Generating Word of Mouth for Your Ministry

A few weeks ago we had a wonderful guest post from my friend Heidi McLaughlin, writing about how her ministry got started and began to fluorish. Here’s something she said:

A few years ago I was in Atlanta, Georgia; surrounded with famous speakers and authors who had agents and were walking around with their leather briefcases and linking arms with their private publicists. I realized I was in over my head, and for me that is a good realization. When I went to bed that night I clearly remember the words of my desperate prayer, “God, I can’t do this-it’s too big. I can’t afford a publicist and I don’t even know how to get my speaking engagements. God, you are going to have to be my agent and publicist.”

To this day, my bookings come strictly through “word of mouth.” I believe if we have a powerful message, passion, and fully believe we are part of God’s Kingdom work, and are joining Him where He is already at work, God will open the necessary doors. Pray and wait expectantly for Him to orchestrate your calendar.

I can relate to Heidi! I don’t use a booking agent, either, though I have considered it. The truth is I’m too busy without one! And the reason I’m busy is not because I’ve mailed out slick packages to churches, or because I’ve taken out ads in big magazines about my ministry. It’s simply because of word of mouth.

In a survey I did of women’s ministry leaders recently, I asked how many had hired a speaker because they had received promotional materials from that speaker. Nobody said yes. On the other hand, one third had hired speakers based on word of mouth; one half because they had heard them speak somewhere else before; and the rest because they had been suggested by the denomination or a parachurch organization. Word of mouth is what clinches engagements; slick marketing materials do not. So please, don’t spend the money on them!

What you should do, I think, are two things:

1. Get good

2. Make it easy for people to find you.

That’s not so hard, is it?

Let’s take them one by one.

1. Get Good.

Get some training! Take my teleseminars, or invest in my e-course. They aren’t expensive, and you can get all  you need to start speaking for under $100! I’m trying to keep it really low because I want to help build the kingdom; I don’t want to get rich off of this.

Once you have the trianing, there’s no substitute for speaking. We need practice. We need to be able to tell our stories again and again so that we get used to telling them, without needing notes for everything. We need to realize where people laugh, and where they don’t laugh. The biggest laugh line I get in one of my comedy routines is something I don’t even think is very funny. It came out of my mouth once, and people were in stitches, so I use it every time now. I still don’t think it’s funny, but it works, and I never would have realized that unless I had had the opportunity to tell that story in a live audience.

Call churches in your area that have women’s Bible studies and volunteer to come give a half hour talk at the beginning of a new session. Do it for free if you have to, but get the experience! Find out what conferences are going to be in your area and volunteer to do a workshop or breakout session for free. People are often far more likely to hire new speakers for workshops, so consider those! Women’s camps in the summer are often looking for workshop leaders, or denominational retreats often need breakout sessions. Don’t forget about homeschooling conferences, either! You may not be a homeschooler, but there are tons of them all over North America, and you can still speak on household organization, family harmony, creating scrapbooks, or something else you’re interested in that gets you in front of an audience!

2. Make it easy for people to find you.

Have a website! It’s indispensable in today’s world, because when organizers are going to hire a speaker, the first thing they tend to do is to Google you. Take out the website in your own name, and own your name as a domain name, if possible, because that’s the first place people will check. Don’t use a book title for your main website, because when you write another book, it’s not natural to go looking for you under the title of your first book!

Create a blog, and use your name. Blogspot and WordPress allow you to hide your name, but don’t do that. Plaster it prominently everywhere, so that you come up higher in search engines. Even if you decide to name your blog something different, put your own name so frequently in all the information that you’ll appear.

Create a page on Facebook for  your speaking ministry, because a lot of people start their search on Facebook now, too.

And what should be on the web page?

• Your speaking topics
• Clips of you speaking (if you only have audio clips, you can still make a movie using Windows Movie Maker. Use still photographs for the visuals, and then have a 2-3 minute audio clip playing in the background). Upload the clips to YouTube or Tangle (create an account under your own name, again), and then you can use their links to embed your video into your website.
• Testimonials from others who have heard you speak
• Your speaking schedule so others can see where you have spoken.

