HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND START EVANGELIZING: REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER EVANGELISM DISCIPLESHIP GROUP
by Josiah Ling
Discipleship Groups are an integral part of New City’s heartbeat during the summer months, an opportunity to break away from the regular rhythms of ministry and take a focused look at a particular discipleship topic. This past spring, a small group of us gathered weekly to go through the Prayer Evangelism course, one of John Smed’s Prayer Current training courses. This course practically examined the intersection of prayer and evangelism, exploring how prayer expands the heart and opens the door for evangelism. This wasn’t just a book on how to pray, nor was it a formula on how to share the gospel, but instead it was a book on how to pray for those who need Jesus the most. Namely, ourselves and those around us.
What was most impactful for me in taking the course was the way praying for others affected my heart for the gospel and my desire for them to receive it. In taking time to regularly and specifically pray for others, this changed my own heart for evangelism in a way that surprised me.
Admittedly, I am not someone naturally inclined toward evangelism. Like many of you, I find evangelism to be a daunting task. While I know that it is something I should do, it is not something I normally want to do. So I had a sense of apprehension over taking a course specifically on evangelism.
However, the course takes a different approach, by bridging the gap between praying that someone might receive the gospel to taking initiative in approaching someone with the gospel after being saturated in prayer. The former, while important, is relatively safe with little risk involved. The latter asks me to be vulnerable by stepping out in faith through initiating gospel conversations with others because I have spent time dependent on the Holy Spirit in prayer.
More than simply praying that someone might receive the gospel, Prayer Evangelism takes a more holistic approach to praying for the specific needs that would prime someone to be open to a spiritual conversation. Through grace-saturated prayer, a person is not just “lost” and needing saving, but a unique person made in the image of God. Someone who has characteristics and attributes both to celebrate and to mourn over. There are things that I share in common with those I am praying for. At the same time, there are places where I hope the gospel would transform their heart.
Through grace-saturated prayer, a person is not just “lost” and needing saving, but a unique person made in the image of God.
As a result of this course, I found myself praying more frequently but also more intentionally for those whom God has placed in my life who don’t know Christ. I was able to thank and praise God for the good things in their lives, yet also pray for their repentance and heart change toward Him.
One specific person that I prayed for was my sister. Since she lives in Alberta, I have not initiated gospel conversations with her as frequently as I might hope, but I took the opportunity when I visited in early June. I had been praying for her regularly as a result of the Prayer Evangelism course, and I took the chance to once again bring up the topic of God and her faith. This time, I took a different approach, asking what she felt she liked about God, and where some of her struggles with Him might be.
Through this conversation, a door was surprisingly opened for her to share honestly and vulnerably on where she felt she was in her relationship with God. I heard where some of her hurts and disappointments with Him were, yet also was surprised to find out her own acknowledgement of His existence, and to some extent her awareness of her sin before Him. Through this conversation, I shared with her how Jesus meets us not as someone who holds the bar of righteousness above us, but rather is a loving God who moves toward us with grace.
Prayer opens my eyes to see God’s heart for the nonbeliever, stirring my affections and desire to have the nonbeliever’s deepest needs met by Christ through the gospel.
While we left the conversation without any definitive decision, she expressed that what I shared with her was interesting and helped her reframe her view on God. For myself, I saw my own view of her change as a result. She was not someone who just needed to make a confession, but rather someone who needed Christ to fulfil her deepest needs. Through prayer and that conversation, I caught a better glimpse of God’s heart for her.
Through prayer, evangelism doesn’t have to be a daunting task, but instead is a natural stepping stone borne out of a regular desire to bring up spiritual conversations with those around us. Prayer opens my eyes to see God’s heart for the nonbeliever, stirring my affections and desire to have the nonbeliever’s deepest needs met by Christ through the gospel.
