Appalachia 'XI training

For this year's Appalachia trip, we are devoting more time to training. Our first training session was this past Saturday (2/19) morning on the topic of "How to Share Your Testimony and Your Faith". The premise was really simple (if you couldn't tell by the title!) - part of our calling as missionaries to Appalachia is to share our testimony and the faith. This is a way to fulfill the call to go and share the Gospels with all people.
As I shared with the youth, a testimony is a story about God's grace in your life. So often, we hear testimonies that major on the sin and depravity and, in the end, squeeze in a little bit about the Gospel. For so long, I was guilty of the same! The problem with that approach is that more time is spent on 'glorifying' our sin and not on glorifying God and His grace! To combat this, we looked at Paul's 'testimony' from Philippians 3, where we see his story of sin and depravity bookended by the wondrous grace and mercy of God. My challenge to our Appalachia team was this : we are going to Appalachia to share the hope and joy of the Gospel, so shouldn't our testimonies reflect the same? Absolutely, definitely, most assuredly YES!!! We talked about testimonies from those who have known the Lord their whole life --- and what a wonderful story of God's faithfulness to them! We talked about testimonies from those who are relatively new to the faith --- and what a wonderful story of God's grace to them! Their assignment is to start work on their testimonies, because in a few weeks they will start sharing them with the group ... and, on the Appalachia trip, they will stand in front of VBS crowd and share their testimony with them. Please pray for them as they think through, formulate and share their story of God's grace.
The other part of the time was devoted to how to share the faith. It may seem redundant to do this, since the bulk of our VBS work seems to be built upon doing this. However, we have found that VBS really starts the conversation, and our youth need to know how to further that conversation through the sharing of the faith. We shared two ways:

The Roman Road

This method uses verses from Romans to lead one through understanding our need for grace and forgiveness and where to find this. What I like about this method is that you are exclusively using God's word and not trying persuade, argue, debate or coerce through our own logic. This is a very simple way of telling the person what God says, and let the Holy Spirit be at work through the word.

The 4 Spiritual Laws


This is a tried and true method of sharing the faith. It is produced by Campus Crusade for Christ and takes you through 4 steps of understanding and receiving the faith. It is simple, concise and does a good job of emphasizing the need for church and discipleship. Each point is supported by Scripture, so, just like with the Roman Road, it is not your word trying to convince, but the word of God which is perfect, true and will always accomplish it's mission.

What an exciting time for our group! Thinking through their testimonies ... sharing their faith ... and all for God's glory! Please keep the group in your prayers as we continue to train, pray and prepare. Soli Deo Gloria!