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If you tell others about Jesus, you probably want all the help you can get. Here are 3 books that have helped me in my understanding of evangelism and in conversations with non-believers:

1. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions, by Gregory Koukl

Official description: Drawing on extensive experience defending Christianity in the public square, Koukl shows you how to: – Initiate conversations effortlessly – Present the truth clearly, cleverly, and persuasively – Graciously and effectively expose faulty thinking – Skillfully manage the details of dialogue – Maintain an engaging, disarming style even under attack. Tactics provides the game plan for communicating the compelling truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.

What it meant to me: I enjoyed reading this book because it deals with sides of evangelism that can be tricky, especially dealing with attacks from people. The author also describes plenty of examples from his life that I could relate to. Finally, it helped me to think through how I would answer people in different scenarios.

2. God’s Undertaker, by John Lennox

Official description: If we are to believe many modern commentators, science has squeezed God into a corner, killed and then buried him with its all-embracing explanations. Atheism, we are told, is the only intellectually tenable position, and any attempt to reintroduce God is likely to impede the progress of science. In this stimulating and thought-provoking book, John Lennox invites us to consider such claims very carefully. Is it really true, he asks, that everything in science points towards atheism? Could it be possible that theism sits more comfortably with science than atheism? Has science buried God or not? Now updated and expanded, God’s Undertaker is an invaluable contribution to the debate about science’s relationship to religion.

What it meant to me: This was a fascinating read. There were many practical examples of scientific evidence for a Creator, and of leading scientists that believe in God. The main argument that stuck to my mind was about DNA, which is 3 billion letters of intelligent code. It is much more probable that there is a designer/coder behind it, than it appearing purely by chance — which is close to absolutely impossible. The book also answers many of the attacks from Richard Dawkins against Christianity and exposes some of the weakness of his arguments. A great read!

3. Can Man Live Without God, by Ravi Zacharias

Official description: In this brilliant and compelling defense of the Christian faith, Ravi Zacharias shows how affirming the reality of God’s existence matters urgently in our everyday lives. According to Zacharias, how you answer the questions of God’s existence will impact your relationship with others, your commitment to integrity, your attitude toward morality, and your perception of truth.

What it meant to me: This book helped me understand how we arrived at the relativistic society we live in today. The two appendices at the end of the book were also particularly helpful. One is a transcript from a question/answer session at Harvard University. The second is about “mentors to the skeptic,” the philosophers who have shaped modern societies by their thinking. A must read if you live in a country where atheism is the most common belief.

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Love your city! Start a Jesus Revolution group, and spread the love of Christ in all ways, so that people can meet with Him.

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This year in connection with our annual Summer Team, we are launching something new: the Summer Team Leader Academy. You now have the amazing opportunity to combine missions, telling people about Jesus, growing as a leader,  and having a fun blast with all the others joining the trip.

Who can join?
Anyone of the following can apply:

• Jesus Revolution group leaders
• 2nd, 3rd, 4th time Summer Team Participants
• Youth leaders

What topics will be covered?

• Leading Yourself
• The Leader’s Life with God
• The 5 Levels of Leadership
• Team Leadership
• Leading in Evangelism
• And much more…

In practice During Summer Team, the morning teaching sessions will be divided in two groups, one of which will be the Leader Academy.  Different leadership opportunities will also be given as we evaluate each application for the Academy.

We look forward to see you there!

Any questions? Post a little comment

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I had a boldness breakthrough in my last year of high school. I had realized that it was time to show the world I didn’t care what they thought about me. I was determined to make a statement. So I prepared in all secrecy the boldest, most radical plan I had ever devised. The following day I came to school a bit shaky as you could clearly see on me the daring statement:

I was not wearing hair-wax.

