8 Ways To Introduce Someone To Jesus – Without Being Weird

An Awkward Conversation

The conversation was going great.  I was at the office of a local specialist for a minor procedure, and this was my first time there.

When she asked me what I did for a living, I mentioned that I’m a pastor to people in healthcare.  She abruptly stiffened, and icicles started forming on the ceiling.

The conversation was over.  She did the procedure, forced a courteous smile, then quickly left the room.

What happened?

I can’t be certain, but clearly bringing up the idea of God was unsettling for her.  I’ve had enough interactions like this to know that way too many people have had bad experiences with the church.

Maybe you’re one of them.

But even if you’re not, you know people who are.  Although our secular and skeptical friends bring their own issues to the table, as Christians we often make a massive contribution to the problem.  I know I do.

How can we relate to people in a way that allows them to meet the real Jesus?  Instead of a carnival-mirror version that repels them?

As followers of Christ, we know the massive difference Jesus has made in our lives, and at the end of the day we want that for the people around us, too. But we also know how hard – and awkward – it can be to introduce someone to Jesus.

In this article, we’ll watch how Jesus does it, and come away with eight lessons for sharing Christ with the people we love. All in a way that’s inviting, rather than pushy, awkward or weird.

Jesus Shows Us How To Introduce Someone To Jesus!

Sharing Jesus with others is a subject of great debate among Christians. Some emphasize organic spiritual conversations around the kitchen table, some a simple presentation of the gospel, and still others emphasize the great love of God, sin or eternal life. I’ve met genuine disciples of Christ who emphasize diverse methods such as bible study, the ‘four spiritual laws booklet,’ the Gospel of John, small groups, the Holy Spirit, apologetics, or inviting someone to a church service as the most powerful tool in helping someone embrace the Christian faith.

Sometimes these differences are not handled with kindness and grace! Is there a ‘best way,’ or, even more effective ways to point someone to Jesus?

There are no easy solutions, but we can make a start by watching Jesus himself.  Today, let’s take a look at Luke 5:27-32, where Jesus calls Levi (also known as Matthew) to be his disciple and then hangs out with Levi’s friends at a party.

²⁷ After this [Jesus] went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” ²⁸ And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

²⁹ And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. ³⁰ And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ³¹ And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Here are eight ways we can invite people to take the next step on their journey with Jesus.

8 Ways To Introduce People To Jesus

(Quick note: some of my friends have had bad experiences with Christians being pushy and ‘trying to convert’ them.  They have plenty of good reasons for avoiding us! That’s not what I’m talking about here.  I’m talking about Christians living with integrity so that their friends get an accurate picture of Jesus and can learn more if they’d like to.)

1. We must know Jesus, and actively pursue God, ourselves.

At the risk of stating the obvious… I’ll share this anyway. We can’t share something we don’t have ourselves. We must trust Jesus personally (Romans 10:9-10), then seek to run hard after him ourselves (Philippians 2:12-14).

2. We need to move toward people whose morality is different than our own.

Levi was not the kind of guy you’d like your daughter to marry.  He was a sellout, a Jew collecting excessive taxes for the hated Roman government ruling Israel at the time. Stuffing his treasure chest at his neighbors’ expense, he had no concern for the message of Jesus and looked nothing like the Christian leader he would become! But Jesus doesn’t judge, avoid or merely tolerate him.  He moves toward him (see verse 27). We must follow his example.

3. We don’t need to focus on what’s wrong with other people.  

A lot of our unbelieving friends think that they need to clean themselves up before they can come to Jesus – or, us.  That they have to be ‘good enough for God’ before he’ll have them.  Part of that is our natural tendency, but part of the fault lies in how the church has portrayed God. We say we believe that Jesus loves us despite our sins and failures, but we live like being perfect is what matters. (This is one of my biggest struggles.)  Jesus could have called Levi out on a million things, but he didn’t.  He invited Levi into a relationship with him first and trusted that change would come later, within the relationship.  (It did.)

