80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

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Total Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges to UPGs

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This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

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We live in a world of influencers. It&rsquo;s an entire category of social media users now&ndash;someone whose content goes viral. It&rsquo;s a person others flock to online because their content and/or personality is contagious. People are drawn to them. &nbsp;
Now imagine with me a different kind of influencer. Imagine the student who can&rsquo;t make it across campus without being stopped by other students. High fives and hugs abound. Imagine someone whom other students seek out when they have a problem.&nbsp;
How can I cultivate this kind of student on my campus? How can I help students in our ministry use their natural gifts and personalities to love and influence others for Jesus? &nbsp;How can I help my students be contagious influencers, but instead of their content being the latest trend, it's the gospel?
Let&rsquo;s dig into 5 key principles for catalyzing influence for the kingdom and living out contagious ministry.

Principle #1: People need to belong before they believe.&nbsp;

The &ldquo;old&rdquo; evangelism process used to start with helping someone &ldquo;behave&rdquo; more like a Christian. We&rsquo;d expect them to get rid of bad habits, then we&rsquo;d hope and pray that they&rsquo;d believe in Jesus. And then we&rsquo;d let this person into our tighter circle of Christian &ldquo;family.&rdquo; &ldquo;Shape up before you come. You belong now!&rdquo; But that&rsquo;s not right!
Let&rsquo;s reverse that. Belong - Believe - Behave. What if a person who doesn&rsquo;t know Christ already &ldquo;belongs?&rdquo; We hang out&ndash;a lot! &lsquo;Hey, Carter, would you help me plan a taco night for the Small Group Bible study? Or text others to organize a movie night?&rsquo; Then, Carter believes through being in contact with the Word and more believers. Later, the Holy Spirit convicts him about a lifestyle adjustment. Eventually, Carter begins to talk and &ldquo;behave&rdquo; more like Christ!

Principle #2: People don&rsquo;t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Jesus gave us a radical command: &ldquo;You shall love your neighbor as yourself&rdquo; (Matthew 22:39). I&rsquo;ve heard of students doing a spiritual survey on campus, and then they get a quick, negative response from a non-believer. What comes next is a torrent of truth! Who can win the debate?&nbsp;
First, let&rsquo;s listen. Let&rsquo;s ask more questions. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to hear about your story. Can you tell me how you reached that conclusion?&rdquo; As a believer, sometimes I think I&rsquo;ve heard the question! But under the question, there may be a slew of pain and life experiences that I need to know in order to connect &lsquo;God&rsquo;s Good News Story&rsquo; with their story!

Principle #3: Understand your role and God&rsquo;s role.&nbsp;

I want to thank Neil Walker with Christian Challenge at USC (Los Angeles) for this illustration below. Our ministry in Europe calls it the &ldquo;Holy Donut.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s so freeing. I can do 3 things; this is my part:&nbsp;
1) Love, which includes serving 2) Pray for the person 3) Share the good news about Christ&nbsp;
Bill Bright, author and founder of Cru, said: &ldquo;Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.&rdquo; Thankfully, the Lord will do the tough job of:&nbsp;
1) Convicting&nbsp; 2) Drawing them to his son 3) Changing a wayward heart

Principle #4: &lsquo;The best-prepared fisher, without a pond to fish in, won't catch a thing!&rsquo;

Jesus said: &ldquo;Come, Follow Me! And I will make you to become fishers of men&rdquo; (Matthew 4:19). Look at the lost around you as fish. Your pond is the group of people around you, whom you can influence for the kingdom. You are fairly equipped and prepared for evangelism; you know how to share your story of coming to faith, and you can draw out the <a href="https://www.viastudents.org/students/resources/3-circles" rel="follow">3 Circles.</a>&nbsp;
However, you don&rsquo;t know any &ldquo;not yet Christians&rdquo; (or &ldquo;NYC&rsquo;s&rdquo; as we say in our ministry). That would be like me having all types of great fishing poles and bait, but I have no idea where the ocean is or can&rsquo;t find a pond near me! I need to be friends with some seekers, right?
Here&rsquo;s a question about Jesus&rsquo; promise: which is harder? Following? Or being a fisher? I think both can be a challenge. The good thing is, as I obey Christ, he takes the responsibility to encourage, equip, and prompt me to share.&nbsp;
So let&rsquo;s say you do have a &ldquo;pond.&rdquo; You know where the fish are.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Take a piece of paper, and draw a simple pond on it. Write in 3 or 4 &ldquo;fish&rdquo; and write their names in there. Pray boldly to have opportunities to share Christ, and for them to hunger for God.</li>
</ul>

Principle #5: Fish with a friend!

The fifth principle is probably the most life-changing evangelism insight!&nbsp;
Maybe you&rsquo;re actively and sincerely sharing Christ with a family member or good friend, over months or even years. You&rsquo;ve got your pond, but the fish still don&rsquo;t respond. One drawback I&rsquo;ve seen in really great evangelism is that the believer is the only Christian the seekers know or have a trusted friendship with. I never want to be someone&rsquo;s only Christian contact! Meeting multiple Christians can help reinforce what you&rsquo;ve been sharing with your seeking friend.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Draw a second pond on your paper. This pond represents the sphere of influence of your Christian friend. He or she has a &ldquo;pond&rdquo; of friends around him, too, who need Jesus. You&rsquo;re both praying for your fish. Let&rsquo;s connect the ponds!&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
A fantastic idea is to team up. Arrange opportunities for your Christian friend to meet your &ldquo;not yet Christian&rdquo; friend. &nbsp;Find out what fun things your NYC friend likes to do that one of your believing friends enjoys as well. Take the initiative to build a canal, so to speak, to &ldquo;connect the ponds.&rdquo; Build canals not just at church or an official campus ministry event, as you do &ldquo;normal&rdquo; stuff&ndash;jogging, studying at the library, a Walmart run, going out for sushi or pizza, taking others with you as you go.
Help people belong. Care for them. Know your role. Find your pond. Fish with a friend.

Questions to think about:
<ul>
<li>How are you making sure the NYC's around you, your students, and your ministry feel like they belong?</li>
<li>Do the NYC's in your life and ministry feel seen and cared for rather than a project?</li>
<li>Have you been doing your role in evangelism, or are you carrying more or less than you should?</li>
<li>Do you personally have a pond to fish in? &nbsp;Does your ministry have NYC's they engage regularly?</li>
<li>Who among your Christian friends can you begin to &ldquo;connect the ponds&rdquo; with to increase the Christian witness and influence in your NYC friend&rsquo;s life?</li>
</ul>

5 Principles for a Contagious Ministry Lifestyle

In This Article

Martha Moore

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