Jesus calls all of His followers to share the gospel. Rather than lighting a lamp and hiding it under a basket (Matthew 5:15), Jesus challenges us to participate in what has come to be called The Great Commission. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” Jesus says in Matthew 28:19).
But most of us aren’t gifted evangelists. Sure, you probably know someone comfortable talking about Jesus to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Maybe all of their Uber drivers and cashiers hear about Jesus.
But most of us aren’t like that. Gospel conversations can be awkward and intimidating. Maybe we think we don’t know enough to share the gospel, maybe we don’t have the confidence to start a conversation, maybe we’re not sure how to communicate the gospel message clearly, or maybe we just need help breaking the ice.
The GodTools app is designed to help with all of these things. It’s a mobile app created to help you have conversations about Jesus with the people you care about. So Indigitous decided to take a deep dive, look into the app’s various features, and let you know how it works.*
Lessons
The app is broken into two broad categories: Lessons and Tools. Lessons offer practical ideas to help you build relationships and start meaningful conversations. As I’m looking at my phone right now, there are eleven lessons:
- Five reasons to be courageous in having conversations about Jesus
- How the Holy Spirit helps you overcome fear with faith
- How to demonstrate the gospel with your life
- How to move your everyday conversations to a deeper level
- How to love people by listening
- How to start spiritual conversations with your family
- How to start getting to know your neighbors
- The power of your God story
- When to use a gospel invitation tool
- Three things to consider when someone asks you a hard question
- Two secrets to handling hostility
Those eleven lessons cover various topics; any Christian who wants help sharing their faith should benefit from some.
The first lesson I checked out was “How to move your everyday conversations to a deeper level” because I’ve always struggled with this. The lesson explains the different levels of conversations (External, Internal, and Eternal), shares how to start moving your conversations deeper, and has a video giving good examples.
The lesson explains the three types of conversations using text, pop quizzes, and a review to ensure understanding. After the review, a video demonstrates how to move from an Internal conversation to an Eternal conversation, including several examples and reflection questions. Several more tips follow that.
Going through the lesson once won’t make you suddenly great at moving conversations to a deeper level. Well, maybe it will if you’re a really fast learner. But for most people, it’s a first step. The next time you’re in a conversation that you want to take deeper, you have some tips that can help you.
Going through the lesson once won’t make you suddenly great at moving conversations to a deeper level. Well, maybe it will if you’re a really fast learner. But for most people, it’s a first step.
Afterward, I went through “Three things to consider when someone asks you a hard question.” Tough questions often make me hesitant to share the gospel with someone. The lesson comes out swinging, greeting you right away with a series of tough questions that you might struggle to answer, such as “Why does God allow evil and suffering?” and “Why would a good God send people to hell?”
Most of us would like to avoid those questions; I know I don’t love getting them. Even though I have an answer for all these tough questions, I’m never confident that my answer is adequate.
But then, a video puts things into perspective. “It might surprise you to know that hard questions are actually a great opportunity for deeper conversation,” says the woman in the video. She then gives two keys to responding well to hard questions: humility and faith. After the video, the text provides a few more tips for dealing with conversations.
Both of the lessons I went through had great advice and practical tips. Some tips, such as that it’s okay not to know all of the answers, may seem like common sense in hindsight, but having them laid out clearly in these lessons is helpful. I recommend taking any of these lessons that address a topic in an area where you want to grow.
Tools
The tools make up the bulk of the content in the GodTools app. Whereas the lessons help you learn tips and tricks, the tools are for you to use whenever the appropriate situation arises.
The tools are divided into four categories:
- Training
- Christian Growth
- Conversation Starters
- Gospel Invitation
Training
There is currently one tool in the Training category, Teach Me To Share. This tool “includes biblical principles and practical tips to help you start spiritual conversations with people in your life,” according to the app. The tool starts with a reminder to focus on God, the importance of prayer, and an important definition of success. “Successfully sharing your faith is not about making someone believe. It’s about taking the initiative to share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God,” the tool says.
