Jason Jarvis said one of his favorite stories shows what it looks like to move from “I want to” to “I am.”
It started with a gospel conversation training led by Sam Neugent, who serves with e3 Partners.
“We had a gentleman in our church who was 76, and he said he had been a Christian for 65 years,” said Jarvis, pastor of Calera Baptist Church. “He had invited people to church before but never shared the gospel with someone. The week after the training, for the very first time he invited someone to give their life to Christ.”
Jarvis said the training has also helped others in the congregation who have been frightened or hesitant to share the gospel.
‘Meaningful and beneficial’
“It’s been very meaningful for our church and very beneficial,” he said.
Neugent said that’s his hope for gospel conversation training, which he leads as part of e3’s Made to Multiply initiative.
The training is built around the 411 tool, which uses questions like: Why should I go out into the harvest field? To whom should I talk? What should I say? When should I get started? When should I start praying and for whom should I pray? And when should I train someone else in what I’ve learned?
After walking through these and teaching the 3 Circles evangelism strategy, Neugent teaches those present how to begin helping new believers walk down the road of following Jesus.
“If you lead somebody to Christ, it’s your job to disciple them,” he said.
Neugent has seen this type of training impact believers and fuel evangelism and discipleship time after time. Before transitioning into stateside evangelism training, he served in a role with e3 in which he trained missions teams to share their faith in Latin American countries.
Evangelism tools
Now, as the United States is growing more unchurched, Neugent is working with e3 to help them reach their goal to train 1 million Americans to share their faith by the end of 2026.
So far, he’s led 14 one-day training sessions.
At the end of each session, the group goes out together to knock on doors in a neighborhood and talk with people about faith in Jesus.
“At a recent training, we talked to 50 people in one hour,” Neugent said. “Some of those people told us to get off their property. Some were friendly and listened but weren’t ready, and some were already believers. But five people we talked to said they wanted to follow Christ.”
Jarvis said the training helped many in his congregation feel more confident in how to get a conversation from “hello” to “let me tell you about Jesus.”
“Sam knows how to push you forward and challenge you,” he said. “It helps encourage people to get out of their shell and do what we really, deep down, want to do. I think every single person wants to see people come to Christ but may need some encouragement to go from ‘I want to’ to ‘I am.’”
For more information or to schedule a gospel conversation training, contact Neugent at sam.neugent@e3partners.org or 205-835-7266.
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