Faith Sharing

This past Sunday I shared a Faith Sharing exercise at Chain of Lakes that worked wonderfully. So wonderful that I want to do it again.

The Faith Sharing exercise helped people develop an understanding of their own journey of faith. Everyone has a story—it’s their journey of faith. Their story is not right or wrong—it’s a story. I believe it’s very important for people to know and be able to articulate the story.

I shared thirteen questions with people. I started off by sharing my story by going through some of the questions. I then broke people up into groups of two and had them share their story with another person. I gave them ten minutes—which was way too short of time. When the ten minutes was up I asked each person to share one thing they learned about the person with whom they were paired.

The sharing was powerful—very powerful. When we were done one person suggested that we include “faith sharing” as a Core Value at Chain of Lakes.

Too often we think Evangelism is about sales. We want to convert someone or get them to come to church. Evangelism can be converting and bringing people to church. But many folks aren’t comfortable in sales and have had bad experiences with people trying to do the “sales” part of Evangelism.

I think Evangelism is about sharing our faith—this starts with knowing our own story. I know that the following questions worked for us at Chain of Lakes this past Sunday.

Faith Sharing
(Sample questions that might help you develop your faith story)

1. What are some of your first remembrances about God?
2. What was church like when you were young?
How many churches did you go to?
What was the church building like?
What was the pastor like?
Did you go to Sunday School? What was that like?
How would you describe your parent's faith?
Did you go through confirmation? What was that like?
Did you participate in church as a teenager? What was that like?

3. What have been some significant events in your life during the past ten years? What role do you believe God played in those events?

4. Describe one or two times in your life when you've felt God's presence?

5. Name some times in your life when you had some tough questions for God. Perhaps you doubted God's existence, were angry with God, or just didn't understand something that had happened.

6. In two or three sentences write about who Jesus is to you?

7. How would you describe your faith today?

8. In what ways would you like to grow in your faith in the next year?

9. What do you like/dislike about Chain of Lakes Church

10. If Jesus walked into this room and asked you to ask him two or three questions, what would be your questions?

11. How is my life different because I follow Jesus Christ?

12. What is God doing right now in my life that is good news?

13. Who are the people who have been important in my faith development?