Do not include your fee schedule. Most people don’t, and one reason is because it may turn off people who are looking for  you to speak for free, but it will also turn off people who are hiring for bigger engagements if your fees are too low. Discuss fee once you are already in contact with them about the engagement.

Finally, when you do speak, remember to help people stay in contact with you. Let them sign up for a newsletter. Hand out business cards. Keep your website and blog prominently listed on every page of your handout. If they like you, they’re going to want to recommend you! Make that easy, and you’re far more likely to generate word of mouth!

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Getting Your Family’s Backing to Speak

Image of Sheila Gregoire

One of the most common areas of difficulty for speakers is our families. Speaking means that we’re away from home at times, and predominantly on weekends which would normally be family time. Speaking also means that we’re accepting an authoritative role, and often our families don’t see us in such a role. We’re the mom, the wife, the daughter, the one who should be doing FOR people isntead of the one who is going to need others to pick up the slack.

On our Facebook group, Sheila Wray Gregoire’s Speaker Training, where people can come and talk and ask for help, one of the more popular discussion threads is all about family–why they don’t think we should do any marketing, or why they resent the time away. What do we do?

First, let’s talk about a few principles. I believe that when it comes to ministry, God calls the family, not the individual. If you feel called, but your husband does not feel that you are called to be away, or your children are suffering, then perhaps you’re not being called right now. Maybe God wants you to wait awhile. If you do feel that you’re being called right now, and perhaps your husband is being stubborn, I’d still say leave it for a while. Speaking is hard enough as it is. When we don’t have our spouse’s backing, it’s terrible. And I don’t think we can go and speak and tell people to listen to God and to do things God’s way if we ourselves are working against the good of our marriages.

Take some time instead to pray that God will show you what doors you should go through, and work on building your friendship with your spouse. When we’re at cross-purposes with our spouses, frequently it’s because we haven’t been communicating well lately, and we don’t have the level of intimacy that we should. So work on just having fun with him for a few months, and then raise the topic again. Show him love, let him see that you’re serious about the marriage and the family first, and then perhaps God will change his mind. And if God doesn’t? God will still honour your desire to teach and serve, and will find other outlets for you to do so.

While children should not be permitted to stop a speaking ministry, since you’re the adult and they’re the child, I still think consideration should be made to their needs. I’ve decided, for instance, to only accept 1-2 speaking engagements per year that require me to fly somewhere, since that usually means I’m gone for three days at a time. Local engagements usually take much less time. And when you fly, it takes longer to prepare, and so you’re stressed for longer beforehand. My children will be out of the house in six years, and I’ll have plenty of time to take those large engagements then!

Be smart as a mom. Most speakers are asked to speak because they’re already highly effective people: their families are healthy, they practice godly principles in their lives, and as such their lives are doing well. Keep it that way! If you start speaking too much and you concentrate so much on your speaking ministry that you lose your family, then something is wrong.

I also make sure that I’m never gone for their important engagements. I’ve spoken on my own birthday twice, but I’ve never spoken on their birthdays, or recitals, or anything like that! My first priorities always have to stay my first priorities, and if the kids see that, it makes it much easier to leave when we do speak.

That said, speaking is often a lonely business. Few speakers have families that pray earnestly, support them 100%, and try to help them market their wares and their services. Most speakers have families who are wondering who is going to cook dinner if you’re gone all weekend?

There is no point in trying to change this. In time, many families do come around and are very supportive and helpful. When my daughters reached the age where they could start attending some of my outreach evening events they had a wonderful time, and enjoyed hearing me speak. That made all the difference. But in the beginning, it’s just something that takes you away from family.

