We don’t spend enough time with lost people.

This is part of a series of posts on effective entry strategies in the modern American landscape. I am writing this series as a work in progress, not as an answer that I have found. In some instances, I may not even agree with myself, but I have found that writing out thoughts helps me arrive at answers that I do agree with, both Biblically and personally. I would love constructive feedback so we can grow together to better engage lost people with the Gospel. To follow this conversation, be sure to subscribe to this blog. You can click here to view all blog posts in this series.

To connect this to previous posts, I ended the last blog by saying: “One of the biggest challenges in having any engagement with lost people is…”

The average American believer does not spend any significant time with people who are far from God. As I have trained extensively in evangelism, the most common trainee is not there because they have no desire to share their faith and have made no attempts to do so. No, the most common trainee is someone who HAS attempted spiritual conversations with the few lost people who are regularly in their lives (a family member or two, a co-worker, one or two neighbors). The trainee comes to the training because he or she is looking for some other tool or method that will help them get further with that person.

The reality is that the person that they want to share with may be, for the time being, a “red-light”. A new method is not what is missing. God needs to work in their heart in his time.

But then, practically, the trainee has no one else… or maybe more appropriately, no WHERE else to share the Gospel. They have been faithful with their small relational network, but do not have anywhere else to engage lost people. (The smallness of their relational network is often just due to our American culture, not necessarily the fault of the trainee.)

I could say “Find some ponds to fish in,” but I think before we fish we might just need to go find some ponds. Yes, we can lead with the Gospel and share about Jesus far more quickly than we think, but the emphasis on that previous statement needs to be “find some ponds”.

Just go make a regular habit of hanging out with lost people. Not just around them, but in relationships with them. It won’t be easy. Many of the spaces that used to be natural places to connect have been hijacked by the ever-present smartphone.

I’ve heard rumors that there are neighborhoods in America that still naturally connect with block parties and mailbox conversations. Mine isn’t one of those. It’s not that we haven’t been welcomed into a relational network… after 10 years of living in the same neighborhood I have seen the stark truth: There is no relational network in some neighborhoods.

So yes, start with that small list of people that you want to see come to Jesus. But if you have already lived as a faithful witness to them, shared as much as you can with them, and left the door open for more spiritual conversation… then it’s time to find another pond or two.

Two resources to dive into if you, like me, need some help in this area:

1) A simple one-pager from Rodger Shull on the types of communities that are good to enter.

2) The KC Underground has a great focus on entering existing networks of relationships in their initial training rollout: The Missionary Pathway - KC Underground