Youth Evangelism (part 11)

Now I want to talk about sensitivity... and this is HUGELY important!  We have to be aware of and sensitive to the atmosphere when we're sharing our faith.

Among the things you have to be sensitive to:

*Setting:

• Person - Are they young, old, rich, poor, etc?
• Place - Are there a lot of distractions around?
• Attitude - Are they bored, interested, distracted, sad, tired, etc?
• Weather - If it starts to rain while you're outdoors, or it is very hot, maybe you should ask if they want to go indoors or somewhere in the shade.

*Time: Are they on their lunch break, on their way to work, in some sort of hurry?  Are their kids running wild?  Are their arms full of groceries?

*Holy Spirit leading: Above all else, the most important skill we need to learn is to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He leads us.  As we said in Part 6 of this series, Jesus dealt with different people in different ways.  He always responded to the Holy Spirit's leading (Jn. 5:19, 14:24, 31).  He will always show us the appropriate thing to say/do or not to say/do.  We become sensitized to His leading by spending time reading the Word of God and in prayer.