A greater friendship

An evangelistic experience

By José Bernardo

How would the application of key biblical concepts of evangelization look like in the field? The Bible is not a theoretical book. The Word of God is intended to be put into practice, and it is the most authoritative source to teach us how to communicate the Gospel. Here is what we learned and how we applied it on a daily bases, reaping many fruits for the Glory of the father.

Foto: Romero Britto, Brazilian artist, ‘Big Hug’ (detail)

Trying not to discriminate people before they hear the Word; believing that everything needed for salvation is provided; considering that the essential Gospel is the person of Jesus; trying to offer something that people can see, hear and feel; creating space to proclaim, teach, testify and embody the Gospel; working to communicate in a way that is, at the same time, objective, opportune, gracious, interesting and personal, we find Jesus saying: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15. Jesus used friendship as an illustration of the redemptive relationship he intends to have with people. Furthermore, this precious idea is enhanced by two counts: the friendship is established by full communication (evangelization) and would not be stopped by the fact that Jesus would soon be leaving this world. That made for a brand new evangelistic program.

We have a program called ‘full worship’, which conveys key components for our relationship with God: worship, confession, thanksgiving, supplication and dedication. We then worked to communicate these elements through the comprehensive idea of friendship and realized that friends freely and frequently praise, confess, thank, ask and offer. These aspects of a very well known relationship between friends became the common ground to communicate how to connect and relate with Jesus. Expressions often used among friends were a reference to those aspects: ‘I love...’, ‘I’m sorry.’, ‘Thank you!’, ‘Please?’ and ‘Need help?’. The approach designed for our traditional Catholic culture is defined by three questions: Who is Jesus for you? Who are you for Jesus? (Answered in John 15:15.) Do you know how to befriend Jesus? An extended hand is used to communicate the whole idea, each finger recalling one of the friendship aspects. Bible stories about Jesus’ relationships were chosen for deeper teaching. The program was named +friends and is presented in many formats, from personal evangelism to children outreach.

Christians who were not previously evangelizing or though they were not capable of it, learned how to easily introduce Jesus as a friend, also having the opportunity to evaluate and deepen their personal relationship with the Lord. Many people who weren’t reached in other ways were pleased to receive the essential Gospel and open to learn more about how to befriend Jesus. The program is offered to churches through a workshop partly dedicated to learn the approach through Scriptures and partly to hands-on experience. As easy as making friends!

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Jose Bernardo is the OneHope vice-president for lusophone countries. OneHope is a global agency of the Bible that has worked in 145 countries giving the Word of God to every child.