One-to-one Bible reading evangelism

A fantastic result of doing a ministry apprenticeship has been the time spent reading the Bible with interested non-Christians. This has been a humbling experience, as I’ve faced the seemingly obvious fact that I am unable to change someone’s heart and their opinion about Jesus. However, we serve a powerful God who loves to save and has given us his Word, which is able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Tim 3:15). So, this year, I’ve been helpfully driven to prayer, relying on God to work by his Spirit and through his Word to convict each woman I’ve been meeting with to read the Bible.

As I think back over the times I've met up with women to read the Bible and help them check out Jesus, I feel like I've blundered my way through. However, I'm clinging to the promise that God uses weak people to make his gospel even more glorious, and that he also grows us in doing his good works. And God has been teaching me a lot! So here are some of my reflections on what I've been learning about one-to-one evangelism: 

1. The book of the Bible we read does and doesn’t matter. Contradictory? All of the Bible is God’s word, and so any part of it could reveal the gospel to non-believers. But we should also want to be loving our friend by knowing and listening to them, meeting them where they are at. So if your friend knows little of Christianity, a gospel overview may be a good place to start (I have found the book You, Me and the Bible really helpful). Or if your friend has been ‘churched’, then actually seeing Jesus for who he is in one of the Gospels may be more valuable. Don’t make the same mistake I did in failing to understand the background of a Catholic woman. I suggested we read Galatians, only to spend a confused first meeting explaining who Paul and the Gentiles were, and where Galatia was. I'm not even sure if we got to Jesus! (Though praise God that, in his mercy, this woman is now a sister in Christ!) Understanding your friend’s background knowledge matters.
2. Be upfront about why you want to read the Bible with them (you want them to know and trust Jesus!) and how you will work your way through the passage (One-to-One Bible Reading by David Helm offers up a range of useful strategies).
3. Preparation is a great way to love your friend, because it will lead you to be clear and helpful. In preparing for a one-to-one, I tend to pray for my friend, read the passage, identify possible questions about words, concepts or culture that my friend may have, and then plan answers, other Bible references, or the main point of the passage to communicate.
4. Have the same Bible translation. I’m constantly forgetting that the NIV has a 1984 and a 2011 version, and it just gets confusing!
5. It’s okay to not know the answer to a question. I’ve been tempted to feel embarrassed when I don’t know the answer, especially for questions I ‘ought’ to know. However, it’s been good for my pride and it’s been good to model to my friends that Christians are always learning, and even to show how I find answers to questions.
6. Jesus is confronting. So be willing and ready to show them from the Bible that Jesus challenges their views. As a conflict avoider, this is still a big area for growth for me!

There can be frustrations as we persevere through reading the Bible with non-Christians. Yet I really do trust that it is an incredibly valuable and effective method of evangelism, so if you are already involved in one-to-one evangelism, be encouraged by this! And if you are yet to give it a go, why not start looking for one-to-one evangelism opportunities now?

How fantastic it will be when Jesus returns and we get to experience the Revelation 7 picture of the great uncountable multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb. It’s my prayer that God would be using you and me to save our friends/family members/workmates/peers so that they too will be there, crying out “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”