Perhaps you don’t have children at home any more, and so you don’t have to worry about them resenting your time on the road. Nevertheless, it’s only human to want our families’ support–to want them to pray, to ask how they can pray, to ask what we’re speaking about, and to volunteer to be a sounding board. If you have that, it’s a wonderful thing. Cherish it. Most speakers do not.

It is easier to accept that than it is to try to change it. Your family is there to be your family, not to be your business partners, and if they don’t want to be part of it, you have to let them step back. Find others to support you in prayer. Join our Facebook page where you can enter your prayer requests and get great advice and support! If you need to, keep your speaking and your family separate.

One woman, though, asked recently what to do when your husband doesn’t think you should do any marketing. He doesn’t mind you speaking, but creating a website or paying for business cards seems like too much. God should be opening the doors, and if you make business cards, then you’re stepping outside of His will.

That’s a tough one, isn’t it? We are to honor our husbands, but speaking is a strange ministry. Most people don’t understand what goes into it. I would respond by saying, “I believe God is opening the door, but people aren’t going to be able to find the door unless I make a way for them. People can’t phone us without a phone book, and they can’t email me or find me again without a business card. I’m not forcing people to do anything, or even advertising myself. I’m simply giving people the opportunity to find me if they were blessed by my ministry.”

Hopefully that will have some effect! But in the meantime, if your family isn’t excited about your ministry, take heart. They love you for being you, and that means a lot. If they don’t love the speaking side of you, it’s only because they love the other sides more, and that’s where they want to spend their attention. Love your family the best you can. Make them your first priority. And then, if your husband supports you, take steps to grow your ministry. Let him know what you’re doing, but don’t demand that he spend a lot of time helping you build your business. That’s not his role. Let him be your husband, and find others online who can support you. You’ll find that cuts down on a lot of bitterness, unrealistic expectations, and stress!

How to Create an Amazing Handout that Works for You–and for the Audience!

If you’re doing any kind of teaching, whether it’s in a workshop or in a retreat setting, chances are you may get asked to provide a handout. That doesn’t mean you have to photocopy them–often you just email it to the organizer a few weeks ahead of time.

But often we get quite nervous about handouts. What should we include? How long should they be?

I believe a handout should serve two purposes:

1. It should provide action points, tips, or some benefit to people so that they will want to keep it.

2. It should have your contact information and an invitation to find you on the web, so that people can recommend you to others easily.

People will only keep handouts if they’re useful; the trick, then, is to make them useful!

Let’s talk about what NOT to do first:

1. Do not simply repeat all your speaking points.

Summarizing is good; spend perhaps one page with your key points and key Scriptures so that people can find them again. Do not simply regurgitate everything you said, though.

2. Do not leave it to the organizers to put headers or footers on, or to provide extras.

Produce the whole thing yourself! Don’t email the organizers with discussion questions that you want included; write up the page. That way you’re sure that each and every page contains your website and a link to your blog.

Here’s what you SHOULD do:

1. Provide amazing extras.

If you talked about how to find more time in the day and focus on God’s priorites, for example, provide a chart where people can plan their day. Provide a chart for Bible reading. Provide a menu planning chart. Provide something that people will actually want to use again and again. If they’ll want to photocopy it, then you’ve done your job! If it is something they may want to use again, provide a link to your website where they can download a new one, in case they didn’t photocopy it before they started filling it out!

2. Provide discussion questions or guided journalling questions.

Make your handout something that people can take home and continue to learn from. Think of the talk as the jumping off point–now where are they going to go? Provide questions to take them deeper. Leave lines on the piece of paper so that people can write in their answers in the blanks. Suggest that they journal through some of the questions.

3. Provide sample prayers.

If you’ve been honing in on a specific message–Is God Enough? Can I truly surrender?–then on your handout you can provide prayers that people can pray to truly surrender everything to Him. Spend a page just helping people pray through various issues.