We all struggle at times with different types of fear, some more rational than others. I don’t know for you, but I have missed many opportunities to tell others about Jesus. I have listened to stupid, discouraging thoughts. I may still not be the boldest person in the world, but have traveled a long journey since high school. I can engage different people I meet, and share my faith in a simple way. Here are some simple things that have helped me overcome my fears:

1. Ask God to Fill Your Heart With Love

“Well-formed love banishes fear. 1 John 4:18″

This is the first and most obvious step. If you do not care about something, you will do nothing about. If you truly love people, and understand they are going towards an eternity without Him, you will want to win them for Christ. In my own life, if I stop caring that people are going to an eternity apart from Christ, I know something is wrong. I need to come to God again, and ask Him to fill me with His love.

2. Determine The Worst Case Scenario

Think right now: What is realistically the worst thing that could happen if you told someone about Jesus? For me, that’s probably the person I speak to getting out a gun, putting it to my forehead and saying they will kill me. Okay, just kidding. I said realistically. It could be they don’t want to speak about it and walk away, it could be they laugh a little, it could be they think I’m strange. But it could also be they get to experience God, to feel His love, to encounter His grace, and to change their eternal destiny. That is enough to make it worth the risk.

3. Don’t Give Yourself Too Much Time to Think

There is a sign on a Floridian beach for the lifeguards that says:

“If in doubt, go”

A lifeguard knows that if he sees someone in the distance that could be drowning, he should not stay on his chair. He should not debate with himself whether he should go and check it out or not.

The principle is the same for me. When I sense a nudge from God to go and speak to someone, the more I wait, the more I wrestle with myself, the more I diminish my chances of speaking to the person. But if I act immediately on the impulse without taking time to think of all the reasons why this person will not be interested, I often have good conversations, and people experience God. So if you are in doubt whether God is asking you to speak to a person, go anyway!

4. Have Your Opening Sentence Ready

This is what stops most people from taking the first step: “What am I going to say?” I shared my most common opening line in an earlier post:

“Hello, do you speak English? (I live in Norway) My name is Paul, I come from France and I am a Christian. I love to speak with people about God and to hear what they believe, or if you don’t believe at all, or hate Christians (in a joking way). So, do you believe in God?”

Around 80-85 % of the people I speak to start saying why they do or don’t believe in God. The hardest part is through, they are now doing the speaking.

5. Have Your Following Question Ready

• If they say they don’t believe in God, my follow up question is simple:

“Are there any special reasons why you don’t believe in Him?”

This allows me to immediately know where they are in their journey towards God. Sometimes they believe science has disproved God, or have had a bad experience with Christians, the answers are many. But again, they are the ones doing the talking.

• If they do believe in God, you have common ground! My question to them is then sometimes:

“Have you ever experienced Him personally?”

That is another question for me to decide how to approach the next phase of the conversation.

6. Remember That People are Open

A friend of mine once said this:

The place in the world where people are the most closed to the gospel is in the minds of the Christians.

He has a point! If I approach people in a humble way, being willing to listen to them first, then most people that I speak to are at open to share their experiences, and to hear what I have experienced with God. Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, and that applies all over the world. I often need to remind myself of this!

Share Your Thoughts

Do you have any good tips about overcoming fear to speak about Jesus that you would like to share? Or any questions? Then I’d love to hear your comments!

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This is the heartbeat and vision of Jesus Revolution.

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1st Missionary and Jesus Revolution Groups in Africa

In the beginning of the year, we had the joy of sending out Katrin Wöstmann to Kenya. For her, it was a long time dream to travel to the continent, and be a part of God’s work there. For us, it was the opportunity to see if the Jesus Revolution groups concept would work on a continent to which we have not been before. In 4 months, two groups were trained and sent out to the harvest, seeing more than 500 people seek salvation.

1st Team and Youth Conference in India

India, the country with the most youth in the world, needs a Jesus Revolution! We were thrilled to join Rune Edvardsen and his Troens Bevis team in two of their campaigns, and to organize our own youth conference with 250 youth. They were trained in dance, drama and singing, leaving them empowered to give the gospel to their city. At night, we held our own concerts where over 600 youth saw our Crew in action. During the youth conference, 90 people sought salvation.

