Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
cmbl
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by cmbl »

I prayed my sinner's prayer at age 5 or so. By the time I was 18 I was doing things that keep one from the kingdom of God. I began to repent around age 20. I believed in Jesus the whole time.
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Sudsy
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Sudsy »

How about you? How did God use people to reach you? Would you use the same technique or not? If you would, would you modify it?
I guess I didn't give much of an answer to this in te OP.

As I said my father used the "Romans Road" of scriptures to lead me to confessing Christ as my Lord and Saviour at the age of 7. Although many Christians can trace their first confession back to a childhood time and from there they continued following Jesus, I am not a big fan of child evangelism myself. I know some (and perhaps my dad, I don't know) are anxious about when each of us is accountable to God for what they know about the Gospel. I know in my upbringing there was some urgency as the rapture was expected to come any day and very soon. So, I'm a bit concerned about some child evangelism I have seen that seem to be more about quantity of decisions over quality of decisions.

However, I have used the "Romans Road" - an example of how someone used it - http://www.kodiakag.org/index.php/gospel/

This is one way, I believe the Gospel can be shared.

What I would like to see modified though, is the early steps of discipleship that is given to a new convert. I think they need close, 24/7 availability, and checking in with a mature Christian in how this new life is going and given some milk of the Word for them to grow on. Sundays are too far apart for this to occur just at the local church, imo.
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Adam
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Adam »

This is from messages I have shared during our itineration in America
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On September 1, 1999, I flew to Quito, Ecuador, where I would spend the next year of my life teaching English with an educational organization called WorldTeach. I had just graduated from Georgetown University with a Business degree. You see my plan in life was to graduate from a good college, get a prestigious job with a large corporation, and make a lot of money. That was going to be my ticket to success and happiness. The problem was that during my junior year in college, I became disillusioned with that plan. I felt like there must be something more to life than just making a lot of money, but I didn't know what that was. I began to feel like I had no purpose in life. One day I would die, and nothing I had accomplished would mean anything. There was a void in my life, and I tried to fill that void through volunteer work, which is what drove me to volunteer a year of my life teaching English in Ecuador.

One of the other teachers serving with me in Ecuador was a Christian. In fact, she was the first real Christian that I had ever really taken the time to get to know. She was different from my preconceived ideas of what Christians were like. She was fun to be around, and she didn’t judge me, even though I wasn’t living my life in a way that pleased God. Nevertheless, I would argue with her about Christianity and try to prove her wrong. But no matter how convincing I was in my own mind, she remained firm in her beliefs. I admired that about her. So, I decided one night that I was going to ask her about her faith and just listen without arguing. So we went to the one place in Quito, Ecuador, where Americans went when they just wanted to relax…McDonalds. She told me about her relationship with Jesus Christ, and I went home that night with a sense of warmth and joy that I had never before experienced. I also started to develop feelings for this friend of mine, and we started dating. And I say shame on her for dating someone who wasn't a Christian. But the relationship didn’t last very long as she soon realized that there was no potential for a long-term relationship with someone who wasn’t a believer.

On the day we broke up, I asked her if I could borrow her Bible. You see, I was going to find all of the contradictions that I had always heard people talk about and prove her wrong once and for all. The problem was that by the time I got to Genesis 12, I was convicted in my heart, and I prayed to the Lord and said, "Jesus I invite you to come into my heart." I stopped suddenly and thought to myself, "Where did that come from?" And then as the implications of my prayer hit me I began to think, "Oh no! I'm becoming one of them!" But God had gotten a hold of my life, and I was never the same again. The next day I told my friend about my decision, and we immediately got back together. Within two weeks we started talking about getting married, and I’m proud to say that we my friend Martha and I have been married now for fifteen years, and we have three wonderful children.
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I would not recommend getting romantically involved with someone as a way to lead them to Christ, but the Lord works in mysterious ways! Nevertheless, I would recommend developing true friendships with nonbelievers in which you share about what God has done in your life without being judgmental of the sin in the lives of others.

On a separate note, it was partly through the friendship of a Conservative Anabaptist, who did not judge me, that I came to embrace a Kingdom Christian mindset. Although he did not actively 'witness' to me about the Anabaptist faith, I saw that he and his wife were different, and when the Lord started directing me in that direction, he was one of the first people I turned to with questions.