4. List Relevant Resources.

If you have interesting resources that you may have mentioned in your talk, but you didn’t have time to delve into, provide these, too. Maybe it’s a list of books you mentioned that you like. In our marriage seminars that my husband and I do, we often refer to personality tests, so we provide links in the handouts to various personality tests people can take online. Handouts are a great place to provide extra resources so taht people are more likely to continue to think about the issues you raised and take these to a deeper level! If you know of online quizzes that relate to your topic, include those, too (or better still, create a quiz yourself!).

Handouts are far more likely to be read and kept if they seem like “additional” or “supplemental” material, rather than just summarizing what you said. If it summarizes what you said, then people who paid attention are likely to think that there’s no use in reading through it, because they already know it. If, on the other hand, there are more resources so that they can continue to follow on the road that you’ve paved, then they will keep it and use it.

You don’t have to include all four points, but try to excel in at least one. Handouts typically run from 3-7 pages, so you don’t have to create a novel or anything like that. And remember that a 7-page handout often provides lots of space to write in, so it’s not like you’ve typed seven single spaced pages!

Then, and here’s the important part–Make it easy for people find you!

1. Provide the name of where you’re speaking and the date on the front page, so people remember where they got it.

2. Use a header/footer on every single page with your name and website.

3. If you are providing something they may want to reuse, provide an internet link on that page where they can download a new one.

4. Invite people to one specific thing online where they can get to know you better–sign up for a newsletter, read your blog, follow you on Facebook, whatever! Near the end of the handout, invite people to find you in at least one specific place! You can also provide a coupon for people to use at your online store (if you have one), or an advertisement for one product you sell that’s especially relevant to that talk.

If people are able to find you easily, it becomes easier for them to recommend you to others who are looking for speakers! So use your handouts well. If you provide a well thought out handout, it’s more likely people will internalize your message and go deeper with God, and it’s more likely they’ll find you again!

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Kitchen Timers are a Speaker’s Best Friend

One of the scariest things when speaking is figuring out when you’re going too long. You don’t want to speak so long you bore people, but you do want to fill the time you’ve been given.

Many times I’ve assumed that churches will have clocks on the back of the wall when I speak. Big mistake. Some do, but not all. Or else they “conveniently” place the clock on the side wall, so that to look at it you have to wrench your neck, which is obvious to everyone there!

Image via Wikipedia

Other times we think a watch on the podium will suffice. Think again. You’re trying to maintain eye contact and keep a rhythm going in your talk. Most watches are tiny, and how do you get them to stay in place when you’re turning pages? Even worse, how do you glance at it quickly and unobtrusively? You can’t.

Besides that, watches only work in two conditions:

1. You can do math
2. You remember to actually look at the clock or the watch as soon as you start speaking.

Quite frequently I forget #2, and then, even if a clock is visible, if I have no idea what time I started, how do I tell how long I’ve been speaking for? Even if I remember to check #2, when you’re busy speaking, and you don’t want to break the flow, then when you look at a clock, it’s hard to tell how long you’ve actually been speaking for quickly, because you have to do the math in your head while you’re actually thinking about something else.

That’s why the common kitchen timer is my new best friend.

It comes with a magnet on the back (to stick to your fridge) so that you can stick it to something metal–like a music stand! Put it at the top right hand corner, above your notes.

If you remember to click “start” when you begin talking, you’ll always know exactly how long you’ve been speaking for. You can also put marks in your notes to let you know where you should be at 10 minutes, or at 16 minutes, etc. etc., so you have a sense of whether you need to get through some material more quickly, or whether you’re right on target.

I would recommend counting “up” instead of counting “down”, though. Let’s say you want to make sure you only talk for 50 minutes. If you set it for 50 minutes and let count down, that sounds reasonable, because it tells you how long you have left. Unfortunately, though, most timers “beep” when time is up. So unless you want the timer beeping in the middle of your powerful closing statement, I’d recommend counting up!

It’s not hard, but it’s one of the handiest speaking tools I have! So get yourself a kitchen timer, and then you don’t have to worry about time ever again!

