One of the great challenges we face is we no longer know how to do effective ministry in our every day lives. When we ask God to help us reach people, we have to understand He will give us opportunities. We tend to limit the Gospel to the communication of the message of salvation through the cross. In other words if we communicate sin, the cross, heaven, and an invitation to pray, we have “shared the Gospel”.

Since the Gospel is much more than this, we need to understand that God is offering opportunities to reach people with the Gospel that don’t always involve the articulation of the message. Sometimes we reach people by praying for them. Sometimes we reach them by sharing what God has been doing in our lives. If we are going to reach people we need to understand when God is taking us down the “path to spiritual conversations”.

Social = The starting point of every relationship. Neighborhoods, workplaces and recreational activities create a natural path to intentional relationships.

Personal = The moments when people express felt needs. As relationships grow, we need to recognize when God is opening doors for us to love people by meeting their needs.

Spiritual = The ultimate goal is to be the messengers of God’s call to follow Christ. Time spent with people should eventually hit the target of Spiritual conversations about God and His love for them.

Understanding these phases helps us effectively navigate the natural process we walk through in every relationship. The speed at which we get to the spiritual conversation can change depending on the level of crisis the person we are talking with is experiencing. What’s important is our ability to know the way to minister when we arrive at the moment of spiritual conversation.

It is important for people to understand the process everyone has to walk through to get to a spiritual conversation. The speed at which a person gets to spiritual conversations varies, but the process is generally the same. When we understand the progression, we can recognize when we are on target for spiritual conversations.

We will also develop an awareness for when we are pressing too fast making a spiritual conversation un-natural. If we are intentional about making social connections, we will start to see people open up to us about their personal lives. Once they have shared with us personal things, we will effectively recognize how to hit the target, the spiritual need common to every person. It is important to understand individual pace to spiritual conversations will vary. Our job is to recognize where God is at work in each situation