Well, there are multiple ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ. You can open air preach to an audience, or you can just walk up to a stranger on the street with a tract and hope for a brief conversation. Or you can invest in someone's life as a friend first, eventually leading them then to the gospel.

One approach does not preclude the others. So what do different forms of evangelism look like in the life of Pastor John himself? At the recent Cross Conference, Pastor John fielded audience questions, and I wanted to share two of them with you today. The first is from a young woman named Christy at the microphone.

Here she is. I'm curious how, whenever you're not in settings like this, how you share the gospel with people? Like if you have five minutes or less, somebody you're checking out at Walmart or whatever, to tell someone about Christ. What do you tell them? Well, let's just use real examples.

I'm in Minnesota, so I only do this about eight months out of the year. I call it jogging evangelism. So I'm a jogger, and I mean really slow, like 13 minute miles, okay? And I jog through my neighborhood. It's a very poor neighborhood, and I know where everything is.

I know where the homeless people are. I know where the people are under the bridge. I know where they're getting up at 6 a.m. in the morning, and I just start running, and I'm praying, "God, show me somebody to do that." Five minutes, two minutes, whatever. And they're easy.

I mean, most poor people are easy to talk to, right? It's rich people that think you're a jerk and get out of my life. And I basically start by saying, "Hi, I'm John. I live in the neighborhood. I used to say I'm a pastor," and that helped, usually. And I say, I jog and I pray for people.

How can I pray for you? Real standard opening. They'll say, "Oh, I prayed for my girlfriend. She just left. You know, she ditched me last night," or, you know, "I'm praying for," whatever. You know, they pray. I say, "Okay, I will do that. Now may I tell you the best news in the world?" I just ask permission.

"Can I tell you the best news in the world?" As I say, "Do you know the best news in the world?" And they say, "No, what do you?" And then I just say, "The best news in the world is that God made you for His glory. You and I don't love His glory.

We should, right? Do you love His glory? No, I don't. Okay, you're guilty. I'm guilty before God. And God in mercy is willing to send Jesus His Son to die in our place so that His anger and wrath just doesn't have to fall on us. And if we will abandon our sin and trust in Him, He will forgive all our sins and bring us into His fellowship." I mean, that's the gospel.

It's the 1 Corinthians 15, 3 gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And then we see where we go from there. That may be the end of it. If they look the least bit interested to talk, the more we go, but that's... What I just gave you up there is the gospel.

Those four things. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Several minutes later came then a question about campus evangelism and weighing the balance between impromptu tract evangelism on campus versus investing in friendship evangelism. Which is a better opportunity for success? Here's how Pastor John responded to that question. I don't know of any formula that can define or decide for you when you will take an urgent opportunity to share the gospel quickly and fully with a person versus cultivating a longer term relationship.

I don't know a formula. Both are needed. And I think what we need to do is check our hearts. Is the reason I am cultivating, say, a half a dozen relationships in my dorm in the hopes that I will have more credibility and lead them to Jesus. Is the reason I'm doing that instead of in my first three conversations going to the gospel because I'm afraid?

And if it's fear, we need to change our strategy. Frankly, from my experience over the last 20 or 30 years, friendship evangelism, which is a beautiful thing, has, I think, discouraged people from doing what I do in jogging evangelism. And here's the problem. This is my experience anyway. If you move into a neighborhood, say, and you've got neighbors on each side and you meet them, and you're just going to say, "I'm going to form a relationship and within a few months maybe the gospel will come up." And when it comes up in six months and they hear how urgent it is, they look at you funny and say, "Why did you wait to tell me about this?" In other words, the gospel itself carries in it the natural impulse to be urgent.

So I would just encourage you, pray earnestly for discernment as to whether or not in this moment within the second or third conversation you have with a new friend, you say something like, "Can we do lunch together and share each other's philosophy of life? You tell me what makes you tick, I'll tell you what makes me tick.

Just ask for permission." And one other thing, I think we err, I have erred in not pressing through to tell somebody, "I really want you to believe." We share the gospel de facto. We tell them the facts, we offer it to them, and then we stop instead of looking them in the eye and say, "I love you.

I would like to spend eternity with you. I want you to be a sister. I want you to be a brother of mine. Would you?" And that would even give you tears at that moment. Very few people ever meet a Christian who talks that way to them. That's moving, the personal plea approach to friendship evangelism.

That was Pastor John at the Cross Conference earlier in the month, fielding audience questions. Well, Pastor John has been on the move in January, the Cross Conference in Louisville, the G3 Conference in Atlanta, the BCS Pastors Conference, which concluded earlier this week. It's been a full January, but we get him back in the studio late next week to record new episodes and I will get them to you as soon as possible.

Until then, we may have some guest episodes, we may not. I'm walking by faith and not by sight during these first three months of 2019 with Pastor John's available time. Not sure how the schedule will pan out, but do be looking for new episodes from Pastor John sometime around February 11th, I'd say.

I am your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast with longtime author and pastor, John Piper. We'll see you again shortly. 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6