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How to Give a Gospel Invitation

Frequently, when we are speaking, we get the opportunity to invite people to accept Christ. That’s a heavy responsibility, even if it is one of the highlights of your life! But while we’ve all seen many gospel invitations, do we know how to give one? Here are a few tips:

Check with the organizer to make sure they want one.

What kind of talk is this going to be? Do they want a gospel message, or is this more a talk to soften people up so that they will return to other events at the church? Sometimes churches want to put on seeker events where people are free to bring their friends and there won’t be any “heavy” evangelism. So ask what is expected. Do they want an invitation, or not? And if they do want one, do they want you to give it, or does the pastor or music leader want to give it?

It’s always best to have these things spelled out clearly. Once it’s ascertained that you are to give a gospel invitation, here’s what you should do:

1. Sprinkle the heart of the gospel throughout your message.

Don’t leave it until the very end to explain what the gospel is; tell why Jesus died and the significance of the resurrection naturally throughout your talk. You don’t have to use “god” language to do this, either. Just tell it in everyday, plain English. If your story deals with grief, for instance, tell what it means that Jesus defeated death and rose again. In another place in your talk, if you’re talking about needing to trust God more, explain that He’s trustworthy because He loves us so much.

No matter what your story or talk is, sprinkling bits of the gospel throughout ensures that it ultimately focuses on Jesus, and not on you. And that keeps you grounded!

2. Remember the Two Aspects of the Gospel

I’m sure many people have more than two, but I like to boil it down to two that are easy to understand, but absolutely fundamental: repentance and accepting the lordship of Christ; and walking in newness of life. To put it another way, you focus on both the cross and the resurrection; one deals with sin, and the other deals with how we are now to live our lives.

You can’t have a gospel message without telling people they need to repent and leave the negative relationship patterns and bad things in life behind. It’s not just a warm fuzzy; it’s a commitment. Don’t go light on it in the hopes that it will be more attractive. The gospel is attractive because it is what it is. So don’t sugarcoat the need for repentance!

But then also make sure that you don’t portray it as a club that once you’re in, you’re in. This is a commitment to live a certain way for the rest of your life. I often put it something like this:

Jesus didn’t just die on the cross. He also rose again. And that means He’s alive today, so He wants to live with you, live in you, and start changing you from the inside out. He’s not a distant God; He’s a God who’s here today and who wants to be active in the rest of your life. He wants to direct it, and to help you, and equip you, to live life abundantly and properly.

3. Invite them to Pray.

Once you’re spelled out the gospel, invite them to pray. There are two ways to do this; one is at their seats, and one is to come to the front and pray individually with someone. Let’s deal with the pray-in-your-seats scenario first. Have everyone bow their heads, and then say,

“if you’ve never asked Jesus into your life, I want to give you the opportunity to do that today. He wants to have a relationship with you, and if you’re tired of spinning your wheels, today is the day to give God control of your life…”

Then tell people that if they want to ask Jesus into their life, they can pray this prayer along with you. Then say a prayer that sums up the gospel: you’re sorry for the bad things you’ve done; thank you for dying for me and taking my punishment; I want you to be in control of my life from this day forward; thank you for rising from the dead so that you can live with me now and I can live with you in heaven forever. You don’t have to say it exactly like that, but try to include the main elements.

Remember to say it SLOWLY. Much slower than you normally pray. If people are praying this, they need time to process it. So pause for a long time after each phrase, and pray slowly so that people can say it after you in their heads.

After the prayer is over, encourage people to keep their eyes closed, but ask people to raise their hands if they’ve prayed it for the first time.  That gives you an idea of who did respond (and if you can remember who some of them are, the organizers always like to know). It also makes people commit. If they raise their hands, it’s concrete. If they don’t, they can always question whether or not they really prayed the prayer.

I believe in not ending it there, though. I think that if people did pray the prayer, they need to receive something that spells out what they did. So I always ask the organizers to provide booklets or Bibles to those who did commit their lives, and then I say something like,

“if you prayed that prayer for the first time, I have a special gift for you. Come talk to me afterwards and ask for the gift, and I’ll give it to you.”

