How did you come to know God? When you have tasted the abundant life of God, what does it feel like? When you are living at your best, how does the spiritual dimension of your life feel? What spiritual truths have become deeply meaningful for you? How has spiritual truth begun to change you? Are there any particular conditions that make you more open to those times when find yourself spiritually moved or find new meaning and value in a familiar truth? If you had to express in words the spiritual truth that has made the difference for you, how would you put it? Is it a concept, an image, a teaching, an assurance, a promise, an invitation? If you were sharing your core truth with others would you always say it the same way? Why not? If there are different legitimate approaches in sharing and proclaiming, have you found the living vine that can prevent the branches from dismemberment and doctrinal fighting?
What is the gospel—yes, “good news”—but what is it really, and can we still honestly call it news and good? People speak of “the” gospel, as though it is one in an obvious sense and as though everyone should have the same understanding of it—but is that right? Would Jesus impose intellectual uniformity as the gateway to spiritual unity?
If scholars agree that the traditional, Christ-centered gospel launched by Peter and Paul was not the gospel of the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed, what are the differences? What are the great truths in each? Will not the truths of Christ-centered proclamation continue to bless people for countless generations to come? Can the rediscovered gospel of Jesus go places the traditional gospel cannot go and do things the traditional gospel cannot do? If not everything Jesus said was his gospel—the core, the leading edge of what he proclaimed to his generation—then what is Jesus’ gospel?
What was Jesus’ concept of the kingdom? If the kingdom God has already come and is yet to come, if it is within and yet something you can join, can we formulate it once and for all in a single phrase? How much of its many-sided truth have you realized? Is this eternal truth? Was it truth expressed to address the spiritual needs of Jesus’ time and place? What spiritual difficulties do we face today? Could the Spirit of Truth be addressing our generation with a fresh expression of the gospel? How might the changes occurring in our world suggest a need to re-think evangelism? What has been the evangelism of the past? What good has it done? What changes might help launch the spiritual renaissance our world needs?
What are your ways of responding to someone else’s spiritual need? How do you reflect your faith at home or at work? Can you recall in any detail a time when have you reached out and touched someone spiritually? What was the situation? What did you say? Have you ever been aware of being thanked for what you did? Do persons ever come to you with spiritual questions? If some of your attempts to reach out have been frustrated, what lessons have you taken away from those times? What are the persons like that you meet from day to day? Do you ever pray for another person’s spiritual need? Do you ever pray for wisdom to share truth with a particular person? Do you ever pray with rejoicing for an opportunity to share truth? Do you ever hold together in your mind an image of someone together with the truth that would refresh them? Do you ever do something quietly for someone as an expression of spiritual truth?
When you have time to do something for someone else, what sort(s) of thing do you like to do? Do you usually feel good afterward? Do you worry about doing it in order to feel good, or do you accept the good feeling as God’s response, strengthening your soul? When you do something for someone else, do you sometimes say something along with the action? Do you find that silence can be golden? Can a gracious word be golden, too? If your life were going to proclaim something, what would you like it to be?
Is the way you say something more important than what you say? How do you get to that place where the way you say something expresses the best in your soul?
Do you have to know the Bible well, believe lots of doctrines, and have answers to lots of religious questions in order to share the abundant life of God? Can there be mustard seed evangelism as well as mustard seed faith? How transformed to you have to wait to be before starting to share what has saved you?
How much does the world need the truth that you have begun to know? What is your level of commitment to evangelism?
Why is evangelism so scary? Is evangelism really as tactless, offensive, dogmatic, and presumptuous as people say? If we assume that any mention of God will be taken as offensive, how will that attitude affect us? What alternate attitude could we generate? Have you ever wanted to say something to someone else that you thought might be unwelcome, prepared yourself to communicate graciously, and actually had a lovely experience interacting? Have you ever spent an hour at a social gathering with the purpose of facilitating the conversation shifting gently into spiritual things? How can we avoid coming on too strong?
Have you ever seen evangelism with a quality you could approve of and feel good about doing yourself? Has anyone ever reached out to you and blessed you with truth, explicit and/or implied? Why are non-fundamentalists so quiet about their faith? Does the quiet augur well for religion in our society? Is our problem with evangelism a matter of not being adequately in touch with the spiritual truth that is gradually transforming us? Of not knowing any gracious and acceptable methods? Of lacking the supreme desire?
Have you ever known the experience of helping someone find God? Is that something you’d like to do (more of) in this life? What achievements have you attained through wholehearted and sustained commitment? What would you like to attain spiritually in this life? Could the spiritual treasure that has been given to us be worth devoting ourselves totally? Is there really a pearl or a treasure hidden in a field?
Why did Jesus train people as evangelists? Why did he ask others to proclaim the good news? Does he in fact want every believer to do this? What in the world is he actually expecting us to do? Why is there so much rejoicing in heaven when someone turns and gets reconnected in the family of God? Can spiritual truth really bring life to someone? Is it conceivable that offering gospel truth to someone could amount to an offer of the great chance for eternal life? Do we care enough about those persons living in darkness to get engaged in this mission? Is there a person that God may need you to help? Can you move from recognition of need to desire to help?
Have you any idea how much God loves you? What, if anything, keeps you from letting his love in? Do you know how many people love you and believe in you? Do you accept Jesus’ word about the rejoicing in heaven when one person turns and says yes? Have we any idea the glories of destiny that lie ahead?