THE FIRST TWENTY SECONDS

How the Layman Evangelist approaches the perfect stranger will determine whether he has an open door or not. The battle for the soul starts in the mind of man. What the Christian witness says and how he says it in the first few seconds of conversation opens the door to an opportunity to share the Gospel or closes it.

As soon as the person begins to approach the individual, Satan is already planting suggestions into the person’s mind. The wording is very important. When I approach a stranger to share the Gospel with him I say instantly and without hesitation:

Hi! My name is Dale. I am out today taking a survey on this book titled What Is Eternal Life? (While holding the booklet out facing them). I wondered if I could take a few minutes of your time and get your honest reaction to it?

You should memorize this introduction word for word and practice it in front of the mirror until you have it down straight.

You would not want to say,

Hi! My name is Dale. I am out today taking a survey on What Is Eternal Life?. . .

This sentence has left out the phrase this book titled. Stated this way it assumes that the person knows what the book is all about. When you approach the person this way, you imply to the person that he should already know what eternal life is. If he supposedly already knows what eternal life is, and he wants you to think that, then his answer will be "No thanks!" Stating this book rather than offending the person’s ego creates curiosity about what the book says about eternal life. Before he realizes what he has gotten himself into, out of curiosity he responds, "Yes!"

In the second sentence, you would not want to say

I wondered if I could take a few minutes of your time and share "What Is Eternal Life?" with you?

This puts the person below you. You are teaching him. Most people’s ego will not respond positively to this. They are thinking, "What makes him think I have a need for him to share what Eternal Life is with me? I am a religious person!" Saying "I wondered if I could take ten minutes of your time and get your reaction to it?" again appeals to the person’s ego. You are not just asking his or her permission to share the booklet with them, but also the person’s intelligent critical reaction positive or negative to the message of the book. This puts the person above you, not below you. They will be more than happy to give you their reaction to your presentation.

If the person says yes, it is he who has given you permission to take a few minutes of their time. His conscience will not let him back out of it no matter how much he may dislike it because it was his decision, not yours. Seldom ever has anyone stopped me once they have committed themselves to hear the presentation.

This approach is important for several different reasons: Jesus respects man’s free will. This type of approach is taking into consideration the free will of man. Therefore if the person says yes, even though he may not like what he has gotten himself into, he knows in his heart it was not forced upon him, that he made a free will decision to give you a few minutes of his time, so he will suffer through it. Even if the person gives a negative response in the end, you will leave him with a good witness because you considered his person and he knows it. This approach will not leave a bad taste in the person’s mouth.

The next thing that is important in your initially approaching a total stranger is how you deliver your opening statement. While teaching Evangelism in Bible College, I had a student who had gone through my Basic Program of Evangelism and was half way through my Advanced Program of Evangelism, but who had not yet even gotten a person to let him give the presentation let alone see a person receive Jesus. Because he was with me much of the time on the field, I knew what his problem was. His problem was his attitude. When he would approach someone about the Gospel, his conversation would go something like this:

Student: A, Hi! A, a. I am taking a survey, a, on a this booklet, a, What Is Eternal Life? You do want to hear what it is about don’t you?

Stranger: No thank You?

What is wrong with this approach? The person is sitting there thinking to himself,

Oh brother! Someone out preaching religion out of a guilt complex. He is obviously doing this out of religious duty because he is being pushed into it, not out of inner conviction or belief, otherwise he would not be so timid. "Forget it Jack. Go away!"

The Bible states in Ecclesiastes 10:4,

"If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because composure allays great offenses."

You see the problem with the above approach is that first, it leaves too much time for the person to think about what to say and for Satan to add his own negative encouragement through thought suggestion. Second, the person does not sound like he really knows what he is talking about or believes in what he is talking about. A bold positive straight forward approach does. If you say it clearly, straight forward, not too fast, but all at once, before the person has a chance to think, out of courtesy he says, "Sure! Go for it." Jesus said in Matthew 10:16,

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves."

Our struggle is not just against the person we are sharing with, but against the Devil himself. It is the devil we are trying to out wit, not the poor unsuspecting mind of the person we are sharing with. Therefore we have to be bold and straight forward and get that commitment of yes before the person has time to think and before Satan has time to throw in his negative thoughts into the person’s mind and the person comes to realize what he is getting himself into and says, "No!"

After coaching my Student, the next time we went out on the field, he approached the person as stated above. The end result was not only did the person listen to his presentation of the Gospel, but he ended up praying with the person to receive Jesus into his heart and this Student got to see a person come to know Jesus personally for the first time through his influence. This Student learned that how he approaches people initially is just as important as the message he has to share.