1st Jesus Revolution Office Outside Norway

The Italian office visiting Norway

Our heart is to pass on the work of Jesus Revolution to national leaders that have a heart to reach the youth of their nation. In our early years, we started up offices abroad but without national ownership. In Italy, Marco Van Gent, a young leader part of a national denomination, has taken the initiative to start an office. Already, from this office, a Jesus Revolution group in Italy has been started. This is an important milestone for the future work of spreading the gospel to as many countries and cities as possible.

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We look back at last year with thankfulness and look forward to another year of adventures! Continue to pray for the work of reaching the youth of the world with the Gospel!

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Have you ever wanted to share your faith with your friends, but thought they might have many difficult questions about God?

The good news is that you are not the only one in this situation. Many Christians have struggled with questions from their friends. But many have also devoted their time and minds to answering these questions about God. This field of Christianity is called apologetics. There are plentiful of resources available that can help you tackle these questions. Here are some of my favorite:

Ravi Zacharias’ videos and podcasts

The motto of Ravi Zacharias’ ministry is: “helping the thinker believe, helping the believers think”. Ravi travels to diverse arenas (including universities) across the world. He presents the Christian faith and answers people’s questions. His podcasts, “Let My People Think”, and “Just Thinking” address many of the most common questions about God. These podcasts have been extremely enriching for my thought life, and given me answers for my conversations on the streets.  On the “Just Thinking” podcast, every Friday is devoted to a Q&A session from a university around the world. If you want the best of the best, this is it!

Website: www.rzim.org
Books: on Amazon
Podcasts: Just Thinking (Daily), Let My People Think (Weekly)
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/rzimmedia

John Lennox videos, books and articles

You may have heard of Richard Dawkins. He is an Oxford professor that wrote the “God delusion.” But you may not have heard of John Lennox. He is also a professor at Oxford, and an opponent to Dawkins in various debates concerning God and science. You can find the most famous of these debates — called the “God Delusion debate” — here. I usually refer to his book “God’s Undertaker” — although I admit some of it was out of my depth — when needing to find good arguments for God based in modern science.

Website: JohnLennox.org
Books: on Amazon

William Lane Craig videos, books, articles podcasts

William Lane Craig is a world renown defender of the Christian faith and frequently engages in debates with atheists. His book “On Guard” is a good entry level apologetics resource. He has also developed an iphone app with all his articles and podcasts. I have enjoyed watching his debate videos and have been equipped by his arguments.

Website: ReasonableFaith.org
App: Reasonable Faith App
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/ReasonableFaithOrg
Podcast: Reasonable Faith

Do you know of any other useful resources — websites, podcasts, books — to answer difficult questions about God? Post them in the comments, and I will update the article with them.

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A new field of study is emerging in Christian circles. It is the study of “loser-ship”. In other words, how can you be the best — or is it worst? — Christian loser possible. OK, maybe not. But concerning leadership, I find it helpful to know what I don’t want my life to look like. By identifying the wrong track, I can easily recognize if I am there and change my course. So here is what life in “losership” looks like:

1. I do not engage the future.

I think only about the present, and am just discontent enough to not enjoy it. If I do think about the future, I only worry, and do not plan how I am going to change it. I do not dream, my feet stay firmly planted on the ground. I also live as if the future will never happen. My inner order of importance is defective. I waste vast amounts of time on entertainment and trivial matters, forgetting my time will be counted.

2. I do not take risks.

I don’t want to lose anything. Neither my reputation, nor my dignity or my image. I play safe and run as far as I can from anything risky.

3. I am not intentional about growth.

I neither plan nor practice the daily disciplines that make me grow in love to God and others.

4. I do not deal with my pride.

I often compete, and might win sometimes, but on the inside, I always lose. I always find someone better to compete with. I notice all the other people struggling with pride, not seeing that it points even further to my own.

5. I do not stop and reflect.

I’m trapped. I’m not able to take a good hard look at my life, as if through the eyes of someone else. I’m not able to reflect on the lessons taught through everyday events. I don’t allow time for thoughts to linger through several days, and never take time to analyze issues in depth.

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What are some of the ways you do not want your life to look like? Leave a comment and join the discussion.

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