Sharing the God thing
19th October 2009 by Phil Farthing
Shame on my name
To my ultimate shame I was on facebook the other day and this girl I schooled with said "I didn't know you were a Christian". Two years of studying at TAFE and my faith sharing was so bad the girl didn't even know I was into God.
On the other hand there was this other girl in the class and she was so strong and firm in her sharing. She made out that she had all the answers and everyone else was wrong. She was great at sharing her faith but sometimes came across as judgemental or even arrogant, and this seemed to sometimes offend people and turn them away from Christianity.
How do you share God with your friends? Both these ways seem wrong; certainly my non-existent approach, and possibly her overly powerful one.
So how then do you share God with your friends but not offend them by saying their way is wrong and your way is right? Well I can think of three things that I've seen work (although I'm sure there are more).
1. Don't separate God and regular life.
Don't wait and make it a big announcement that you follow God. That's way too awkward and hard to do. Drop it in every day in casual ways, there shouldn't be a difference between God talk and regular talk. If someone asks you what you did on the weekend say "on Saturday I played soccer. We lost but I scored a sweet goal. Then on Sunday at church I was helping out in Sunday school, and this kid vomited on me." Say what happened at church, or talk about your life group.
2. Be an awesome person.
This one's in the Bible so you know it works. If you're totally nice to everyone, always hanging out with the "unpopulars", never bad mouthing people, full of patience and joy, and good at listening to people, then people will start to think this guy's onto something and anything you say will have a lot more cred.
3. Pray.
So if you're known to be really into the "God thing" and everyone knows you as a great person who's always there for others, then chances are someone might ask you about it sometime. They might say "so what's the deal with this God thing?" or "what's with that church you always go to?". Have a story ready for this; think about what God is to you and the difference he has made in your life.
But, you've got to pray for this one, pray for the chance to share your God story (testimony) or to invite them somewhere.
Also pray, and keep praying, for the guts to do all this. And because you know the language of your friends, be sure to translate everything into that language; don't talk in church language because that doesn't make sense to anyone.
Philip Grant Farthing currently attends Auburn Salvation Army. Growing up, he made the Peter Pan dream a reality by staying 21 for three whole years and 16 for two.
Since and during the lost years Philip has published comics, founded the much loved paint-sword sport, played in Sydney rock band Harry Wears Trousers, done some modeling and is currently co-writing a musical on the life and times of Fidel Castro.
If accepted he plans to one day enter The Salvation Army's College for Officers.
save. grow. serve.
save - noah rzeminski
Noah Rzeminski from Wollongong tells how his father was not happy with his decision to b... Read more
serve - nick horvatic
Nick Horvatic from Bundaberg shares his journey as a youth worker over the past few year... Read more
Got your own story to share? Write to us today!
Comments
Mate, I love your articles. They're so practical and so well connected to real life. Stunning job!
hey bro, great article! but do you know what is even better than your article is your profile expanation! Firstly what is paint-sword sport and secondly can't wait to see your Fidel Castro musical! LOL Legendary work!
Hey man, great article and even better profile... I think that your article shows a great way to keep true to our faith, while not condemning or judging people. Great thoughts and insight and wonderful practical application. I can't work out if the cowboy photo is you or not either. I like to think it is.