There are times where literally talking with someone might not be possible. Who said you had to say anything to get the message across?

In this blog we're going to go over some real easy and practical things you can do to share your faith with people; even if you're not able to speak with them.

Here are the topics:

• What doesn't work these days
• New Creative ways to get the message into their hands
  

What Doesn't Work These Days

You've probably seen these before and you've probably cringed just like the rest of the world when you got it: the Bible tract (aka propaganda).

There's a few reasons why these make me cringe:

• They are usually everywhere
• They  are usually too corny to take seriously
• They usually are very religious for anyone to care
• They usually explain to people they're going to hell
  

I'm sure there are other things about them that might make you cringe, but these are usually the ones that get me.

Don't get me wrong I love the intention behind them; it just so happens I've never seen an effective one yet.

However; on that note.... they are actually effective in many countries outside of Canada but I'll get to that in another blog.

They Are Usually Everywhere

I believe one of the problems the tract has is the over saturation of marketing in general. I wouldn't even say "religion" because Canada isn't a very religious country anymore.

But the fact that on every corner there is someone handing out something they want you to buy; religion included.

And because of that we've become hyper sensitive to people handing out anything.

In fact I once stood on the side of the road with a cardboard sign (like the panhandlers often do with a message asking for money) only my sign wasn't asking for money - it said "You're Awesome!"

And I turned to this girl standing beside me, who was waiting for the bus and trying not to make eye contact with me because I was holding a sign, and I pointed to it and she said "no thanks."

What?! What do you mean no thanks?! I'm not asking for anything...yet her initial response was as if I were.

The same initial response can happen when you have propaganda that imitates one of the 12 Plagues of Egypt (specifically the one where the dust turned to lice...only in this case the dust turned to #Bible tracts).

When there is too much of it people don't see it anymore.

Too Corny To Take Seriously

#Christians have been notorious for being C-Class in everything media. Ever see a terribly produced movie with a great moral to the story only to find out it was a Christian movie?

Thankfully there are people like Wanderlust Films and Alex Kendrick who are raising the bar in terms of Christian story telling in the media, and artists like Lauren Daigle and the guys on this list, who are making headway in the music industry.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like much has progressed in the world of Bible Tracts. They vary from bad jokes to bad cartoons to bad combinations of all the above.

I'm sure the guys writing those Bible tracts are aware that non-christians will be reading them, but what I'm not sure if they know or not is that most of the non-christian world has moved on from the 90's.

We need some stuff that is relevant to life, pop culture, and not cheesy.

If it's none of the above, they're probably not going to read it.

I'm a believer and even I don't want to bare reading it!

Too Religious For Anyone To Care

This one plays hand in hand with the over-saturation point mentioned earlier.

Even though Canada is predominantly atheist these days, it seems that plenty of people have had a church experience at some point in their life and most of them weren't good enough for them to want another.

This could have been a unwelcoming experience at a church visit, a judgmental comment from a self-righteous christian, or whatever... and now anything religious tends to rub them the wrong way.

As soon as someone brushes on the topic of religion and spirituality, they tune out.

This is especially so when Church Propaganda violates the key rule of engagement when it comes to evangelism which is: speak their language.

When church propaganda is latent with words like sanctification, redemption, vicarious atonement, propitiation, etc., those reading it have no idea what we're saying.

And when someone is confused with literature, they don't read it.

But don't blame them - we're the same!

When you have to read something that is complicated, you don't bother with it and look for something else.

This is the ever challenging dilemma of the marketer: learning how to get the message into palatable words.

So far I don't think Christians have been doing this well in their printed propaganda.

If we are going to reach them through this method, it's got to be said differently. I'm not saying change the message, I'm saying change the delivery.

Stick with stories, stick with testimonies, stick with interesting facts (that all relate to the message we are trying to get them). These will do much better in today's culture.

Condemning People To Hell

This one is often linked to the previous point. It can throw a two punch deadly combo of first rattling their minds with religious jargon and then ending with the threat of hell if they don't convert.

If anyone has any critique about the church it's how quick we are to talk about how bad hell is before we would talk about how good God is.

Scare tactics don't often work on people who don't believe in absolute standards of morality.

In north america, "right and wrong" are relative and the topic of hell has become barbaric because most people see themselves as  "good people."

They say, "God is going to send me to hell simply because I don't believe in Him? Well that's just."

The fact is they're missing the point. The second fact is staying out of hell shouldn't be the first motive someone comes to Jesus.

I honestly believe that if people really honestly knew Jesus; what He's like, what He stands for, what He's offering, what His love really feels like -  that it would be a no-brainer for someone to fall in love with Him.

People turn away from being rejected and when our first message of the #Gospel is turn or burn, we are leading with rejection!

Is it not surprising that when we do this, we're not seeing the revivals of God like we do in other areas of the world where the message is "come to God because He loves you!"?

Yes there is a place called #hell, yes there are people there, yes it is a terrible place to be and go and you don't want to go there - and I don't have margin to get into it in this blog but Shane Willard will tilt your mind on the topic of hell and suggest to you that perhaps the hell you know of is different than the hell Jesus talked about.

My point is, if all we're doing is handing out bad news like you're going to hell without Jesus, then the world isn't going to take us seriously.

