, and everything about everyone, that’s a lot of questions.
In Luke 10, when Jesus is asked by a lawyer, “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asks him: “What’s written in the law?” and “How do you read it?”
The man replies and then asks who his neighbor is. Again, instead of giving a direct answer, Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan. He ends with another question: Who was the neighbor in this story?
One of our best evangelistic tools is asking good questions.
The lawyer goes away having learnt something about God’s heart for people and the kingdom of God. The questions he asks are in themselves telling. Jesus takes the lawyer on a journey rather than just giving a simple answer to his first question. Maybe one of our best evangelistic tools is asking good questions and taking the time to listen.
I remember one time I was getting my nails done, and the lady doing my nails asked me if I believed in karma. Instead of answering her question with a quick no, I asked her what she meant by karma—not because I don’t know what karma is, but because I wanted to hear why she was asking me. Shutting down the conversation with a curt "no" probably wouldn’t have led to anything. But getting her chatting about her beliefs meant that she ended up articulating that she was uncertain about whether she had done enough good in her life.
I was able to share the gospel with her in a really natural way.
After I had asked her lots of questions, she ended up asking me whether I knew with certainty that I was going to heaven. I was able to share the gospel with her in a really natural way, because it was the correct and right answer to the question she was asking: “How can you be sure you’ve done enough good stuff in life?”
This doesn’t happen every time we ask good questions, but what definitely does happen is that the person goes away feeling listened to, cared for and valued. And that in itself might open up future opportunities for gospel conversations.
Asking questions doesn’t always come naturally to us, so that’s why the Being Human team created a resource to help. These conversation cards open up deep conversations about life and faith. You can watch them being used by the Being Human team out and about in Kings Cross, London—it is amazing how open strangers are to talking about deeper things and the opportunities that these cards open up for faith conversations.
You can get yourself a pack now. We pray they’re a helpful resource for better conversations with those who don’t yet know Jesus—and those who do.
Originally published by Being Human. Republished with permission.
Katherine Brown joined the Evangelical Alliance UK in 2023 to be part of the Being Human team. Before this, she worked in student ministry, equipping students to share their faith with their friends. Katherine became a Christian while at drama school and she’s passionate about evangelism, storytelling and seeing young adults thrive in Church!
The Evangelical Alliance in the United Kingdom is made up of hundreds of organisations, thousands of churches and tens of thousands of individuals, joined together for the sake of the gospel. Representing our members since 1846, the Evangelical Alliance is the oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK. United in mission and voice, we exist to serve and strengthen the work of the church in our communities and throughout society. Highlighting the significant opportunities and challenges facing the church today, we work together to resource Christians so that they are able to act upon their faith in Jesus, to speak up for the gospel, justice and freedom in their areas of influence.
