Training People for Everyday Evangelism: Blockages & Breakthroughs

It was great to come together around Australia and have a particular focus on Hope in 2025. I love how Churches were thinking about evangelism and that there was some fruit from our efforts. I personally ran some training across Australia and was amazed at how many people came along. It was so encouraging.

However, evangelism is a bit like the accelerator on a car, if you take your foot off, momentum can slowly grind to a halt. And that is the danger of doing a focussed year on evangelism. After it’s finished, we feel like we’ve done evangelism. In fact, when I was a Staff worker at Melbourne Uni for Christian Union, after we’d just finished a busy Mission Week, I heard a student say, ‘Phew, I’m glad evangelism is over for the year!’

So what do we do now that we’ve had a particular focus on evangelism in 2025? Well, there are plenty of options. The question for those in ministry and who are leading a Church is, what do their people need to help them feel confident in sharing their faith in everyday situations?

I find there are 4 things that stop people from sharing the hope that they have. (These observations will be developed in more depth in a chapter of a forthcoming book by City to City)

1. Fear - mostly of rejection. People don’t want to lose friendships over a seemingly controversial topic, nor do they want their friends or family to feel like they’re projects.

2. Unskilled - People often tell me that they are fairly ill equipped to talk about how their faith matters in their everyday life. They don’t know how to transition from regular topics to a conversation where God enters in.

3. The Culture - it’s an external pressure that makes it unpleasant to talk about our faith and just seems culturally inappropriate. We can’t do much about the culture and it will change over time. And some people are definitely more warm to Christianity than they’ve been for a long time.

4. Forget - it’s interesting but some people say, I just forget! They don’t remember to talk about their faith in their everyday lives. Now, partly that’s understandable if you’re a worker and you need to put your mind towards work, or if you’re studying and your thoughts are elsewhere.

So, if this is how most people feel, what can we do as a Church?

1. Regularly talk about conversations people are having in the service or other groups, or share encouraging stories of people becoming Christians.

2. Have yearly training to address certain topics, or to help people feel equipped. I’d get someone from outside the Church to do it as most ministers say, ‘I’ve said this before but somehow when someone else comes in, it lands for people!’ Why wouldn’t all Christians want to feel good about being able to share their faith with their friends and family. Let’s help people be able to do that.

Here are some courses to help Christians better engage with everyday conversation about faith; but also these courses help people pray more regularly for their family and friends who don’t know Jesus yet.

• Evangelism in Australia - Tina Waldron
• Ripple Effect - Julie-anne Laird/Helen Bell
• MyFriends - Power to Change
• Everyday Evangelism - Stephen Abbott
• Graphic Faith - Karen Morris

3. Run courses regularly or have avenues for unbelievers to be introduced to Jesus. One pattern is to encourage people to try reading the Bible with their friends.

There’s actually heaps of different courses and each one brings different elements. Right Now Media is currently pulling a lot of resources together in one place if you want to explore further.

Plus here are some courses you can run

• Christianity Explained
• Christianity Explored
• Alpha
• Taste & See

Julie-anne Laird is Director of Missional Engagement at City to City Australia.