Latest / The Family Teams Podcast / Ep. 220 | What You Win People With is What You Win People To

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Ep. 220 | What You Win People With is What You Win People To · The Family Teams Podcast

• 0:00
  Imagine what it would be like to come to faith in Jesus at a table where you are seeing the fruit of the gospel in a family.
• 0:12
  What's up, guys? Jeff and Jeremy here. Another episode of 5-Minute Fatherhood. Fun topic today, evangelism through the home. Or another way to say it that you need to be thinking through as a father is what you win people with is what you win people to. And I think Jeremy's going to talk about this for people outside of the family. But I'm thinking about this with little kids as like the kids themselves, right? Until we get to that next level. And so very, very important. And here's what we mean by that, guys.
• 0:38
  whatever you attract people with is what you have to keep them with. That's just like basic biology, science, basic, you know, metaphors. It just, it makes sense all across the board. Whatever we're talking about, the way you attract them with is what you kind of usually have to keep them with, or else it's just a bait and switch and then people leave. And so evangelism, you know,
• 0:56
  capturing people's hearts for the Lord, you have to ask yourself, which ways are you doing that? Now in the Western model, it's very much event centric, big blowout, huge party, and then kind of talk about Jesus. And I think even with our own kids, we tend to do that. We think of the Awanas or we think of the, what's the one in the summer, VBS or the big whatever. And those are helpful tools. Let me hear that, say that. I actually love Awanas and some of these other ones. I think they're enormously helpful in equipping.
• 1:22
  But those are not the things, but Iwanis is not going to be around when they're 25, right? And so for me, it's like that's not the thing that I'm trying to make sure that we grab and hold them with. That's an enormously helpful addition to the diet. Those are two different things. And so one way that we like to think about it is like how are we putting in rituals that actually –
• 1:43
  are not only the things we attract the kids with, like basically where do we center spirituality? We center it not only in the home, but then at the table at meals, right? Because here's why, because when they're 15, when they're 25, when they're five, when they're 80, they still have to eat. It's pretty basic, right? That's right. It's pretty basic. They're like, we're going to be sitting here and they're kind of a captive audience and they have to eat sooner or later. So why would we not talk about Jesus here? And so infusing it there for us is actually very strategic because it's very, very like...
• 2:13
  I want to make it as much infused into our normal life rather than something that happens outside of our normal life, just simply because of the retainment level of the thing. Now, Jeremy, you guys have done almost this exact same thing, but then with your kids walking with the Lord, teenagers, you know, some of young adults, the next layer of then actually bringing other people into that table. But talk about that.
• 2:32
  Yeah, yeah. So I want to kind of walk through you guys just like three steps if you want to begin to actually do evangelism through your home. We're working on this. But yeah, I want to emphasize, too, this idea that what you win people with, you win people to. This has had such an impact on so many people. In my own life, I was really one through youth ministry. And so I spent like eight years trying to be youth pastor. I had no business trying to be youth pastor.
• 2:58
  But the reason why I was so committed to it was because I was one with that tool. I don't know where I would be if I didn't. I had an amazing youth pastor. He did a great job of discipling me. And so I just was like, this is how people get saved. People in this city that we're in right now, many of them are being won through megachurch, really, worship services. And so we have just tens of thousands of the strongest believers in our city are just pouring their money and energy into these...
• 3:28
  mega church worship services. And again, that doesn't mean they're bad, but it's important that you understand that's how you're imprinted. The generation before ours, a lot of people were one with evangelistic crusades. So they just poured money and resources into evangelistic crusades. Again, that's not necessarily saying any of those tools are bad, but I think that we have to consider...
• 3:48
  There is a real advantage, I would say, to winning people through the home, because when you win someone to Christ through the home, then you win them to the home. Then they get excited about being a father, being a mother, building a family. And then they can always themselves reproduce what they've experienced, because we all are part of families. We're all living in homes. We all have tables to steward.
• 4:12
  And so here's a three-step method if you want to start to use your home as a outpost for winning others to Christ. The first thing, and this is where we start with a lot of people, is craft a rhythmic, life-giving weekly meal. So a meal that's really protected, that expresses who you guys are as a family.
• 4:30
  We talk a ton about that at the Family Teams weekend. And so if you guys want to come to those, we'll talk about how to do that. The second step is once you have a weekly rhythmic life-giving meal, share the gospel somehow through the meal. So at some point in the meal, some people do that through communion, some people do that through telling stories, through just talking through verses that have been meaningful to them that week.
• 4:52
  And so if you're consistently doing this with your own family, and like Jeff said, just start with your own kids. Start trying to figure this out in your own home. Don't start with like lots of maybe people coming from the outside. But if you consistently experience this, then guess what? You just invite people to come have dinner with you.
• 5:08
  And you'll know that they will experience, number one, an amazing meal where they get to see the life-giving truth of the gospel in your own family. And then they're going to hear the truth of the gospel message at whatever point you're going to say, Hey, guys, at the end of the meal, we just like to share. I'd like to share just something that I've been learning this week. So let me share that with you guys, you know, or the meaning of this Sabbath or the meaning of these elements or the meaning of whatever.
• 5:36
  So those three things, if you craft a rhythmic, life-giving weekly meal, you share the gospel at that meal, and then you invite people into that meal, then you will see people come to faith in the gospel through the home. And then again, if you go back to this principle, what you win people with, you win them too. Imagine what it would be like to come to faith in Jesus at a table
• 5:59
  where you are seeing the fruit of the gospel in a family. And so now you're like, oh, I know how I'm going to spread the kingdom of God. I'm going to go home and I'm going to start going to build an epic family. Like, what is more reproducible than that? And so, again, all these other tools, they're valuable and they're useful, but we have completely neglected this tool. When's the last time you talked to somebody who said, oh, yeah, I came to faith in the gospel at a table when I was invited to somebody's home for dinner?
• 6:29
  That doesn't happen very often, but it's the easiest, simplest, and most reproducible way of sharing the gospel.