3 Simple Ways to Share Your Faith with a Stranger

I still remember the day; I was on my lunch break, minding my own business when this girl came up to me to talk to me about Jesus. At the time I wasn’t following Jesus, and honestly, my first thought was ‘oh no, not one of those people!’. I tried to pass her off as quickly as I could, ‘eek get rid of her quick’ was my immediate defence. When I got back to work, I made a special point of going around the office to tell numerous colleagues about my close encounter and laughing about it. That was until one of my colleagues said

“Wow, that was really brave of her don’t you think?”.

I used to cringe at the idea of people randomly going up to strangers and sharing their faith. I’ve since come to realise that there doesn’t have to be anything random or cringe-worthy about it. I’ve reflected back on that day, and what I thought had been stupid and ineffective was actually effective in a way I hadn’t considered. The girl was kind and friendly, she didn’t push her beliefs on me, and she stopped when I asked her to. She was also clear in what she wanted to talk to me about.

As a result, I ended up talking about Jesus with my workmates, even though I wasn’t following Jesus at the time!

I went and spread her message, and in the end, God got me anyway! I had family who were following Jesus and I didn’t want to hear from them, or this girl — this girl irritated me, but ultimately, she challenged me in a good way! It would be nice if I could find that girl again now to tell her she did a good job. There was absolutely nothing I could fault her on!

Now, I share my faith with strangers regularly. Is it nerve-wracking? Yes, sometimes, but I never let those nerves get the better of me.

I go with that first ‘prompt’ or that first ‘nudge’ that I need to make a move.

I don’t delay, I don’t overthink, I just jump in, nerves and all, because there’s only one way to get better, or perhaps I should say more practised — and that is to ‘just do it!’

Here are 3 of my top tips

1. Hear from God and obey — God’s the best, and He sets you up to win. When you take time to ask God for strategy and then obey what He’s asked you to do, you can’t lose — ever! Even if it doesn’t go the way you planned, it’s not about you, it’s about getting your direction and encouragement from God.

2. Pick up on social queues — Don’t fall into the trap of letting all your social queues go out the window because you are so focused on the task. Think about what would help to make the person feel comfortable. Respect them, love them and be attentive to their body language and social queues.

3. Smile and relax— The Cambridge English Dictionary describes ‘conversation’ as ‘an informal, usually private, talk in which two or more people exchange thoughts, feelings, or ideas, or in which news or information is given or discussed’. Stay happy and relaxed as you talk. Your smile will reflect the whole tone of your conversation.

There you have it! 3 simple ways to share your faith with a stranger.

Now ‘go get em’, and be you! Don’t try to be anyone else — God’s created you unique so embrace that uniqueness. Jump in, be bold — you can do it!