In 7th grade, I struck up a conversation with a friend of mine in math class. She wanted to talk about faith and the differences between my faith and her faith. 

She was not Protestant or even Catholic–I’m not going to say what group she’s in because that’s not what’s important to this story.

“Tell me what you believe, Audra.”

So I gave her the gospel in a nutshell: 

Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfectly righteous life that fulfilled every requirement of the Old Testament law, was crucified by the Romans because of the Jewish leaders lies, died, and rose 3 days later. Accepting His free gift of salvation takes away our sins and credits us with His righteousness. There’s nothing at all we can do to earn this gift.

It was the simplest way I knew of to tell her about Jesus. (This summation is much, much better than the bumbling version I presented back then.)

Now it was her turn…

I said, “Okay, friend, tell me what you believe.” 

“Well,” she said, “I can’t tell you.”

By this point, I was confused. 

“You can’t tell me because you don’t know?” I asked.

“No, I can’t tell you because it’s hard to explain, but if you call so-and-so he can explain it to you” she handed me a piece of paper with the name and number of a church leader.

I’m pretty sure my response could’ve been better, but I simply told her the truth.

“I don’t want to call him. I want you tell me. I’m friends with you and not him. Besides, how can you believe in something that’s so complicated you can’t explain it to others?”

Every Christian must be able to share the gospel. 

It’s not enough to bring people to church.

It’s not enough to give people a book.

It’s not enough to show people a video.

YOU must be able to share with your friends and family the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Is there anything wrong with church or books or videos?

Absolutely not! 

But evangelistic tools can never replace our Christ given mandate to OPEN OUR MOUTHS and share the gospel.