4. We need to go where people are, even if it’s uncomfortable.  

Notice how Jesus, right after inviting Levi to be his disciple (‘follow me’), goes and hangs out with his friends at a big party Levi threw.  Like Levi, many of his guests weren’t model citizens.  They were other ‘tax collectors and sinners’ (30), people who were clearly not living the way God had laid out for Israel.  The religious leaders rejected people like this (see v.30) and kept their distance, but Jesus embraced them while still acknowledging they needed help (they were ‘sick’).

It’s really easy to act more like the religious leaders than Jesus.  I was at a party some time ago and people had naturally divided up into groups with others who were like them. (Like we usually do.) I can remember wanting to reach out to people in the other groups, but feeling afraid to go first and put myself out there.  If Jesus had been at that party, he would have taken the risk and done what I didn’t.

5. We need to spend laid-back time with people.  

It’s not an accident that Jesus went to a party.  It gave him relaxed, informal time with Levi’s guests where they could really get to know each other.  But informal times like this also scare us because we don’t know what to expect.  Who will say what.  What the ‘rules’ are.  If we’ll be accepted when we’re really known.  It’s easier to just be friendly-distant. But when we realize that Jesus has accepted us, it gives us courage to stick our necks out and move toward others in love.

6. We need to display truth and grace.  

On the one hand, Jesus isn’t pushy.  He didn’t grab a bullhorn, stand on a table, and yell, ‘Repent!  I’m coming back, you know!’  On the other hand, he understood that many of Levi’s guests were still ‘sick’ and in need of a spiritual ‘physician’.  Of him.  The Apostle Paul says that every one of us is naturally separated from God and in need of a Savior (Romans 3:23).  So Jesus was always looking for opportunities to invite people into a relationship with God through faith in himself.

We should model this balance when we spend time with people, too.  We don’t need to be pushy or manipulate people into something they don’t want.  But we need to understand that, like us, people need Jesus.  This means we should be asking God to show people who he is through us.  As we spend time with them, we should look for signs of spiritual hunger and opportunities to point them to Jesus where they can find life. When the time comes, we can ask them if they truly know Christ, and share the gospel with them, too.

7. Look around you.  

Sometimes, we feel like we need to go on a mission trip or do something extraordinary (or worse, awkward or weird) to introduce others to Christ.  We don’t. Like Levi, we should just look around us, see who God has put in our lives, then spend time with them and ask God to work through us.  All that is part of evangelism. The results are up to him.  Pressure off – for you and the people you meet.

None of this is easy, of course.  I fail at this way more than I succeed.  But the story of Jesus using Levi – of all people – to invite others into a relationship with him reminds us that he wants to use us, too.

8. Bonus: Let your marriage display the love of Christ.

This final suggestion doesn’t flow from the passage, but it certainly comes from God’s word. Ephesians 5 says that marriage is meant to the good news of God’s love in Christ. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ^​This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church’ (Ephesians 5:31-32). Here, Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, a verse about marriage, and says that it’s ultimately a parable for the message of the gospel! As Tim Keller put it in The Meaning of Marriage, ‘This is the secret—that the gospel of Jesus and marriage explain one another. That when God invented marriage, he already had the saving work of Jesus in mind.’

In a totally natural way, a good marriage can serve as a quiet gospel presentation as the love of Jesus is put on display before a family member, neighbor, or friend. How in the world can a Christian marriage do that?! My wife recalls a time she was with Bill and Bonnie, a couple who discipled her shortly after college, in their home. Bonnie was cold, and Bill noticed. He got her sweater, walked across the room, and handed it to her with a tender display of affection. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was little things like this that showcased the kindness and love of God in a practical, personal way. Their good example, fueled by the gospel, made the Christian life beautiful and provided a powerful example of Christ’s love.

What principle from the passage above would most help you introduce the people around you to Jesus?  Or, share your own! Let us know in the comments below!