“You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.”(Deut. 11:18-21 NRSV)

Often when families gather for celebrations or when friends see one another after having been apart for some time, they share stories; they remember and rehearse shared moments from the distant past and significant recent experiences. Remembering and rehearsing our stories gets at the very heart and soul of who we are. Our stories help us claim and reclaim our identity. They have power for us and for others.

In the ancient Hebrew faith, God asked the people to tell their story, so that the people in the future would remember that they were a people of the Exodus and that God remained faithful. In rehearsing those stories through the rituals of faith, the Hebrew people remembered their personal and communal identity.

Storytelling, or sharing faith, is not new. It is part of the fiber and fabric of who we are as individuals and as a community of faith. God invited the people to keep the words close, not only to remember who they were on the Sabbath or on high holy days, but in everyday living. Their lives, their decisions, were to be made based on the story and values inherent in their heritage.

In Philemon we read: “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ” (1:6 NRSV). Here we see that faith-sharing goes beyond what it does for us alone. It is for Christ in that we reach out to others that they may know the richness and fullness of life in Christ.

One of the evangelism requests we receive most often from local churches, districts, and conferences is to help train people in sharing their faith. This is a generation with no church memory and no acquaintance with the Scriptures and stories of the Old and New Testaments. However, many who have been in the church for a long time still assume that people are aware of the faith stories of Scripture. Yet they do not see themselves as having a faith story to share unless they have had a dramatic experience like that of Paul in the Scriptures. To be able to share faith, telling how our relationship with God through Christ has made a difference in our living and relating to others, we must first be able to identify our own faith journey.

Personal Faith-Sharing
People are seeking a spirituality of journey rather than a prescribed set of beliefs. They do not want to be told what to believe. They want to hear from others how God has been present in their life journey. They may even long to be invited into the story of another’s life, hoping for a touchstone in that story with which they can identify. However, for that to happen, people need to be able to identify how Christ has, in fact, made a difference in their everyday living. Our faith journey is more than our autobiography. People need to be given an opportunity to remember their life story and the specific ways their relationship with God has made a difference in their lifestyle, decision making, and relating. This is the story we have opportunity to share in our everyday living. The church can provide settings where people can “safely” begin to identify their faith story and be nurtured in the faith. Are there settings in your church where this already takes place? What settings in your church can easily become places of faith formation where people learn how to naturally speak of their faith journey and feel safe and invited to share their continuing search and struggles in the faith? Where do people find the safe places to be vulnerable to question and to hear others question how we continue the journey in the hard moments and in the joyful moments of life?

People are seeking a spirituality that includes journey. The decision along the way in which we say yes to God in Jesus Christ is only the beginning. There are many points along the way where we come to know God more and reach the point of transformation and conversion, turning in a new direction. Christian faith is dynamic, not static. The church can provide settings where people are nurtured and encouraged in their discipleship and listen to God for ways to live with integrity and authenticity in relation to the faith they proclaim.

The most effective way for the church to reach out to people where they are is to help them develop relationships of trust and to help them grow in their competency and confidence in sharing faith. The faith we share will carry credibility if it is in alignment with the lifestyle we live, including the ways we struggle with life decisions. The church can provide settings and arenas to help individuals and the community explore the questions of Jesus: “Who do you say that I am? Do you love me?”

Family Faith-Sharing
At one point in our history, the Sunday school enhanced the faith formation that took place in the home. Unfortunately, for many, in Christendom the Sunday school supplanted the home as the place for Christian education and for teaching about the Christian faith. The question is not, “Does faith formation take place in your home?” It is, “What kind of faith formation is taking place in your home?” The church can provide settings that help families of all configurations network to learn from one another.

The church can provide settings where people learn to “see” how life and ritual in the home can be both forming and transforming as they encounter God in the everydayness of life. By its very lifestyle, the church models what it means to be Christian community (family). Committees, ministry areas, administrative groups, and other groups model, by their decision-making processes, what it means to live together in Christ. As family life engages in faith formation, intentionally or not, so too congregational life models faith formation and Christian community, intentionally or not.