Again, it’s another confirmation for them that something significant happens, and it helps identify them to the organizers and gives them something to disciple them.

After that prayer, I often then offer another prayer of rededication for those who already know Christ. And this prayer is just as fervent as the other! Often the people that you impact most when you speak are those who are already following Jesus, but need to go to a deeper level. So I continue to pray wtih everyone’s eyes still closed for those people.

4. Invite People to the Altar

If, on the other hand, you’re going to do an altar call,  you’ll have to talk to the organizer beforehand about having prayer partners available who know how to lead in prayer.

In that case, the gospel invitation is less of a prayer and more of an exhortation. It tends to work best with music playing, and you just explaining the gospel and asking people to respond. You often need to ask several times, since people aren’t always immediately sure of what they should do. Spell it out: “If you need to give something to God, don’t wait. Come on up to the front. You can kneel at the pews or on the steps, or you can sit in the front pews.” You need to be very specific. Also be careful of ONLY inviting people up to the front to kneel. If there are people with bad knees, or who have a hard time getting up and down, they could be discouraged from coming forward simply because you used the word “kneel”. Mention that there are other options.

Be sure to give LOTS of reasons for coming up to the front.

Maybe God has been speaking to you and you need to leave something behind tonight. Maybe there’s something you need healing for. Maybe there’s something you need forgiveness for. Or maybe you need to start your relationship with Jesus today.

The more options you give, the more likely people are to respond. First, they don’t feel centred out, and second, they hear something that relates to them.

Altar calls often take a while, because rarely do people come forward right away. They need a few minutes to listen to God and to get up the courage. So you may have to repeat things several times. Say things slightly different ways. Pause. Sing a song. Give people the time they need, and don’t rush it!

5. Think about timing and music.

I believe most gospel invitations should come at the end of the event. That gives people time for extended prayer if they need it, and everything has been leading to this. But you do need to think about what music you’re going to have, and how you will dismiss people after the invitation. If people are still silently praying, the best thing is to have some music play quietly and invite the other women to continue their conversations out of the sanctuary, so that others can have peace.

Whatever you do, don’t leave announcements at the end, because it will completely disrupt the response time! Encourage the organizers to put any announcements in earlier in the program, so that you can end the evening with the invitation.

I hope that helps! Have you ever been in a gospel invitation that worked really well? What did they do differently? Let me know in the comments!

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Use Your Words: Getting Your Ministry off the Ground!

Every Tuesday at noon EST I host the Use Your Words BlogTalkRadio show!

It’s perfectly free, and you can listen live and participate in the chat box, or you can listen after the fact. It’s a wonderful resource as we chat about all sorts of aspects of speaking!

Today, Deborah Branch and Cari Kaufman will be joining me as we talk about how they got their ministries off of the ground! If you need inspiration, ideas, or encouragement, come on by!

How Speaking Stretches You

Do you listen in to “Use Your Words” on Blog Talk Radio? Every Tuesday at noon EST we talk for an hour about speaking! You can listen afterwards, too, if you can’t make it live.

Image of Robin Giles

This Tuesday we were privileged to have on Robin Giles chat with us about how to tell your testimony, and how to work up the courage to tell your story. Near the end of the conversation, we drifted into the areas in which God has stretched us in speaking. And so I’d like to warn you about some of the things God will stretch you about:

1. Travel.

When you start speaking, you’ve got to start traveling! This was a hard one for me because I didn’t learn to drive until I was around 28. Then, in my early 30s, I started being flown places where I was expected to rent a car, navigate highways I’d never been on, and get to destinations on time. I think my blood pressure went through the roof! I was so nervous.

And yet today driving on highways doesn’t bother me much at all. I still have an issue with parking garages, but that’s another story!

