The question that could change someone's life in church

Have you ever spent ages looking for a bunch of keys that were in your pocket all along? Or frantically searched for a pair of glasses that were actually on your face?

I wonder if we do that with our evangelism sometimes. It’s absolutely right for us to be looking everywhere we go in life for chances to offer someone the good news of Jesus: Paul tells us, 'Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.' But how often do we miss a wonderful opportunity that’s sitting right beside us on a Sunday morning?

Are you sitting next to a Christian?

It’s easy to assume that if someone's in church, they’re a Christian. But obviously that’s not always true! God can draw people to church in all sorts of ways. My parent’s church recently had the joy of baptising a young woman about a year after she turned up out of the blue with her new baby, saying she wanted him to grow up with better values than she’d done. Maybe that person you’ve not seen before has just been listening to Jordan Peterson or Tom Holland, and is hungry for a sense of depth and meaning. Perhaps they were intrigued by a street evangelist, blessed by a foodbank, or just drawn in by the sound of your singing. Or - especially in the next month - they might be a student, and whether they’re trying church for the first time or they’ve been every Sunday since the womb, you can never be sure where they are with Christ. People could walk through the door of your church for all sorts of reasons.

What this means is that we should ask God to open up our eyes and our hearts, so that we would make the most of every opportunity he gives us both in the week, and on Sunday morning. Look around: can you see anyone you don’t know? Could you go and welcome them? Don’t be put off by the possibility that they’ve been around for ages and you’ve just missed them; my friend Julia always asks, 'Have you been at church long?', because that can’t offend anyone!

Going deeper

But don’t just settle for a five minute chat. Offer to meet up, invite them round for a meal. Ask good questions so you start to hear their story with God. Maybe you’ll find that you’ve just blessed a faithful brother or sister in a new place - but you might also discover that this is someone who’s still seeking, or a fragile, baby believer. If so, praise God! He’s just brought someone into your life who literally wants you to share Christ with them. So how can you make the most of this opportunity? Could you offer to meet up fortnightly for a few months to read the Bible and pray together?

If they’re new to the Bible, you could introduce them to Jesus easily with UCCF’s brilliant UNCOVER John or Mark studies - opening up some highlights from a gospel and discussing the questions together. Philippians is a great little letter for young Christians. Or if they know all the right answers but Christ hasn’t quite captured their heart, why not pick out some of your favourite passages from Isaiah 40 to 66 and marvel at them together? And then pray. Pray about what you’ve seen in the Bible - confessing your own sin, asking Christ’s forgiveness and inviting His Spirit to change you. And invite them to pray too. Ask them what they’d like prayer for and pray for that, as well as their journey with God.

You don’t need to be eloquent, you don’t need to be a Bible scholar, you don’t need to feel like an evangelist; you just need to be a Christian and a friend. Then who knows? God might use your weak and wobbly welcome, to change the course of someone’s life, quite literally, forever.