How to Give Away Your Faith on Your Short-Term Mission Trip

Suppose you do get one of the responses that indicate an interest. How do you lead the conversation to the point of sharing the gospel? A short article like this cannot deal with every kind of response. But for simplicity, assume the person responded, “I did not know you could be sure of eternal life. How can you know that?”; the following is a way you can respond and share the wonderful good news of the gospel:

Start by saying something like: “Well to explain how one can be sure of eternal life I like to share and explain 4 verses from the Bible.” (In preparation for this event it is suggested that you either memorize the following 4 verses of Scripture or mark them for quick reference in your Bible or a small testament that you can carry with you: Rom. 3:23, 6:23, 5:8 and John 3:16. Then it is suggested that you learn to explain these verses in your own words. Simply recite or, in your testament, point to the verse and then go word by word and explain what it means.) The following illustrates what you might say:

“The first verse says ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. ( In your own words start through the verse and explain what it means to you)…. ‘All have sinned’ means that everyone (all) is guilty of sin (doing things that are contrary to God’s will). ‘and fall short of’ means that they do not measure up to and do not deserve … ‘the glory of God’ means the splendor and attributes of God. In summary this verse means that we are all sinners and that because of our sin we do not deserve to be in the presence of God.”

“The second verse says ‘For the wages of sin is death…’. What that verse is saying is that the result of our sin is going to be death, not only physical death but, also, spiritual death, spiritual separation from God. That is bad news. However, after saying that the verse turns around and offers some good news. It says, ‘For the wages of sin is death, but, the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord’ and what that is saying is that somehow, through something done by Jesus, we can have eternal life as a free gift.”

“The third verse explains what Jesus did. It says, ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ What it says is that, because of God’s love for us, he sent Jesus to die on the cross for us as payment for our sins. It was because of this that we are able to have eternal life as a free gift.”

“The fourth verse summarizes the first three and explains what we are to do. It says, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his own begotten son, that, whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’ Here again we see that, because of His love for us, God sent Jesus to die for our sins. The verse explains that all God wants of us is to believe, to have faith, to trust in Jesus’ atonement for our sins and His resurrection, and the result is that God will give us eternal life.”