The audio from last month’s Advance Regional, Marks of a Gospel Movement, is now online. Check it out here:

SESSION 1: J.D. Greear – Marks of Gospel Movement in a Church
SESSION 2: Tyler Jones – Overcoming Hurdles for Kingdom Growth

Video coming soon!

The holidays are a time when we get to see friends and family that we don’t normally get to see. For most of us, that means spending time with some of those who are closest to us who are not Christians.  It’s a great opportunity to share the gospel, but for many of us, talking to close friends or family about Jesus is the most difficult conversation we can have.

Randy Newman has recently come out with a book called Bringing the Gospel Home. Recommending books you haven’t read is generally, well, not recommended, but I got so much out of Randy Newman’s previous book Questioning Evangelism, and I found the video below so helpful, that I’d encourage you to check it out. And right now it’s FREE, so it’s hard to go wrong there. You can download a free PDF or eBook version of the book here.

For a few highlights, check out this video. In it, Newman gives some really practical advice to help you share the gospel with your friends and family:

1. Saturate yourself in the gospel. One of the reasons that family members sometimes dismiss our faith is because they’re the ones who are closest to us – they see our highs and our lows, so they’re the most likely to notice any shallowness or even phoniness on our part. The more we grow in the gospel, not only will our lives change, but the more humble and genuine we will be about our strengths and our weaknesses.
2. Find common ground instead of always focusing on differences. Newman says, “How many times do we try to do evangelism by first convincing people how miserable they are? Isn’t there something missing in your life? Aren’t you empty? Aren’t you longing? And I think there are a lot of our friends and family who are just not as empty as we’d like them to be, so that they would be hungering. But if they could say, look at how good life is, look at all we have, where does that come from?” Share how good life is because God is creator.
3. Brainstorm 12 things you could say. Most of us focus on trying to come up with that one right thing to say, and it paralyzes us. Instead, come up with several, and throw out the bad ones.
4. Deepen your conversation about non-spiritual things. Learn how to talk about non-spiritual things in a way that leadsto the spiritual. Don’t open the conversation with the Romans Road.
5. Don’t wait until it’s comfortable. “Comfortable evangelism is an oxymoron, at least for most people…Most people do not have the gift of evangelism.”
6. Remember it takes time. Instant results are rare. Be willing to take one step at a time, working incrementally.
7. Witnessing to family members takes love. Love people genuinely. Remember they are people, not projects.
8. Don’t be surprised if it’s difficult. We usually think that if we know the right thing to say, it will be easy, but often it’s not. Witnessing to your family takes faith. Continually go back to the gospel to remind yourself of the hope we all have in Christ, and the power of the gospel to save.

Last year we launched something we call Preaching Cohorts to develop current and future preachers. We have a goal of planting 1000 churches in the next 40 years, which means we need to raise up hundreds of men who are equipped and qualified to preach and teach God’s word.

Qualified doesn’t mean you have to be the next (insert your favorite mega-church pastor) to plant a church. But it does mean there is a threshold of ability which is appropriate for the scope of the ministry God has called you to. For some, reaching that threshold comes more naturally. For other, it takes more work. Preaching is both a gift you have and a skill you develop. And the latter is true regardless of your level of the former.

There are 3 BASIC WAYS you can develop in preaching (these aren’t revolutionary, but they’re worth repeating):

1) Read and listen to sermons of great preachers

I’ve found even the most experienced and gifted preachers do this. When they get tired of listening to guys who are alive, they dig up dead ones. Two things I’ve learned: Listen to several different preachers, not just one or two. I learned this from Tim Keller: “When you listen and read one thinker, you become a clone… two thinkers, you become confused… ten thinkers, you’ll begin developing your own voice… two or three hundred thinkers, you become wise.” Listen to people outside your tribe. Don’t just listen to the guys you like. If you like Mark Driscoll, listen to Andy Stanley. Different tribes have different emphases in preaching. If you can’t learn from people outside your tribe, you’re limiting your growth.

2) Read books and articles on preaching

Here are the top resources we recommend in our preaching cohorts, more or less in this order:

1. Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching
   (THE bible on preaching for the last 25 years)
2. Bryan Chappell, Christ-Centered Preaching
   (another basic text w/ a focus on Christ-centered, expository preaching)
3. D. Martin Lloyd Jones, Preaching and Preachers
   (unsurpassed in addressing the life of a preacher)
4. Andy Stanley, Communicating for a Change
   (especially his “Me–We–God–You–Us” approach)
5. Tim Keller, Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World
   (Rumor is Keller has a book on preaching coming out as early as next year. In the meantime, this is an entire class that he taught at RTS. It’s a lot to listen to, but worth every minute.)

3) Preach

For all the listening to sermons and reading books, there is no substitute for actual preaching. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says that you don’t become really good at something until you’ve done it for at least 10,000 hours. I find that both challenging and encouraging. Aspiring preachers should take every opportunity to preach, even if it doesn’t seem worth it. I remember a time I got a preaching gig at a small church. There were maybe 30 people in the room, half of them over 100. I’ll never forget when one of the little old ladies came up to me afterwards. She said, “Great sermon, pastor.” When I thanked her, she proceeded to tell me she couldn’t hear me because the battery in her hearing aid was dead.

Which leads to an important caveat: there is no substitute for good feedback. Preaching one sermon with good feedback can be more productive than preaching dozens without it. A lot of aspiring preachers run to an empty pulpit where they’ll get to preach, when they’d be better off running to a full one where they’ll get to learn. Find a church whose teaching you respect that has a vision for developing preachers.