Our faith, put into action on a local level, can make an immediate and personal impact in our local communities and beyond. It starts with one person in their place, and spreads one by one, until it blankets first neighborhoods, then communities, towns, and regions. And then the whole world is covered in personal connections and meaningful actions that bear witness to the love our God has for His people and the good He wants for the world. Can you imagine what would happen if Christians rediscovered this call to share the Gospel in their deeds?
At LHM, we create resources to help you meet people right where they are. From a multitude of resources developed from research gathered in partnership with Barna Group to help Christians share their faith, strengthen their households, serve their community, and develop their God-given talents ... to Project Connect booklets that address relevant life topics from a Christ-centered point of view ... to online video Bible studies covering more than 30 topics ... to LHM Learn online courses that help you reach out with the love and Good News of Jesus Christ in your everyday life, LHM has a variety of offerings available to connect with people at any stage of their individual faith journeys. Learn more at lhm.org/resources.
Marcus Howard is a director of Christian education currently serving in the Tampa, Florida area. He was an elder in his church when the Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age resources came out. The interim pastor at the time introduced the research and materials to the lay leaders as a way to potentially lead a Bible study with the congregation.
Working with mainly middle school- and high school-aged youth, Howard thought of ways he could adapt the materials to fit the age of his students. "The Spiritual Conversation Curve is such an easy and approachable way that I think makes a big impact for people who are either unfamiliar or apprehensive about witnessing. It shows them a process that I think really works."
The Spiritual Conversation Curve serves as a roadmap for engaging in fruitful conversation with the people in our lives who do not share the Christian faith. It helps you identify the spiritual posture of the individual you are engaging in conversation (unreceptive, receptive, or seeking) and then apply an appropriate prayerful response (gain a hearing, give good news, or guide towards faith). Knowing where someone is in his or her spiritual journey helps you discern whether it is most helpful to chat, relate, share, connect, explore, or clarify.
"I like the idea of building relationships and sharing the Gospel after the relationships have been built. This opens the door for sharing God and how He's been working in your life and then being open to discussing that further with someone else," says Howard.
In addition to midweek and monthly youth events, teaching confirmation, and Bible studies, he has taught religion classes for 12 to 14-year-olds for several years. Howard printed bookmarks with a picture of the Curve for the students to use in their Bibles. Basing his lessons on the full workshop training videos, he adapted his curriculum to fit the ages of the kids in his classes.
"One of the pieces of the workshop asks if they could identify someone they wanted to share Jesus with," says Howard. "There were the usual answers of kids from camp or teammates in a sport, but some kids also had really deep answers, like one saying they wanted to pray for a sibling or another wanting to pray for a step-parent. The kids were fully engaged and were clearly thinking of a person who was on the Curve that they could pray for God's work in their lives."
"I love taking the kids places that help the Scriptures come alive to them. One of my favorite trips was to the Creation Museum to see the Ark in Kentucky. Two years ago, I took our church's kids out there, and I had something happen that stuck with me. One of our girls found a shirt in the gift shop that she loved. She told us how much she loved it and then she kind of got sad and said, 'I don't think I could ever wear it to school.' This is a real thing that kids are facing, depending on your area and your situation. Even the most spiritually vibrant kids who truly trust deeply in their faith can get discouraged at that 'share' stage. That's why I think this research and materials are so important."
Rev. Dr. Terrence Chan has served at Christ for All Nations Lutheran Church in the San Francisco area for 20 years. "The congregation began as a primarily English-speaking congregation. Over time, the ministry has grown to become a multi-ethnic congregation. One-third of our members are white, one-third are Asian, and one-third are African American."
Christ for All Nations operates a food pantry that, at one point, was the largest stand-alone food pantry in the San Francisco area. Each week, they see more than 750 people at the food pantry, which serves around 3,000 people when the individuals take the food back to their families.
They started a Saturday service in coordination with the food distribution. About 150 people would join that service, where they would hear the Gospel message and learn Christian songs.
They realized they were having a lot of new people moving into their neighborhood and they looked for other opportunities for outreach. They collaborated with a new LCMS Ethiopian congregation and partnered in ministry on their second campus. They have also started a Spanish-language ministry with a Central American congregation that has partnered with them on their main campus.
"We describe ourselves as a multi-ethnic parish of multiple congregations, languages, locations, and ministries," says Chan. "On any given week, we do outreach or worship or Bible studies in English, Cantonese, sometimes a little bit of Mandarin, Amharic, and Spanish. We've developed all kinds of programs over the years to reach out to people in our community. Many of our own church volunteers don't come from an Asian background, so we need to learn how to converse with people cross-culturally with language differences."
Pastor Chan started using LHM materials during the pandemic when they were doing online Bible studies. He found the Caring Conversations Across Cultures LHM Learn course, in particular, to be applicable to his congregation.
"The Caring Conversations course was very helpful in enabling our members to gauge how to have conversations," says Chan. "It was not only about how we can equip our people to carry out the ministry that they are already engaged in, but how they can do it better. Because of our area, it was important for us to provide training and content for how cultures communicate differently."
Through Bible study groups, members went through the LHM Learn course. They also shared the Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age resources with the larger congregation, encouraging members to go online to watch the videos and learn more.
"We are intent on resourcing other culture and language groups so that they may carry out ministry that we ourselves might not be able to carry out directly," says Chan. "We are always looking at how we can better equip our members to interact and reach out to the people in our community."