Gospel at the Drive-thru

In response to a prayer request I made for a Hardees drive-thru clerk who heard the gospel recently, I was asked the question, “How do you share Christ with someone in a drive-thru.” It seems that in all my dialog with fellow Christians, this is a common type of question. For most Christians, the greatest hindrance to evangelism is not lack of gospel or Bible knowledge, but a want for knowing practically “how to” engage another person in gospel-centered and spiritually productive conversation. I have written previously on here that one of my goals in evangelism training is to, by the grace of God, advance our ability to share the gospel with “anyone, anywhere, anytime.” In this post, I hope to move ever so closer to that goal by laying out the volley of dialog in a recent drive-thru window. Before I offer that, let me make 2 quick points.

First, the question that was posed to me is the very question I find myself asking God every time I enter a drive-thru, sit with someone for lunch, receive a teller-marketing call, etc. “God, how in the world am I going to get as much of the gospel message as I can to this clerk, lunch-mate, caller. . .?” Yet every time, God is gracious to provide.

Second, it should be obvious from the other evangelism posts on here that I am not a fan of gimmicks, tricks, Evangecubes, acronyms written on fingers, bait and switch techniques, Christian T-shirts, leaving tracks with tips, colorful bracelets, etc. These approaches all too often arise from a desire to make evangelism exciting or easy, but in the end lead us to trust more in the method employed than the God who saves. Instead, evangelistic efforts are more honorable to the gospel, pleasing to God, and entertained by unbelievers when they result from a down-to-earth conversation built on personal interest, love, and, honesty. With that said, I encourage you to read, in addition to this, the 5 Stages of an Evangelistic Conversation. I have found that every natural and productive evangelistic conversation follows these 5 stages. Understanding them will greatly advance your ability to share Christ with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

The Dialog
Now, for the dialog. Below is a transcript of a recent evangelistic conversation which took place in a Hardees drive-thru around 9:00 pm. I hope this will prove to be a sharpening stone upon your efforts to make Christ known. For simplicity sake, we will call the clerk Jane and the one sharing Christ, Christian. As you read this, keep in mind that our goal in each evangelism encounter is to communicate as much of a clear gospel message as possible. In this case, the time of night afforded Christian the benefit of no patron’s behind him in the drive-thru line, allowing for more time to reason about the gospel with Jane.

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Jane: That’ll be $5.54.
Christian: Here’s $10. How’s your night going? Looks kinda slow right now.

Jane: Yeah. It’s not too bad. Around dark, things slow down a lot. Here’s your meal. Everything should be in the bag.
Christian: Thank you very much. Hey, I would love to share this with you (handing Jane a 2 Ways to Live Tract). Have you ever seen this before?

Jane: No. I don’t think so.
Christian: This may sound strange, but this little booklet boils down what Bible says about God, you, and life. Do you go to church around here?

Jane: I go to New Life Faith Tabernacle of the World Harvest Center. It’s out toward the beach.
Christian: So are you a Christian?

Jane: Yes.
Christian: That’s great. When did you become a Christian?

Jane: Oh, gosh. I was born in church.
Christian: Well Jane, do you know what the Bible says about you and me? The Bible says that no one is born a Christian, but we are instead all born sinners and enemies of God. Because we are born sinners, the Bible explains that anyone who is truly a Christian has been changed, or we might say converted. It means that someone’s heart has been radically altered by God. Have you been changed by God?

Jane: Well. . .what I mean is that I have always been in church. I go to church all the time.
Christian: I understand. That’s good that you are in church a lot. I did not become a Christian until I was 18 years old. You see, I grew up in church and came under the impression that if I could be a good person, follow the 10 Commandments, pray, read a Bible, and treat people the way I wanted to be treated, that would gain me God’s favor and guarantee me eternal life in heaven (Jane nodding in agreement). But it didn’t work. I couldn’t do it. I broke all the commandments by the time I was 18 years old. Then, in 1995 someone shared with me what the Bible says about God, me, and life. . .basically, what is in that booklet. The Bible says, that you and I are born sinners and that our sin has made us unacceptable to God. In the Bible, in the Book of Romans, God says that there is no one good. We have all gone our own way and our way is the way of death. God is the King of the world and we have rebelled against Him. Do you believe that? Do you know that you have sinned?

Jane: Absolutely. Everyone has sinned.
Christian: I’m glad you understand that you are a sinner. But that’s not all. The Bible also says that God is just and will deal with all of our sin. Because of this, sinners like you and me are in great danger because of the way God will deal with sin. The Bible says that God is perfect and will perfectly deal with sin on a day when He will judge everyone, granting some eternal life because of Jesus and others eternal death because of sin. But the Bible also says that God is also perfectly loving. In that same book called Romans, God says that He ha shown His love to sinners like us by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross in our place. . .to pay the penalty for our sin. . .your sin and my sin. Have you ever heard of John 3:16?

Jane: No. Not really.
Christian: John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is why I made such a serious point about being changed or converted. The Bible says that the only way to be found innocent by God on the Day of Judgment is to surrender to Jesus Christ, God’s Son. The Bible says each person must repent and believe. To repent means that my mind is changed about sin and God. And belief means that I become a follower of Jesus Christ, trusting in Him and what He did on the cross for me. This is what it means to become a Christian. I became a Christian on June 21, 1995. It was then that I realized I was a sinner, that could not save myself, and that the Savior of the world was Jesus. When Jesus Christ took hold of me, my entire life began to change. The Bible says that because of sin, we are spiritually dead. God made me alive. I was changed. Do you understand what I mean?

Jane: Yes I do.
Christian: I know that I am speaking seriously with you. This is very serious.

Jane: I know. I appreciate it.
Christian: What you said earlier about being “born in church” and “going to church a lot” does not jive with what the Bible says it means to be a Christian. The Bible says there is nothing you can do to overcome your sin problem. . .no amount of church, Bible reading, good works, etc. Only Jesus can save you. Let me encourage you to read that booklet and carefully consider whether or not you are a Christian according to the Bible. I think you understand how important this is. The Bible says that you should make sure you are in the faith. I want to be a Christian. Don’t be careless, Jane.

Jane: I really appreciate it.
Christian: Do you have email?

Jane: Yes I do.
Christian: My email address is in the back of that booklet. I am the only one who sees it. You can email me any time with questions. I don’t have all the answers, but I can probably find them. I hope you have a great night, Jane. I’ll look for you next time I’m here.

Jane: Sounds good. Thank you.
Christian: I’ll be praying for you.

Jane: Thank you.
Christian: C ya.

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Of course, every conversation is different because every person is different. However, I hope this will provide a good picture of how the 5 Stages of an Evangelistic Conversation work out in real life. Though the best scenario is an opportunity for Christian to sit down with Jane over a longer period of time, in this case Christian did what he could to place the basics of the gospel in Jane’s ears.

I should probably also note that the conversation would have been much different had business been busy. Regardless of busyness, the goal should be to get as much of the gospel to unbelievers as time will allow. Sometimes time will all a lengthy conversation and other times, the best we can do is pass along a solidly biblical tract and verbally encourage the other person to consider what it says.

Depending on how helpful this post ends up, it might be good to add some more dialog examples in the future. Feel free to comment.

*original post: June 29, 2009

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