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Direct Contact at U. of Michigan
a chapter tries a challenging form of evangelism

by Jeff Liou and Lisa Haller 

[Lisa Haller:]
Last fall, I participated in contact evangelism for the first time. With butterflies in my stomach, I stepped onto the U. of Michigan campus with my partner, Jeff Dowell. But before we approached anyone, Jeff and I found a bench where we prayed and asked God to lead us to the right person.

The Michigan League was nearly empty that day. The only three people in the room rejected us when we asked to talk. We were about to leave the building when we saw a man watching a football game on television. We were apprehensive because he looked older than us, but when we saw that there was no one else, we decided to give it a try.

Jeff approached the man, asking if he had time to talk about spiritual things. The man introduced himself as Kraig and told us to sit down. We took our seats. Kraig declared, “I’m glad you came by. Lately, I’ve been feeling a void in my life.” Jeff and I looked at one another in surprise. We knew that God had answered our prayer and led us to the right person. Kraig was finishing up his Ph.D. in biochemistry that semester and explained that he wasn’t sure he wanted to be a biochemist anymore.

Jeff asked Kraig about his spiritual beliefs. Kraig talked about his family, their church, and his sister who had just become a Christian. I was sure that Kraig was a Christian too. Jeff was thinking the same thing and asked, “Have you already accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?” But Kraig replied, “No,” and we asked Kraig what was stopping him. Kraig told us that as a scientist he wasn’t sure he could believe all of Christianity. We began to walk through the gospel with him, reading him verses out of the Bible. Kraig agreed with what we had read but he wasn’t ready to accept Jesus as his Savior. I couldn’t understand why Kraig said he believed the Bible was true, but had not asked Jesus into his life. Jeff told his personal testimony of accepting Christ and explained the changes in his life. But Kraig was concerned that if he made the decision to follow Christ he would not be able to follow “all the rules.” I explained to him that accepting Jesus as his Savior would be the only necessary step for his salvation. The rest would come as he grew in his faith. Eventually Kraig abandoned his fears. We bowed our heads as Jeff led Kraig in a prayer of repentance and faith.

Before we left, Jeff invited Kraig to church. Then Jeff and I went to report the exciting news to the rest of the group. Together we prayed for Kraig and for the rest of the people who had heard the gospel that day, thanking God for being faithful to Kraig and our ministry. Since that day, Kraig has been attending church and I-V’s Graduate Christian Fellowship Chapter where he receives discipleship and attends a Bible study.

Something Fresh

[Jeff Liou with Lisa Haller:]
Has your chapter been looking for ways to put lessons on sharing the gospel into practice? Have you been looking for an outlet for your desire to see the lost hear about Jesus? Do you desire to step out on faith in evangelism but aren’t sure how to do so? InterVarsity at the University of Michigan has been working on this “contact” evangelism ministry for the past two years, and it has offered solutions to these objectives.

Contact evangelism is a style of sharing the gospel with people on campus whom we don’t already know. It involves starting conversations—brief interviews, if you will—with people who give us permission to spend some time with them, usually five minutes unless they want to go longer. In the conversation, I-V students will ask questions to investigate the background of the one being interviewed, use that information to stimulate conversation about what is going on in their lives, and hopefully, find an entry point in the conversation through which the sharing of the gospel becomes appropriate.

Does what you’ve read seem exciting? Well, not every conversation goes as smoothly as the one that Lisa, Jeff and Kraig were having. It took a while before many of us were able to establish productive and stimulating conversation with students on campus. In fact, since its popularity waned several student generations ago, the contact strategy hasn’t been used widely on our campus until recently. The idea started to take shape when, by God’s design, I (Jeff Liou) found two or three students of the same mind. We were compelled by the idea that so many college students on campus would go through four years—some of their most formative years—of education without ever hearing of Jesus. Talk about dropping the ball! We decided to work on a good way to bring the gospel to the campus.

Things started out really rocky. Sometimes, we would be “zero for ten” in attempts to start a conversation. However, after reconvening to discuss each day’s results, we were able to refine our methods.

In the past, conversations were started by saying, “Hi, my name is Joe, and I’m from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk about Jesus and God.” That opener drew a gamut of responses ranging from hostility to annoyance. These days, students are fairly receptive to a conversation starter such as, “Hi, my name is Joe, and I’m a student here on this campus in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I was wondering if you had a few minutes to tell me what you believe and what you think about spiritual things.” But remember, each campus will differ with regard to the appropriate approach. You’ll have to try starting many conversations on your campus to see what works best.

Not everyone agreed to our approach, though. Many InterVarsity students thought that a wiser commitment to evangelism would involve ministering to friends (friendship evangelism) and that contact (which they thought of as more confrontational) would take time away from that. Students were reminded that the point of going out and starting conversations was to establish a relationship and hopefully end up involved in the training of a new disciple, like the experience Lisa Haller and Jeff Dowell had. Others contended that since they were not skilled communicators, they were not suited for this type of ministry. But the scriptures call each of us to communicate the gospel with skill. And training was provided to this end for those who wanted to try it.

The hardest part about starting the ministry was having patience for God to raise helpers and laborers. It took two years to go from two I-V students to twelve. But now, we are able to minister in so many ways! We effectively dispel stereotypes of the pushy, condemning Christians by starting level-headed and friendly conversations. We come across new Christians who have questions about their salvation. We talk to the homeless, who sometimes only want to be heard for a half hour. And when we are permitted to do so, the gospel goes forth in a natural, constructive way. These days, we gather together for an hour before engaging the campus to pray and to train one another. We discuss topics such as our fears of confrontation and answers to tough questions. We discuss ways to be effective communicators of the gospel and study the Bible together to examine the biblical models of this type of evangelism. This has easily been one of the most challenging and faith-building ministries in which both Lisa and I have been involved.