I have also been handed tracts, even as a believer, and I have always had a very negative gut reaction to being given a tract, like I am being judged by outside appearances. I know that is not the intent, but I am not a big fan of tracts, especially Chick tracts.
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

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I grew up attending an MB (Mennonite Brethren) congregation. I don’t recall what prompted my decision, but one Sunday before SS I talked with my SS teacher, and must have said a prayer with her. I was around five years old. My parents always required that we filled out all of the answers in our SS study books before we could do anything else on Saturday morning, always went to meetings every time the doors were open, etc., so I grew up knowing all of the answers in SS class. That actually kept me from making a more adult-like decision later, as I thought that since I was the perfect kid in SS, everyone probably thought I was in fine shape spiritually. When I was a young teen my parents started asking me about getting baptized, but I argued that I had already been baptized in the Holy Spirit, so I didn’t need water. (I don’t think I vocalized this argument to my parents, but that’s what I said to myself, and I know I said it to my best friend, who was also after me to get baptized.) Friday night, revival meetings, sitting with my friend on the third row back from the front, middle section, the 16th verse of Just as I am. He elbows me, and says, “You need to go up there.” I finally listened, and that was what I consider the real beginning of my life as a Christian. Immediately I WANTED to be baptized. (My previous arguments were only a smoke screen, because I believed that if I got baptized in an unworthy state, it would be serious. That was really why I came up with the “I’m already baptized” routine.) There have of course been some times of giving up again (and again) over the years, but that was the start of a Christian life that was actually noticed by my friends (and enemies) in (public) school.

I was just ready to post this; then I saw the word ‘Evangelism’. The Evangelistic meetings were the breaking point, but before that it was a slow process of learning at home, and in church services. I’m just glad that I resisted the pressure to be baptized as long as I remained in that needy state.
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Wayne in Maine
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Wayne in Maine »

Wayne in Maine wrote:I was baptized by my parish priest when I was about 2 weeks old.
And then I was confirmed at age 13. That involved a lot of memorization. I took the confirmation name of Anthony - a wise move in an Italian parish. The confirmation mass was very, very early in the morning - it was the Italian mass which was regularly attended by the old Italian ladies in the neighborhood.

Of course I was still wearing my little brown scapular which guaranteed that I would be saved from the fires of hell. The Monsignor commented on it when I was confirmed.
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Dan Z
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Dan Z »

I've been coming to Jesus for 55 years now - sometimes the pace has been quicker than other times.

For me - growing up in a committed Christian family was the evangelistic method God' used.
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Josh
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Josh »

A friend told me I should quit getting drunk and sleeping around and become a Christian, saying so about once every week or two. For reasons I can't entirely explain, after a few months he got through to me.

I had a very low opinion of church and Christians but really wanted to find "genuine" Christianity. I was the opposite of conservative at the time, but a church 2 miles from my house said "Conservative" in tiny letters on the sign.

I felt like to truly follow God I'd have to change everything about myself and give up everything I enjoyed or liked, so off I went one day to that church.

If I'd only known what I was about to get myself into :lol:
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Wayne in Maine
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Wayne in Maine »

Wayne in Maine wrote:
Wayne in Maine wrote:I was baptized by my parish priest when I was about 2 weeks old.
And then I was confirmed at age 13. That involved a lot of memorization. I took the confirmation name of Anthony - a wise move in an Italian parish. The confirmation mass was very, very early in the morning - it was the Italian mass which was regularly attended by the old Italian ladies in the neighborhood.

Of course I was still wearing my little brown scapular which guaranteed that I would be saved from the fires of hell. The Monsignor commented on it when I was confirmed.
Then my father died.
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Sudsy
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Sudsy »

Wayne in Maine wrote:
Wayne in Maine wrote:
Wayne in Maine wrote:I was baptized by my parish priest when I was about 2 weeks old.
And then I was confirmed at age 13. That involved a lot of memorization. I took the confirmation name of Anthony - a wise move in an Italian parish. The confirmation mass was very, very early in the morning - it was the Italian mass which was regularly attended by the old Italian ladies in the neighborhood.

Of course I was still wearing my little brown scapular which guaranteed that I would be saved from the fires of hell. The Monsignor commented on it when I was confirmed.
Then my father died.
And then ?
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Valerie
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Re: Evangelism - how did you come to Jesus?

Post by Valerie »

Sudsy wrote:
Wayne in Maine wrote:
Wayne in Maine wrote: And then I was confirmed at age 13. That involved a lot of memorization. I took the confirmation name of Anthony - a wise move in an Italian parish. The confirmation mass was very, very early in the morning - it was the Italian mass which was regularly attended by the old Italian ladies in the neighborhood.

Of course I was still wearing my little brown scapular which guaranteed that I would be saved from the fires of hell. The Monsignor commented on it when I was confirmed.
Then my father died.
And then ?
I think that his testimony is building- reading with interest- hard for a young adolescent to lose their father- mindful of my own father not passing away, but he left our family when I was 15 and how God used that to draw me to Him.
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