Tell Great Stories, Live Great LivesSample

People Desire Connection

Tish is a young mum and is an expert in talking with people online about Jesus. She has led many people in the decision to follow Jesus and has prompted many others to take time to explore God more for themselves. This is her story…

When Tish first started chatting to people online, she found it really confronting because she got to see the words she was choosing to use. Tish was shocked at how harsh she was, and at times realising she was down-right weird! She would read back over her conversation and realise how much of what she was saying was actually distracting the person. To make things worse she noticed that she wasn’t being a good listener — people were opening up and sharing their experiences but instead of acknowledging them, she bull-dozed along with a goal in mind.

Somewhere in her head she thought if she just got them to say a salvation prayer that she had done her job.

This kind of mentality is dangerous and ineffective. It skips past the part where God is wanting to form a personal relationship with the person. Tish realised she needed to keep it simple. All she needed to do was introduce people to Jesus.

Tish soon found she had improved and talking with people online wasn’t such a hard thing. It got her thinking about the way she spoke; was she any different when chatting to people face-to-face? Tish has learnt to listen more, become less ‘preachy’ and more relational. People aren’t searching for religion, they are searching for relationship.

Whether you’re chatting with someone online or face to face; when you are genuine, honest, and take time to listen, you can make a real difference in peoples’ lives.

Now that you’ve successfully completed this plan, why not try out your skills and strike up a conversation with someone online? Share your God story or a yesHEis  video or a story of healing. See how you go with keeping things simple. Allow yourself to read over what you shared and see if God is revealing anything to you about how you chat with the people around you.

Go you good thing! We believe in you.