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Teleforum date: April 13, 2000
Topic: How to Motivate
Women to Share Christ
Notes
begin here:
Now, we should look at the two sides of motivation, the spiritual side
and the practical side. First
of all, from the spiritual side, I have three "P"s here, and the first one is
Prayer. The way that any of us change
anything is through prayer. And really, as
you know, prayer changes us. When we go
before a Holy God, what happens is He cleans out our lives.
We go before Him and we praise Him for who He is.
As we come before that Holy God, we realize, "Oh my goodness, I really am a
sinful creature. I have really missed the
mark here.” We confess our sins, and
therefore we are a clean vessel. So with my
ministry, one of the things we focus on to begin with is prayer. Not only personally but for my group as a whole
because we know that once women start praying then God can change their hearts. He can lay people's names on their hearts to pray
for. We encourage people to pray for
themselves as well as pray for people they know who don't know the Lord. There are a lot of scriptures you can find that
tell you how to pray for someone who doesn't know the Lord.
When women start praying and they see God move, then they're excited. The second
"P" is Power. That
power is something that comes from God. We
help women to understand that they don't have to fear because God is going to be the one
to open the doors for them to share Christ. God
is going to be the one who's Holy Spirit totally works in them to bring them, to give them
the words to say to someone, and to draw someone to Him.
They have to realize that God wants that person saved more than they could
ever want somebody to be saved. So what
happens is we realize it is the power of God and that it is not a spirit of fear. As it says in II Timothy 1:7-9, we don't have to
fear. Let’s be honest, many women are
scared to death about sharing Christ. We help
them see that when they pray, they give it to God. Then
it is His power that puts it together. This
way we are able to take the burden or guilt of another person’s salvation off of
them. The last
"P" is Purpose. We
help women to see that their purpose is in knowing God and sharing Him. I really think that is the sum total of
everything--knowing God and being in a relationship with Him to the point that we want to
tell somebody else what He is doing. When you
know God, you have things that He's doing in your life.
When you're having an active prayer life, He's going to do things and they
are going to overflow out of your life. So it
becomes exciting to see that women can have a purpose.
My experience is that most women feel very insignificant. They don't understand that they have a purpose. If we could help them see that the main purpose
God has is to know Him and to fear Him, then it gives them a whole knew lead on life. Now from the
practical side, which is what we all have to deal with on a daily basis, I have five more
"P"s for you. The first
"P" would be Prayer, again, for evangelism. We need to incorporate prayer into everything we
do. I need to set aside a time in my life
that I'm going to pray everyday. But I also
need to make sure that as a part of my women's ministry team, whatever form it may have in
your particular ministry, that everything begins with prayer. Not just prayer, but a time for praying for people
we know who do not know the Lord. It may just
be that you have a bible study on a weekly basis with your women. Well, a way to do that would be to begin your
bible study with prayer for someone who needs to know the Lord. And so you always make sure to incorporate that in
everything you are doing. When I used to have
big planning meetings with my 30 leaders and leadership team back in my church, what would
happen would be when we had a meeting for two hours we would never get anything
accomplished. But when we started with
prayer, even if we prayed for an hour, God seemed to just put our hearts together and we
didn't have to focus on little things that didn't have any significance. It put everything in the right perspective. Prayer is extremely important in your ministry not
matter how big or small it may be. The second
"P," practically speaking, would be the Priority of evangelism. We are always focusing on evangelism. I just love that story in Luke 14 that talks about
the great banquet. It has just a few lines in
there about the fact that this man prepared the great banquet. But several paragraphs were devoted to how he
invited many guests. Basically, we do it the
opposite. Most of the time, when we are
planning events, we spend all of this time preparing, getting the decorations, and all
that. We don't spend hardly any time inviting
people who don't know the Lord to be a part of this.