The Faith-Sharing Congregation
If someone asks the question, Who is an evangelist? the response heard most often is a pastor or perhaps a layperson who is known to be a faith-sharer. But in the Scriptures we have an additional picture of “one” who shares faith. The life of the community, the whole ethos of the households of faith in the New Testament, served as a sharer of the good news and an invitation for others to look more closely at what made the Christian community so “attractive.” One passage reads: “See how they love one another.”

The congregation is also the evangelist, a “body” that shares faith, hospitality, and invitation. Thus it goes far beyond training individuals to share faith in their daily lives. It has to do with the whole personality, culture, and climate of the congregation itself. Most often people are invited to worship by persons they trust. But, what is their experience when they come to worship?

Recently, a friend was a first-time visitor at a worship service. It was assumed that everyone knew which worship book to use, where to look for the various elements of the service, what behavior was appropriate for different parts of worship. There was no indication in the bulletin to help the visitor follow and participate in the worship service. In a small-group setting that followed the worship service, two choruses were sung; again, it was assumed that everyone knew the words and tune. This visitor felt very much like an outsider. We don’t intentionally make visitors feel like outsiders. Most often that happens when we have not carefully looked at our bulletins or our worship services through a visitor’s eyes.

Being a faith-sharing congregation is more than having official, assigned greeters and ushers. It has to do with the ethos and lifestyle of the congregation itself. There was a time when the church was considered public property and everyone felt they had a right to be there—at any church. But now churches are often seen as private property, a possession of the community (person) of faith occupying it. That, along with the fact that with current technology we are able to live and work and exist with few personal relationships, means that the ethos of the congregation as a place where people feel welcome and, eventually, “at home” is increasingly important. We are relational beings, and the way the congregation helps people relate to others, providing settings where they can search for a meaningful spirituality, will make a difference in the response of people who visit our church. People need more than simply to know about God. They need settings where they can encounter God in their own lives. This is more likely in a congregation if they have experienced gracious hospitality and welcome in that place.

Most churches probably feel they are welcoming and inviting. The question to ask is, to whom are we welcoming, caring, inviting, friendly? Is it mostly to ourselves, or do we work to provide settings for visitors and others in the community where they can feel invited and welcomed?

Faith-sharing—personal, family, or congregational—is a moment of invitation and hospitality evangelism that offers the good news of Jesus Christ through the transformation that has al-ready taken place in our own lives. Faith-sharing is invitational, not impositional. It is our participation in biblical hospitality. It is part of the whole of hospitality evangelism. It is integral to the process of participating with God in making disciples in grateful response to the love and grace God has already given in Jesus Christ.

Evangelism and Faith-Sharing and The General Board of Discipleship:
Partners in Discipleship
 The ministries of sharing faith and hospitality are an integral part of the primary task of the local congregation: reaching out and receiving people, helping them relate to God, nurturing them in the faith, and sending them forth into the community to make the community more loving and just. The General Board offers help in this system of hospitality evangelism through print and audiovisual resources, workshops, training events, and consultations.

Print and Audiovisual Resources
 Available from Discipleship Resources, (800) 972-0433, www.discipleshipresources.org, and Cokesbury, (800) 672-1789:

The General Board of Discipleship works in partnership with conference and district leaders to develop evangelism strategies:

  • Faith-Sharing Initiative. The General Board of Discipleship's Faith-Sharing Initiative encourages the connections in the conference and district to work together to support and encourage the development of faith-sharing communities. For more information, contact Robbie Jones, 615-340-7054; toll-free: 877-899-2780, ext. 7054; rjones@gbod.org.
  • Schools of New Congregational Development. This evangelism strategy helps annual conferences, districts, and local churches plan new churches and revitalize and transform existing ones. For more information, contact Craig Miller, 615-340-7081; 877-899-2780, ext. 7081; cmiller@gbod.org.
  • Lay Witness Mission. The Lay Witness Mission has been a model for developing small groups, encouraging faith-sharing and witnessing, developing new leadership, and reaching out to unchurched and inactive persons. For more information, contact Robbie Jones, 615-340-7054; toll-free: 877-899-2780, ext. 7054; rjones@gbod.org.

For more information about any of the above events or strategies, please contact the General Board of Discipleship, PO Box 340003, Nashville, TN 37203-0003. Also visit the evangelism web site at http://www.gbod.org/evangelism.

Shirley F. Clement is retired from the General Board of Discipleship, Nashville, Tennessee.

Updated May 2004
 

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