If you are doing door to door Evangelism in the homes of people you have made previous appointments with, after entering the home visit with them for a few minutes and then ask them if they will allow you to take them through the Community Religious Survey (< pdf file for printing). The Survey is designed to give you information about the person you will be sharing the Gospel with to do the following:

1. First, to give you clear information about what the person’s spiritual hang-ups are to Jesus and the Gospel and the Church.

2. Second, what is hindering them from releasing their faith in the Gospel.

3. Third, what they believe Salvation is centered in so you can know how to personalize your presentation of the Gospel to them in a way that will show them first, what is wrong with their position and why Jesus and Jesus only is the answer to their Salvation and needs.

When you have completed going through the first 9 questions of the survey, if they have given a response of yes to question 9, say and do the following:

This completes the survey. Thank You very much for your honest reaction to the questions. The purpose of the Survey is to help us better understand the spiritual needs of our community so that we can know how to better serve and meet the spiritual needs of our community. For this reason we highly value the answers you have given to us in the Survey.

If they say yes, then take them through the tract What Is Eternal Life?

If, however, they say no to question 9, say the first paragraph above to them and attempt to give them some literature on salvation like my pamphlet, Understanding Your Salvation In Jesus or What the Bible Teaches About God, Man & the Universe or Heaven & Hell An Absolute Reality or The Bible God’s Word Absolutely by saying the following:

Again, thank you for your time. May we give you one of our books free for your time?

If they say yes, then give them one or more of these books. If they say no thank you, then say in response:

Thank you again for your time and response. Have a good day.

Never try to force the Gospel or books on them. Your respecting their wishes will do more to bring them to Christ than any attempt to force the Gospel on them against their will.

If you are going through a neighborhood with no previous planned appointment over the phone, when they answer their door say the following:

Hi! My name is __________. We are in the Neighborhood taking a Community Religious Survey (< pdf file for printing) and we wondered if we could take a few minutes of your time to get your honest reaction to some questions?

If they say "Yes!" take them through the survey. When you complete question 9, follow the same procedures as outlined above.

If they saw "No!" to the survey altogether, thank them anyway and go on.

A while ago I was with a co-worker on the field. Normally, if a co-worker begins to do something which is not Biblically ethical, I will politely interject to save the situation, but in this particular situation, I was sharing an Evangelism Tract myself with someone else while he was sharing with this man. I was able to over hear the conversation that went on and so I would like to share it with you to show you what is wrong with it and to share with you how he could have more properly handled it.

My co-worker was about a fourth of the way through the Evangelism Tract he was using when the teenager’s mother walked up and said they needed to go. The co-worker, we will call Philip, said to the lady, "I just need three more minutes and I will be done!" The mother impatiently walked off. A few minutes later the mother walked up a second time and said to her son,

"We need to go now!" Philip responded a second time, "I just need one more minute." The mother begrudgingly, not wanting to be rude, stepped back and gave Philip the minute. Philip rushed through the prayer, gave the Evangelism Tract to the teenager and they left.

How should Philip have handled this situation? Normally speaking I discourage talking to children because if there are children, then there are parents near by and parents are rightly responsible and protective of any stangers talking to their children. The parent does not know what your intentions are. Our goal is to share the love of Jesus Christ without bringing a reproach against the Gospel. Nothing positive can come out of this kind of situation because of the parents control over the child. Whatever positive intention you might try to have would be destroyed by the parents attitude and authority over the child. So it is best not to try and talk with children. What you should do instead is attempt to share the Gospel with the parents. If they give their permission, while sharing the Gospel with them, the children will hear the Gospel also. Because the parent said yes, the child will believe hearing this message is right. The end result will be that the child hears the Gospel in a positive atmosphere which will in turn encourage the child to also make this decision for Jesus. By winning the parent to Jesus, you indirectly also win the child for Jesus.

In the case of this situation with Philip, the person was a teenager sitting by himself with no evidence of parents being anywhere around. In this case, if the person is a teenager, I see no problem in approaching them to share the Gospel with them, so Philip wasn’t doing anything wrong initially. Even if the parent walked up and showed no annoyance, I would go ahead and finish your presentation because the parent would benefit as well.

If, however, the parent walks up, like in this situation, and shows annoyance and tells the child they need to go, the best thing to do is to let the child go. Hand them the book, thank them for their time and let them go. In doing this, even though you may not have finished explaining what it means to be a Christian and how to become one (the goal of evangelism), you have left a good witness and taste in their mouths by showing politeness and respect for the parent’s authority and wishes over the child. To resist the parent’s authority and wishes over their child would show that you have no respect for the parent’s authority over their child. The end result would be that the parent would scold the child. This could result in the child rejecting what you had to share all together.