Sharing your faith can be a hard thing to do. Effectively sharing your faith is an even harder thing to do. Over the past five months, my teammates and I have learned a thing or two about what works well and what doesn’t work at all. The two biggest things I have learned from my teammates are to be bold and listen more than you speak.
Boldness is actually something that was spoken over me at the very beginning of The Race. It was the first day of training camp during worship when a volunteer walked up to me and said, “God told me to tell you that you need to be bold.” It has taken me all five of these months to learn how to do that and, trust me, I am still learning. By example, my teammates have showed me the importance and effectiveness of boldness when it comes to sharing your faith. Whether it was by asking to pray for a stranger on the street, bringing up Jesus to our taxi driver, or having deep conversations with our ministry partners; my teammates have taught me how to be bold. Now, I am growing in my own confidence and have been able to do things like these on my own, with my team encouraging me. I have experienced the fruit that can be produced from just a little bit of boldness, stepping out to share my faith.
It’s easy to think that it’s impossible to have a conversation without listening, that’s what I used to think. My team has showed me how wrong that thinking is. They have taught me that in order to effectively share my faith, I must listen more than I speak. They also altered my definition of listening. I learned that true listening means I am not thinking of what I should say next when another person is talking, but instead I am seeking to understand them. This means that when someone is sharing their story, I need to simply give them all of my attention and do nothing more. When it comes to sharing your faith, this is vital because it makes people more comfortable with you, it makes them confident that they are heard, and ultimately, it makes them feel safe. With all of that, what you share with them is then truly taken to their heart and you have the opportunity to further discuss all of their thoughts, concerns, and questions. Everyone is more eager to talk with and listen to a good listen, especially when the topic is our faith.
These strategies have drastically improved my ability to effectively share my faith. I cannot thank my team enough for exhibiting these great qualities to me and having the grace to work with me as I learned them. I am excited to see what else my teammates and I will learn as we continue our journey and spread our faith even more.
