Crafting a Gospel Presentation with the 5-Finger Gospel
In this video, we are going to look at how to build on our five-finger gospel evangelism method.
The 5-finger gospel method shares the gospel in 10 seconds:
God is good
We fall short and sin
Jesus came, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and rose again in three days
God wants a relationship with us
We just need a little faith
And we can put our lives in God’s hands
Most of the way we as Christians talk about Jesus, the Bible, and the church, is with fancy church words that don’t make sense unless you’re already in the church. Like sin, saved, heaven, God, and even Jesus. These bring to mind many different ideas, some true and some false.
Now that you have the five-finger gospel ready to go at a moments notice, let’s look at how to share it in a postmodern world. Famous author and speaker on evangelism, Sam Chan, wrote a book titled “Evangelism in a Skeptical World. How to make the unbelievable news about Jesus more believable.” It’s a great book, so let’s look at some of his methods from chapter two on how to craft a gospel presentation.
Each and every one of us has our own culture, upbringing, and assumptions. Whether you grew up inside or outside the church, different things come to mind when you say words like sin, God, Jesus, hell, church, and more. When I say heaven, you might have thought of clouds. Maybe you think of babies with wings and harps. Or maybe you thought of the new heaven and new earth from Revelation 21. All these are assumptions of what I mean when I say heaven, and these assumptions form your own personal culture. When we go into the world and talk about God, that might bring to mind a loving, gracious creator. Or, it might bring the idea of an angry boss or dad who hates gay people. These assumptions are all part of a person’s culture.
Many Christians are only familiar with sharing the gospel in one way: Jesus died for our sins. But there are many assumptions in that presentation which are part of our church culture: We have sinned, which means fallen short of an all-good God because of our selfishness. Imperfection can not be in the presence of a perfect God. God loved us so much He came as a man, lived a perfect life, and made a way for eternal life through His death and resurrection, which was how God told His nation, Israel, to cover their shortcomings: By the blood of perfect animals. Jesus was that perfect man, God in human flesh, who covered our shortcomings so that we could appear perfect before the perfect judge, which is God, and remain with Him forever.
See, even that short sentence, Jesus died for our sins, holds a huge wealth of information we already assume. But if other people don’t assume the same things as us, they will completely miss the message.
What we want to do is emphasize the things our audience does understand. In fact, Paul, arguably the greatest evangelist, uses these same “connection points.” In fact, Acts 17:2–3, Paul reaches the Jewish people through their Scriptures:
“Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.’” (NKJV)
Totally normal and expected. But He doesn’t do that with people who don’t know the Scriptures:
“Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.’” (Acts 17:22–23 NKJV)
Then he says in verses 29-31,
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Notice two important things here: Both presentations center around the truth of the Gospel. Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, salvation. But both presentations CHANGE the way the gospel is presented in order to connect with different audiences. We can’t talk church language to people outside the church and expect it to resonate with them. Paul didn’t.
We start with “connection points.” A “connection point” is something someone already believes to be true. We continue with “break points.” A “break point” is something someone needs to hear that they don’t already know. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Every person has some right ideas and some wrong ideas. We need to connect and affirm the right ideas while correcting the wrong ideas. People often want God, but don’t know God as the source. Who doesn’t want love? The good life? Peace? We affirm these wants, and correct that they come from God.
Let’s break down our five-finger gospel presentation to make good connection points and break points.
5-finger gospel for post-moderns – We Christians believe…
Who is God
Either directly about God or about the effects of God
Connect: There is a force behind the universe; Break: Personal, moral God
Connect: Creation is beautiful; Break: That creation came from a Creator
Connect: Love is just amazing; Break: Love actually comes from a loving God
Connect: Desire to belong; Break: Connection actually comes from being adopted into God’s family
What is sin – what’s wrong with the world
Sin: rebel, fall short, or be broken (selfishness)
Sin has three parts: against self, against others, against God
Examples: Broken relationships, Self-righteousness, Lack of peace, Rebellion, Purposelessness
Connect: The world is broken; Break: We actually are the reason, and that makes us the bad guys
Connect: People looking down on us is wrong; Break: But when we look down on others, God finds us in the wrong, because we are looking down on His creation that He loves
Connect: I don’t like authority imposed on me!; Break: But we have actually thrown out our loving God’s help in how to live our lives, and that has separated us from Him
What did Jesus do
Where’s the hope?
Connect: I don’t want to be broken; Break: God actually has a plan to make His people into new creations, without brokenness. He did this by coming as a man, living a perfect life, dying in our place, and rising again to fix this brokenness.
Connect: I don’t want to shame other people; Break: God has actually honored us even though we shamed Him by looking down on not only His creation but also Him! He came as a man, lived the perfect life we should have lived, and died for us to make things right.
Connect: I don’t want to be a jerk and push away God’s help; Break: God has actually made a path back to Him. He came as a man, lived a perfect life, and died to make things right. He rose from the dead to give us life.
What is relationship with God
What does He want to give us?
Connect: I want to be fixed, not broken; Break: When we follow Him, He works through us to heal not only us, but also all of creation. Now I can have a new life with Him.
Connect: I want to honor God and others; Break: Now we can leave our old life of shaming others and being shamed, and instead live a life honored by God and honoring God. Now I can have a new life with Him.
Connect: I want to be someone who accepts help; Break: God wants to give us this help and offers us new life through putting our trust in what Jesus has done!
What is belief
Not only with my head, but also with my heart
Connect: Accepting God’s help; Break: Leaving behind my old life to follow God’s path for me!
What is the result
Result: God’s kingdom, child of God, eternal life, justification
Connect: We want these good results and the good life; Break: God’s kingdom, adopted by God, eternal life, clean, peace forever.
Practice
God: Connect: Creation is beautiful; Break: That creation came from a Creator
Sin: Connect: The world is broken; Break: We actually are the reason, and that makes us the bad guys
Jesus: Connect: I don’t want to be broken; Break: God actually has a plan to make His people into new creations, without brokenness. He did this by coming as a man, living a perfect life, dying in our place, and rising again to fix this brokenness.
Relationship: Connect: I want to be fixed, not broken; Break: When we follow Him, He works through us to heal not only us, but also all of creation. Now I can have a new life with Him.
Response: Connect: I want to accept God’s offer to fix me; Break: Leaving behind my old life to follow God’s path for me!
Result: Connect: I want to be fixed; Break: Even though my life still has hardships, God actually works in Christians by His Spirit, to give us peace, comfort, and belonging.
Conclusion
Just like that, you have communicated the gospel in a way people can understand, and people want get on board with! I would recommend writing down and practicing a way of communicating the gospel that really stands out to you. Remember that using church language is only helpful for people already in the church! Make sure to connect with people on each point, while also making sure to correct wrong beliefs. Good luck out there, and God bless you!