It's a matter of putting that in priority and perspective and making sure
that we are spending a lot more time on who will come and how will they feel when they
come than we spend on the actual plans of what we are having. So remember to keep evangelism as the priority. "P"
number three is being Positive on evangelism. Now that sounds kind of crazy, but if you are the
leader and you're down on evangelism, nobody else is going to want to do it. “A student is not above his teacher, but when
fully trained will be like his teacher” is what it says in Luke. So we have to make sure that our hearts are
committed to it and we are being positive on it. We
need to tell our leadership team that this is what we are going to do and we are going to
pray until we get positive on it. Make a
commitment to always put the best foot forward and when difficult things happen to say,
"Hey, it's OK. We are going to go on
because we are doing what God wants us to do." A
little enthusiasm and encouragement always helps. The fourth
"P" is Personal stories in evangelism. There is nothing that motivates me more than to
hear somebody that just shared Christ with someone else and that person accepted Christ. I begin to think, "Oh my goodness. I want to have a story like that." I see someone who has really been reaching out to
their neighbor for years and they come to know the Lord.
Or someone who reaches out in a crisis situation to someone at the office
and I see how it ministered to that person and what a difference it made. Personal stories are important in helping to
motivate others. We can easily work in
personal stories in our meetings. When we
have an event, make sure that we have time for testimonies.
Certainly if you have a group that is doing evangelism you always want to
get together and make sure that they have a time to tell back what has happened. Whatever you have planned, you want to make sure
that personal stories are an element. You
also want to make sure that you yourself are having some personal stories to share, that
you are making an effort. I tell my trainers
all over the country that if they aren't going to do evangelism, then no thanks, I don't
need you. Even if they have never done it
before, if they can go in saying, "I've never done this, this is a new thing for me,
but here's what we're going to do together..." Obviously
people are going to understand that and respect it. You
also have that team spirit going where everyone is praying for everyone else. The last
"P" of the five is Parties--Parties for the purpose of
evangelism. With every group, we need to be
helping women to have fun with it. Help them
to plan a Christmas Open House where they are reaching out to lost people. Have someone come in to share the gospel, not in
a way that everyone is going to have to sit and receive Christ in an invitation time, but
an introduction to the traditions of Christ. Easter
is coming up and there are all kinds of creative things you can do. I saw someone do a thing with colored jellybeans. They put the gospel presentation where the red
jellybeans mean the blood of Christ and the black representing sin. There are so many creative things you can do, but
it's just a matter of taking time to do it. So
the idea is that we plan some things and make sure that the events we plan for our
ministries all have the purpose to share Christ. The
very first year I was at a church, there was a big retreat that was pretty much planned
when I walked in. I said, "Well, we are
going to have an invitation." They
looked at me like I was crazy because they had never done that in the thirteen years they
had been doing the retreat. Well, we did
have an invitation and one person accepted Christ. I
was thrilled for the one person but disappointed because there weren't more. As we looked at who was there, we didn't have any
lost people there, so it made sense that no one else accepted Christ. I said we've got to better than this. So it's a matter of planning to make sure that
evangelism is a part of what you're doing. Basically,
it's just taking the time to help and train your women in how to do evangelism, and just
do it! Get in a group that will do it! Get in a group that will pray for it. Get a group that plans your events to keep that in
priority and do follow-up with it. Involve
people and make sure that everyone is aware of what's going on. Question and
Answer Question: Can you give us a good definition that you like of
the word "evangelism"? Answer: I like the idea that comes from Campus Crusade
that you share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God. I think that really speaks to me because it means
I am just telling what the Lord has done, but I'm not responsible for how that person
responds. Share the love of the Lord with
them and then God does the rest. Question: What kinds of things interest the unbelievers? What would motivate an unbeliever to attend a
Christian luncheon or Christian event? Answer: One thing I did one year, that may seem crazy, but
it really helped a lot was I asked some of my neighbors to come and evaluate my event. Doing this, number one got them to the event, and
number to two it helped me to get their perspective on it.
So if there are some people that you know that could do that for you, it
might be a good idea. Also if you can pretend
like you're a lost person and walk through every stage of your event. What is it like to be in a place where you don't
know where everything is? What is it like to
hear a topic? We should take our titles and
put them in a way that a lost person would relate. Also,
just think about things that women out there deal with every day. When you have a stress conference, everybody loves
it because they are stressed. Think of
something that would help them instead of something you want to tell them. Additional
Comment: Whether you are saved or unsaved, a
lot of women like the same things, so try to think of the things you like. One thing that I've discovered is that women like
pretty things. They like frilly things, they
like to be made to feel welcome, they like feminine things.