They have enough bad news as it is.

Why not share with them the other side of the coin that the good news isn't that with #Jesus we're not going to hell, but rather that with Jesus we actually find the life we were meant to live - both now and forever.

New Creative Ways To Get The Message Into Their Hands

• Leave behinds
• Actions

Leave Behinds

Barf Bags

This is one of my favorite ones because I can only image what the look on the other person's face would be the moment they get it.

Imagine you're sitting on a plane and you're stuck there for at least 2 hours with nothing to do (especially if you're on one of those planes without TVs and you forgot to bring something like a phone or book with you).

And you reach forward to flip through the magazine (like everyone does) and you find hidden inside the magazine the barf-bag with what looks like writing all over it.

In fact there is writing on it. It's a note! It's telling a story of the person who was sitting in the chair before you (in this case me) recanting something awesome that happened in life that involved God.

I've been writing testimonies and challenges on airplane barf-bags for years now and I can only imagine what was going through that person's mind who found it.

Be sure to place it inside the magazine as it will be less likely thrown away by the cleaners.

I've written things from experiences I just had/saw while on a missions trip to interesting questions on life and how to ponder. I've even put out some apologetical challenges out there like:

"If the existence of evil suggests that God doesn't exist (because God doesn't stop it when He would/could/should), then if God doesn't exist what exactly is evil and where does it come from?

Because if God doesn't exist, then we have no absolute standard to get our morality from; we just have ourselves, our experiences, and our opinions.

So if God doesn't exist, how do we know what evil is?

Where does good come from?

And if we make it up, why is our definition of good better than the Nazis' definition of good when they were killing Jews?"

Imagine reading that on a plane! Liable to make one think - you think?

Personal Notes

There are no rules when it comes to the method of evangelism other than:

• It should be done in love
• It should be Biblically sound
• God should be involved

So who is to say that you have to speak with someone to share the message? Wouldn't a personal letter be just as suffice?

This is very close to my barf-bag method but a bit more personal.

This is a letter that you write to a person directly. You can give it to them face to face or you can mail it. You can leave your name at the bottom, or you can be anonymous.

When I was first a Christian I was 15 years old and I didn't know much about Christianity.

I did have an uncle however who was dying of lung cancer of 6 years, and I did know that I should share with him a little about God.

But I was in no position to upfront say something to him in the hospital in front of him and my parents.

First, my parents didn't know I was a Christian at the time. Second, I wouldn't have known what to say if I did start talking. So I wrote him a letter.

• I told him of a miracle story that happened to a friend of mine three months earlier where she tried to kill herself and God intervened (which is a really cool story).
• I gave him some scriptures I asked for from my youth pastor at the time
• I told him: listen if everything is true then all the good stuff happens; if it's not true then nothing happens...it's not a big gamble here
• I told him I loved him and I left it at that

Three days later he calls my house an tells my mother over the phone what happened and she comes into the room where I was, crying her eyes out, and she tells me what he told her.

He said that as soon as he began to read the letter he began to cry.

By the time he finished reading the letter he began to hack and cough violently to the point where he coughed up this huge ball of black crud into the waste basket beside him.

For the first time in 6 years he could breath on his own.

Not knowing what happened, he leaned over the bed to look in the waste basket to show the nurse what happened and whatever it was the he coughed up - was gone.

I said nothing but with that letter he heard everything.

Actions

If you haven't checked out the earlier blog Actions Speak Louder Than... I highly recommend it because it goes through ten ways you can back up your message with actions.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. They don't likely need another message on God or repentance; they need someone to love them.

They need someone to reach into their life and show them the goodness of God because at the end of the day, people will know the type of God we serve by the way that we treat them.

If we are only words and no actions, then what does that say about our God? Hasn't He commissioned us to go out and do good works? (the answer is yes).

If we talk about a loving sacrificial God who would do anything for them, are we also loving and sacrificial and willing to serve as well? If we are in word only, does that make our love only lip service?

The reason why #Christianity is spreading rapidly through India today is because they're stepping in and taking care of the #untouchables.

They are simply loving those who have been abandoned on the streets and the power of love is attracting everyone! Look to Mother Theresa for an example of that story.

When you love and serve others as Jesus did, the message will be loud and clear whether you say anything or not.

But when the time comes and they ask you why you serve, you now have opportunity to tell them of the God of love

Moral Of Today's Blog

Bible tracts don't work because they're not personal. They are a cop-out of us sharing face to face with someone.

We think if we hand them a piece of paper that they'll read it and God will take care of the rest. Sometimes that does happen but that would be an exception to the case.

What is always most effective and powerful is personal intention. But that isn't to say that it has to be face to face.

With the examples given above, personality and intention were both put it in.

For the barf-bag, someone is more likely going to read a hand written note telling of an interesting story or note of concern before they would read something generic and printed.

With the hand written note it shows intention for that person to receive it and read it and because of that, it peaks their interest. They want to know what was written to them!

Bible tracts don't say that message. They say "here, I'm too nervous to talk to you so read this generic message - I hope you get the point."

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So What Are Your Thoughts?

Who do you know right now that could use a personal note from you? Or when is the next trip you're going on that you could try out the barf-bag method? What sort of story might catch your attention in either of those two?