SHARING YOUR FAITH WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Friendship is one of the most precious gifts that life has to offer. People develop friendships at school, in their neighborhoods, within their careers and at sporting events. Church people usually have friends who do not go to church. Sharing faith can be a risk for any friendship, especially if that friendship is based upon events and circumstances outside of church world.
Here is a step by step process to help you share your faith with your close friends
A: Focus them in prayer.
If you were inviting your friend over for dinner or to watch a football match, you would make plenty of preparations to ensure that your house was tidy, your fridge was full of food, and there were plenty of refreshments. You would take time to get ready for your friend’s visit.
Sharing your faith with your friends cannot be done haphazardly or on the spur of the moment. Take time to bring them to God in prayer. This may take days, weeks, or even months. Focus on them and ask God to provide a special opportunity to share your faith with your friend. Without the proper prayer preparation, you’ll either miss the right time or jump in too soon. To respect both God and your friend, take time to pray.
B. Recognize the Right Time.
‘Kairos’ is the Greek word that is used in the New Testament to describe the appointed time. It’s a God-given moment that is full of opportunity and blessings. If you are sincere about wishing to honestly share faith with your friend and have taken time to pray, you will recognize when the right moment comes along.
Sharing faith is not like sharing a beer or passing the bread rolls at the table. It requires an appropriate setting or a relevant event. If you try to artificially begin a conversation about faith your friend (who knows you all too well) will see it as a set up. Waiting for the right moment is better than grasping the opportunity all too soon, or even losing a good friendship.
C. Invite them to Church
Once you’ve had that deep conversation about faith, life, and meaning, then invite your friend to church. Christians get involved in discussions with friends and others about the realities of religion and the meaning of faith, but sometimes forget or avoid asking the other person to come to church. If our faith is so important to us and Christ is at the center of our lives, then why wouldn’t we show that faith by asking our friends to join us? We’ll ask them to dinner, sporting games, community events, and movies very easily, but when it comes to church, that is altogether a different matter.
Why is this? Are we afraid our friends won’t like us because we go to church? Are we worried that our church isn’t good enough? Are we concerned that they might get the wrong idea? If they really are our friends, then they will stick even closer to us with faith sharing.
D: Encourage their participation by participating in church ourselves.
Years ago, a church family invited a family of friends to come to church. They wanted their friends to enjoy the same blessings of faith and fellowship that the church family had experienced. The invitation worked and the second family became fully involved in the life, ministry, and work of the church. The first family, however, were not as deep into church as the second family was becoming. As the invited family increased their commitment to the congregation, the first family decreased their participation. Eventually, they left the church but the second family continued to grow in faith, spirituality, and devotion to God. If the first family had continued to participate, their friendship with the other family would have been even greater than it had been at first. Fortunately, the second family continued to grow in their journey of faith.
E. Nurture their spiritual journey.
Non-church going friends who begin coming to church still have a lot of questions about faith, traditions, worship styles, and the Bible. They need your constant concern and devoted attention at times. Brushing them aside or leaving their questions unanswered will make them feel foolish, unimportant, and friendless. If you invite them, you need to stay right with them; if you choose to ignore them, you will lose and bore them very quickly. So make a commitment to mentor them for a couple of months, if not a year itself. (The ideal amount of mentoring time is actually 18 months).
One word of caution: if they ask you a question and you don’t know the answer, don’t make it up. Find someone for them who can answer their query.
F. Delight in their faith experiences.
Faith journeys are sacred moments in our lives. If your friend has become a regular attender at church, he or she will want to express their feelings, as well as their findings. They may even have some positive suggestions for the church because they see and experience it with new eyes and a new heart. Make time to meet with them outside of church and ask them about their spiritual growth. Remember, you invited them to church in the first place, so you are obliged to help them with their journey.
Notes
New Testament passages
John 1:43-50 (NIV)
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." 48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
49 Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." 50 Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."
What made Philip seek his friend Nathanael? How did Nathanael respond? What did Philip do about that? What was the outcome of this invitation? How does this inspire us to share our faith experiences with our friends?
Mark 2:1-12
1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.
2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves,
7 "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things?
9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'?
10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . ." He said to the paralytic, 11 "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home."
12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
What does this passage tell us about friendship? What obstacles do the four friends face? How do they overcome those problems? How much preparation and hard work did they have to undergo before they brought their friend to Jesus? How did He respond to their determination? How does the outcome of the story inspire us to bring our friends to Christ? What hopes do we have for them?
3 John 1:1-6 A Letter to a Friend
1 The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
What does this letter tell us about sharing faith with a friend? How can it help us to do the same?