When you speak, you’ll have to drive. You’ll have to navigate weather, since engagements proceed no matter what the weather is. You’ll have to figure out train times and rental car places and even how to find places on a map. A GPS will become your best friend.

Many of us speakers are home town girls. We like hanging out at home, or at church, or with our friends. And now we have to go out and take on the world! For me, it was quite a stretch!

2. Conversing with Strangers.

God will ask you to speak to total strangers. I don’t mean speaking from the stage; for most of us that’s par for the course. I mean we’ll have to speak to the organizers, the women at the event, the helpers. We’ll have to have a smile on our faces, even if we’re nervous. We’ll have to learn to chat, to ask questions, to make small talk. We’ll need to learn to project an air of ease even if we’re not feeling it. Even if we’d rather go alone into a room and pray, or maybe even into the bathroom to throw up because we’re nervous, we’re going to have to learn to work a room.

I find speaking from a stage much easier than speaking to three or four women I don’t know. What will we talk about? How will I keep the conversation going? That’s a little scary for me. And yet I’ve learned over the years not to focus on how I’m feeling, but to ask God to be a blessing to the women I meet, and for them to be a blessing to me! I’ve met the most interesting women as I speak, and many of them have proved helpful in other areas of my life. I’ve met moms with great homeschooling ideas, and women who head up charities in Africa that I’m interested in, and women with musical experience who have given me some great advice about my daughters. I’m at the point now where I’m excited to see which women I’m going to meet! But believe me, at first, that was a BIG stretch!

3. Telling Strangers Your Secrets.

I firmly believe that speaking is far more life-changing and significant when we share not just out of our strengths, but especially out of our struggles. It is in our struggles where God is most often glorified, and when we share the things that we have hurt over, and cried over, and worried over, we also share how God lifted us out of that. And we can’t share the lifting without the also sharing the hurting.

Telling people your story is difficult. There are things I don’t particularly like talking about, but I know those are the things that most touch people. Being willing to use those things as you speak is a way that God can take the bad things in your life and use them for good. It’s a way for God to redeem your story. But it’s not easy!

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4. Giving a Gospel Invitation.

Robin and I laughed at this one on Tuesday, because it’s something that we both do quite often, but it’s not something we ever knew how to do at the beginning. For those of you who grow up in church, you’ve likely heard dozens of gospel invitations in your life. But do you know how to give one?

Robin shared that when she first was asked to give them, she realized she had better pay a lot more attention to how other people gave them, because even though you sit through them, you don’t necessarily know what goes into one. I’ll write another post next week on how to give a gospel message, but that was a big stretch for both of us!

And one reason it’s difficult is because we think the number of people who respond somehow reflects on whether or not we did a good job. It’s like a method for grading your presentation, and that’s rather stressful! Plus, what if we do a bad job? Will people fail to be saved because we don’t give the message properly?

What we need to do in both of these issues is to get our eyes off of ourselves and onto God. It is God who makes people respond, not us. There are things that are good to include in a gospel message, but all those things are really incidental to whether or not God is at work in the person’s heart. Sometimes your job is just to water the seed. I spoke at a women’s breakfast last weekend where about 33% of the unbelievers in the audience accepted Christ. It was marvelous! The organizers had little booklets to give to the new Christians, but she quickly ran out and we all had to improvise. The response was much higher than any of us had anticipated.

Was it because I did a particularly good job? I think my talk was effective on Saturday, but I’ve given that talk lots of times and haven’t seen that kind of a response rate. I think it’s more likely because the church has been holding that breakfast for 11 years. Many of those women have been coming out, hearing a gospel message year after year, and just weren’t ready to respond until today.

I had the joy of seeing those women put up their hands, but other speakers who were there last year, and the year before, were just as instrumental.

You will need to learn to give a gospel invitation, but only as a tool for God to work. It is He who works, not you. And it is He who gives strength when we are weak. It is He who equips. So don’t worry too much about being stretched! God is the one who is stretching you, and He will be there to help!

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