Simple Ways to Share Your Faith

By Phyllis Porter Dolislager

God knows! He leads. He directs. I just follow. I show up. I’m present. But this kind of active, fully engaged presence keeps me on my toes and on my knees. So often it’s too easy to just relax—enjoy life—and sadly the opportunities will walk by, drive by, or go fishing. That’s not what I want. With God’s help I plan to continue “showing up.”

Chapter Titles include Conversation Starters, Tips for Shy People, Seasonal Suggestions, Extreme Methods, and Teaching Our Children. This book takes the fear out of sharing your faith and replaces it with practical suggestions.

This book presents a plethora of ways to share one’s faith. It’s my prayer that you’ll not only pick up some new ideas, but that you’ll use them on your journey of faith.

A Christian is one who makes it easy to believe in Jesus.
--Ruth Bell Graham

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phyllis Porter Dolislager
• Release date: Jan 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458141057

Phyllis Porter Dolislager

Phyllis Porter Dolislager is the author of ten books. She is a writing consultant and gives writing workshops encouraging others to write about significant birthdays, anniversaries, and family memories. Lessons Learned on the Farm, a family memoir, is her best-selling book. She and her husband split their time between Tennessee and Florida.

Book preview

Preface

I Show Up and He Directs

As Ron and I leaned on the railing of our second-story balcony, enjoying the sunset over the IntraCoastal Waterway, we couldn’t help but notice that a fellow renter had just caught a fish. Ron called out and asked him what kind it was. That led to him telling us how much he was enjoying the sunset too, and that he was about to call his mother in Chicago and tell her about it.

After living in Florida for twenty-four years, we still wonder at how easy it is for us mid-westerners to connect. Later Ron saw the fisherman on his balcony, and it turned out that he was our next-door neighbor.

A few days later, we put a note under his door saying that anyone who enjoyed sunsets, fishing and had a mother in Chicago sounded like someone we’d like to get to know. We signed it, Former Michiganders, with our names and phone number.

The next day I saw him fishing again, and he spotted me on the balcony. Immediately he came over, introduced himself and told me just how much our note meant to him. He’d lived in our building for six months and had only met three people.

Two or three days later, as he sat in our living room, we got to know each other as we watched Michigan State defeat Notre Dame in overtime. (We also had a love for football in common.) As he left, I gave him some of my special chili and some French bread. He told me that he seldom gets home-made food—it meant a lot to him.

Our neighbor is a story in progress, but he’s part of a commission God seemed to give me one night. Or was it a promise . . . that wherever we lived next would be my new arena for sharing my faith. We had lived in the same neighborhood for ten years. We had gotten to know almost all of our immediate neighbors rather well, and I had been able to share my faith with at least eight of them. And now it was time to start anew.

We were as surprised as the next person to find ourselves in Palm Beach, Florida in a two-bedroom apartment, overlooking the IntraCoastal Waterway. When I’d prayed, asking God for a place with a view of the water, I’d never in my wildest dreams imagined Palm Beach. But God had a grand answer to my simple request, and the opportunities to share my faith began immediately.

I was able to give the Property Manager, one of my small books. Later she told me how she’d even read parts of it aloud to the person, who was in charge of maintenance.

Then the man came to install cable TV. I asked if he had any time to read. When he answered in the affirmative, I showed him four, small sermon booklets from Robert Schuller of the Hour of Power. I let him choose one. The next person was working on the DSL. When he found out the importance of DSL to me as a writer, he was curious about what I wrote. He was thrilled to leave with one of my small books.

Our neighbor was next—followed by four young people we met in the pool. We’d bantered about football, baseball, etc. As we left, I offered to loan them our noodles to float on. They gladly accepted. When they returned the noodles, they asked to borrow some garlic. And when they returned the garlic, I gave them a business card—in case they ever needed something else. And of course, that has my website address, which at that time had a free e-book to download. And who knows?

God knows! He leads. He directs. I just follow. I show up. I’m present. But this kind of active, fully engaged presence keeps me on my toes and on my knees. So often it’s too easy to just relax—enjoy life—and sadly the opportunities will walk by, drive by, or go fishing. That’s not what I want. With God’s help I plan to continue showing up.

* * *

This book presents a plethora of ways to share one’s faith. It’s my prayer that you’ll not only pick up some new ideas, but that you’ll use them on your journey of faith.

* * *

A Christian is one who makes it easy

to believe in Jesus.

--Ruth Bell Graham

Foreword

Dr. Bob Barnes

Twenty years ago I was having lunch with a pastor in our city. In the middle of our conversation, he somehow drew the two men sitting at the next table into our conversation. At first, I thought he must know them from somewhere, but it quickly became apparent that they were complete strangers. However, then the scene became even more bizarre. Before I knew it, my pastor friend was praying with the two men—right there in the restaurant. That day, both businessmen prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their LORD and Savior.

After lunch, we walked to the car and I asked my friend, Was that your intention? Did you start talking to them so you could get the opportunity to share Christ with them? When my friend answered in the affirmative I asked, How did you do that?

For weeks I tried his approach. When I went to lunch I tried to engage people in spiritual conversations, and I only ended up alienating people in restaurants and giving myself indigestion! My pastor friend’s approach was not working for me. I needed my own way of sharing my faith. I knew I needed to find the way God wanted to use me to share the greatest gift of all. I needed an opportunity to witness other approaches for sharing the gospel.

That was twenty years ago. Since then God has given me an approach that fits the way He made me. There is no longer a reason to fumble around. In Simple Ways to Share Your Faith, Phyllis Dolislager has given the reader 101 examples of how various people have been used by God to share their faith. Finally, a book with an opportunity for every one of us to find ourselves. Read it and Reap!

Robert G. Barnes, Ed.D., President

Sheridan House Family Ministries

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Foreword

How to Use This Book

Chapter One – Conversation Starters

Chapter Two – Tips for Shy People

Chapter Three – Tell a God-Story

Chapter Four – Seasonal Suggestions

Chapter Five – See a Need

Chapter Six – Give a Tract or a Book

Chapter Seven – Extreme Methods

Chapter Eight – Teaching Our Children

Chapter Nine – More Ideas

Chapter Ten – Bridging the Gap

Final Preparation and Thoughts

Afterword and Afterthoughts

Simple Ways to Share Your Faith Globally

About the Author

How to Use This Book

While your relationship to Christ is personal,

God never intends it to be private.

--Rick Warren

How to Use This Book

This book presents ideas that I and others have found helpful. They’re presented in a sincere and straightforward format for you to examine, peruse, or speed read through. This is not meant as the-best-idea-for-everyone-to-read-and-follow-completely book. Through it all, continuously