“I don’t know how to tell my friends about Jesus” “I don’t want to force my faith”- maybe these are thoughts you’ve been having. You are not alone and sharing our faith can seem a lot harder than we often think. Everyone is uniquely wired and therefore communicating and receiving the gospel will look different for everyone. We really saw this as an opportunity to equip students in sharing their faith through our Mission Styles tool. Give the test a go if you haven’t already!
Here are the 4 Mission Styles:
Convince me
In Acts 17: 16-34 Paul preaches in Athens to a group of believers and not yet believers. This particular verse highlights how some people were convinced by this preach and others were not. There is a clear distinction in Mission styles even in the New Testament.
Run a student Alpha in your living room and invite your friends with questions. You could always invite other Christians who are convince me style if you aren’t yourself.
Host a debate evening where people can bring topics to discuss and have healthy debates over.
Talk with me
In Luke 24:13-33 Jesus is walking the road to Emmaus and joins a conversation with 2 of his followers. We see how he is listening and asking questions which builds community between the three. Talk with me’s want genuine connection and know if it’s an act. Build community genuinely and let Jesus talk through your relationship.
Go for coffee with them and ask questions about their story, but also be prepared to share your own story. They will love to listen and want the details.
Host a dinner where your non christian friends and christian friends can build community and get to know each other on a deeper level.
Show me
In Matthew 14:13-21 we read about Jesus feeding the 5000 with only 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. This miracle of God providing for his people would speak volume to a show me person. They can see the impact and difference God is making in that specific situation.
Invite them along to a baptism service where they can experience and hear for themselves the impact Jesus has had.
Help your show me friends get a community project off the ground and encourage them in the journey.
Let me experience
In Matthew 14:25-31 Jesus invites Peter onto the water and Peter accepts the invitation and has to trust God he won’t fall. The mentality that Peter had is similar to Let me experience as they want to try new things and take risks. This takes courage and we need people in the Kingdom willing to take risks.
Invite them along to your student group or to a Sunday service. They want to be invited and given a chance to try new things.
Invite them to come and serve with your church's community projects and let them get stuck in.
Start a Bible study or prayer walking on campus and get them to come along. If they stick around, give them a role like bringing snacks or booking a room out.
There are roughly 2.66 million University students in the UK and we want to see them finding Jesus and finding home in a local church. Your course mates, house mates, work mates all need Jesus and you could be a part of a long life journey for them.
