As may be obvious to you, if people come to know God’s grace, it is through different means. While belief always occurs through the Holy Spirit—“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God (Holy Spirit) has been making it grow” (Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:6)—the means of how people initially hear, and listen to, the Gospel (the Good News about God’s grace), varies widely. Many people hear as they are invited and they then attend a worship event. However, their positive response to an invitation probably follows up on acts of kindness to them, a growing friendship, things like that. (Read an example of this by my neighbors of Tapestry Ministry at LGBTQ pride festival in Sioux Falls.) Hearing a person’s testimony of how God has personally worked in a life may be enough for someone to truly listen to the Gospel and to consider it personally. A few decades ago, evangelistic crusades were a place where many initially heard and were challenged to receive the Gospel, though this seems less popular now.
While some will listen to, and then personally receive, the Gospel through the means described above, many people today, especially those who are younger, including teens and young adults, require discussion, and some reasoning or rationales, and time, in order to consider a personal relationship with God. Those requiring this will increase, especially as the number of Religious Nones are Growing in our Post Modern Age which sees more people who are skeptical. People will not just place their belief in God because that’s what their family has always done. They will want to know “why,” including why giving personal allegiance to God will be better for them, as well as more reasonable, than secular humanism. They may want to know if Christianity is in conflict with the theory of evolution.You might check out my book, A Search for Common Ground: Let’s Talk, in which I lay out numerous arguments/reasons for belief in God, and thoughts about evolution and the Big Bang.
So, if you are a Christian, God calls you to fulfill His great commission (Matthew 28:19-20)—to make disciples of all nations. In doing that, continue inviting people to worship events, and being kind and loving, and sharing your testimony. Those means will always be important. But are you also ready to respectfully answer challenging “why” questions when people ask you? As 1 Peter 3:15 encourages us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” To get you thinking along those lines, here’s a video of an interesting interview put out by Street Epistemology. If you watch it, what are your thoughts about the woman in the interview?