Commentary: BSM taught me how to share my faith

“Stop whatever you’re doing. Let’s talk about this now.”

I felt a deep sense of urgency when I learned my Christian coworkers did not know how to share the gospel. What if, on the way home that day, someone asked them how to follow Jesus?

Struck by the gravity of the situation, I asked my colleagues to stop everything else, so we could discuss how to talk to others about Jesus. These believers needed to know how to share Christ.

Thankfully, my experience with the Baptist Student Ministry prepared me for such a time as this.

I served with the BSM throughout my time in college. After graduation, I served the BSM for seven years as a staff member. While I intended to equip college students for the work of ministry, it turned out the ministry experience equipped me as well.

Three Circles

Another colleague, who already had a lot of evangelism experience, recently had learned the Three Circles method. Together, he and I walked our coworkers through this visual tool that provides an overview of the good news about Jesus, beginning with finding common ground with the person in front of you.

Circle one

Most people will agree we live in a world characterized by brokenness—the first circle. We all experience the world is not as it should be. On a macro scale, we have natural disasters, wars, pandemics. On a personal level, we experience relational strife, divorce, death of loved ones and mental health crises.

Christian or not, enduring the world’s brokenness feels relatable. People try to escape from this circle of brokenness by a variety of means—relationships, drugs and alcohol, even religious activities or doing good deeds. But ultimately, none of these self-resourced attempts fix the brokenness or satisfy the longing in our hearts for something greater.

Circle two

We feel this way, because originally, God had a good design—another circle—in which the first humans experienced perfect relationship with him preceding the brokenness. Humanity was intended for this loving, intimate fellowship with God, to know him and walk with him.

But Adam and Eve rebelled against him—as has every person since. As a result, we experience brokenness in relating to God, to ourselves and to others. But it doesn’t have to stay this way.

God made a way for us to leave the vicious cycle of brokenness. Enter Jesus.

Circle three

In this final circle, we explain that Jesus—fully man and fully God—was born of a virgin, lived the perfect life none of us have lived, and died the death we deserve for turning away from God. We call our falling short of God’s standard “sin.”

An aside: It helps to explain Christian jargon, so we never assume someone has familiarity with all the lingo.

What we earn for our sin is death—separation from God—but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).

After Jesus died on the cross, he rose from the dead.

Full circle

Because Jesus was resurrected, we also can have new life when we follow him. He transforms our eternity, as well as our life right now. When we trust in him, we finally can exit the cycle of brokenness and experience God’s good design for relationship with him.

This takes us back to the circle of God’s good design. Flowing from the security of our relationship with him, we are sent back into the world of brokenness to tell others about Jesus.

The circles at work

Katherine, one of our colleagues, put the Three Circles method to good use in a real conversation at the Texas State Fair this year.

My other coworkers and I partnered with a professor who allowed us to work an evangelism booth to engage in interactions with unbelievers. One individual stopped by the booth, and Katherine turned her conversation with him toward spiritual matters.

She found out his aura was important to him. When it was her turn to share something important to her, she utilized the Three Circles technique to share the gospel. Prepared with the diagram drawn out on notecards, she talked through the story of Jesus rescuing the world from brokenness.

He responded as though familiar with the story, but nevertheless, he heard the gospel, and Katherine had the opportunity to articulate it.

More evangelism methods

Over the months that followed, my coworkers and I continued walking through methods of sharing the gospel, such as the Romans Road and the Bridge Illustration. We discussed methods of discipleship to help fellow believers grow spiritually, shared stories of real-life interactions and prayed for the unbelievers in our lives.

I am deeply grateful to BSM for the ministry experience it afforded me. BSM staff members entrusted me with ministry beyond what I believed myself able—or willing—to do, but because others challenged me, I grew in my skills as a minister.

I watched the same transformation happen to my college students over the years, as they entered the university as uncertain freshmen and graduated competent disciples of Jesus. I loved experiencing a similar phenomenon with my coworkers, who initially confessed their uncertainty, but—with a willingness to learn—grew in their ability to share the good news of Jesus with others.

Do you believe in Jesus? If so, you have a story to tell, as well. How will you tell it, and will you tell it to someone today?

Kasey Olander served with the Baptist Student Ministry at the University of Texas at Dallas and Rice University, focusing on discipleship and evangelism training. She and her husband are seminary students and members of The Village Church. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.