One of the most successful events that I was ever involved in was called the
"Backyard Brunch." We held it in
the home of a woman who attended the church and she had a huge backyard. We set it up with tables, table-clothes,
centerpieces, and everyone got a little gift of a bookmark that we had made. That was very successful and very well-attended. Think of the things that you would like because
even as a Christian, you are still a woman and those are the things that unsaved women
will like also. It gives you the perfect
opportunity to share the Lord. Jaye’s
Comment: One thing I've noticed too, that
we've always had a struggle with and we still do is that working women who have to dress
up everyday really want to be in a laid back kind of a thing. People who are staying home all the time, they
like the frills and the being special a little bit more.
So just kind of keep that in mind as you plan evening events and daytime
events, you have a little bit different audiences for those kinds of things. Additional
comment: Some hot topics are, especially for
women with young children, parenting skills/mothering skills, and finances. “How to Manage your Home” is very
successful. Question: How do you prepare to speak on a topic? Answer: That depends.
If you are always going to be the speaker, then you might get out there and
do some interviews, ask some people, and look for different resources on the topic. I think it is very helpful if you can bring in
different people. Obviously you don't want
someone speaking about pre-schoolers who doesn't have any kids. If you are speaking yourself, try to speak on
something that you know you could speak well on. I
tend to think it would be more effective to speak within your range than to really go out
with a whole new area that you haven't really developed.
Question: What are some helpful resources? Answer: "Heart Talk" is excellent for leaders of
small groups. Question: Women are often concerned with how to grow their
women's ministry and how to maintain the growth of their women's ministry. Could you address how evangelism could enhance
that or how a lack of evangelism can be a real danger to a women's ministry not growing or
growing in the wrong way? Answer: The reality is if we are not growing, we are
dying. So how much can you have of the Lord
if you are never growing that other half or reaching out.
I think the exciting thing for me to have seen in my local church when I was
on staff was when the women's ministry got really excited about the Lord and people were
being saved. Then everyone else in the church
began to take notice. The women's area
suddenly became very important to the church. Our
women's ministry benefited greatly because people were reaching out. There is that dynamic there and God just blesses
when we share Christ with people. He blesses
us back. You can't ever out give God. It's an incredible thing. When we don't reach out, people are not going to
feel comfortable in our group. Additional
Comment: Our women's ministry meets every
week and we have friendship gifts filled with all kinds of goodies. We ask for stories from the women about someone
who has gone out of their way and showed them friendship.
Then, our women's ministry will recognize those people and have them come up
and tell their story and those women are able to give the gifts to the people who gave the
friendship to them. You would not believe how
many evangelism stories we hear come from that. There
are some real tear-jerkers and it's all about building relationships. No one is going to want to hear our faith stories
until they trust us and have built that relationship with them. Question: How would you set as a priority and implement
evangelism into an already existing ministry? Answer: Probably, I would do some creative things. I would perhaps start with a "Take Five"
mentality to challenge every group and every individual to take five minutes every day and
make a kingdom difference in somebody's life to try to impact someone eternally. That would be maybe five minutes in an hour bible
study that you would pray for people to come to know Christ by name. You would take five minutes to share a testimony
of that in a group. You would take five
minutes some time during the day and if someone had a crisis situation you would deal with
that. Just five minutes can
change someone's life. You need to put a
priority on things and say, "OK, we're going to do this, I'm going to do this." If we even see someone in the grocery store
needing help with her kids or what ever it is that needs our help, we know that we are
going to take five minutes out of our day to see how it makes a difference. That's the easiest way to get something started is
if you start doing it and share those stories. Question: Are there more opportunities out there, Jaye, than
we realize? Answer: I can say from my own experience that the days
that I wake up and pray, "God help me to see the opportunities today," I see
them all day long. The days that I'm too
short on time, too busy with my own agenda or what I think is God's agenda, I don't see
them. So I would say yes there are plenty of
opportunities, but we don't see them because we have our own agenda going. Comment: It's
not about our needs; it's about showing everybody how good our God is and leading them to
Him. Final Comment
from Jaye: I want you to
know that God will meet you at your point of need. Satan
can only distract us by keeping us too busy. Contact
Information: Jaye Martin jmartin@namb.net 713-465-3222
(home in Houston) 770-410-6352
(office in Atlanta) About Jaye Martin -
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