With that definition in mind, Teach Me To Share gives some tips on what makes a good conversation. It also walks you through some examples of what you could say to different types of people. For example, a conversation with a friend might differ from a co-worker or at a group outreach event. It then explains a few Gospel Invitation tools, including which tool you should use for a given situation. For those who want to take the next step of sharing their faith, it provides several steps that you can take, such as sharing a short film, offering to pray for someone, or sharing your faith story.
Teach Me To Share is for someone uncomfortable sharing their faith, whether they’ve never done it before or tried it but still feel awkward. The training helps equip you with some practical tips that can help when you start a spiritual conversation. And just as importantly, it offers encouragement so that talking to someone about God doesn’t seem that scary.
Conversation Starters
The hardest part about talking to someone about God is often starting the conversation. Most of us aren’t used to having deep conversations that often, so getting one started can seem intimidating. GodTools has two tools designed to help with this.
Openers is a tool that uses interesting questions to help you spark meaningful conversations. You can use the tool on your own to prepare for a planned conversation or open it while you’re talking to someone and use the tool together. The questions are grouped into fourteen categories, such as Relationships, Current Events, and Anxiety.
I’m an art lover, so I started with questions from the Music, Film, and Books category. Within that category, I found great thought-provoking questions. “What kind of movies do you like?” doesn’t seem too deep, but it can be a good icebreaker. Other questions are more profound. “Can you think of a film you had an unusually strong reaction to? Why do you think you reacted that way?”
Questions in other categories also offer a good range, so you can choose the type of question based on who you’re talking to. As an introvert, I struggle with small talk and starting conversations, anyway, so using the question prompts in the Openers tool is a big help.
The Emoji Survey tool is more like an interactive game. The first screen has a prompt asking the person, “Which emojis describe how you currently relate to God?” The next screen shows a list of emojis, and the person can choose up to three. After the person makes their selections, you ask why. After that discussion, there is one more prompt: “Is there one or more that represents how you would want to relate to God?” Then, you allow them to choose emojis and explain.
It’s a simple tool with just two questions, but for people who seem willing to talk about their beliefs, this offers an easy to find out where they are in their spiritual journeys. You can then use that as a prompt for a deeper conversation. The questions in the Emoji Survey are much more direct and faith-related than the questions on Openers. One might work better depending on who you’re talking to, your relationship, and their faith journey.
Christian Growth
GodTools has one tool under the Christian Growth category called Satisfied? Many people who profess faith in Jesus don’t live a Spirit-filled life. Many are burned out and are not growing spiritually. This tool is designed for a conversation with someone like that.
Satisfied is designed to help Christians understand the Holy Spirit and enjoy His presence in their daily lives. It begins with a thought-provoking prompt. “Which words would you use to describe your current experience as a Christian?” It then has options such as “growing,” “frustrated,” “empty,” and “intimate.”
The tool then explains the role of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life and the vibrant Spirit-filled life that God desires for us. It introduces the concept of “spiritual breathing” and provides some tips for living a life powered by the Spirit.
For some Christians, nothing in Satisfied is new, but it might serve as a good reminder. For others, it explains biblical concepts in a way that’s easy to follow and put into practice.
Gospel Invitation
The final category of tool is Gospel Invitation tools. These tools allow you to invite people who don’t know Jesus to start following Him. There are currently seven tools. The Four Spiritual Laws is a classic gospel presentation that explains the gospel in four simple principles. “Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so are there spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God,” the tool says. It shares and explains each of the four laws, includes a suggested prayer if the person wants to pray to receive Christ, and has some suggestions to do afterward to continue growing spiritually. This tool works well if you’re going to share your faith with someone from a guilt/innocence culture.
THE FOUR takes the ideas of the Four Spiritual Laws and simplifies them. The tool uses four symbols—a heart, a division symbol, a cross, and a question mark—to present the gospel. Just like flashcards, these symbols are easier to remember than large blocks of text, making it easier to remember the main points of the gospel story. This tool is great for anyone who’s a visual learner.
Honor Restored presents the gospel in a way that should resonate with someone who is part of an honor/shame culture. The tool explains how we live in shame because we rebelled against God and dishonored Him by seeking our own glory. If we turn away from seeking our own honor and trust God, we can share in Jesus’ honor. It is the same basic gospel message as the first two tools, but it is told through the lens of honor and shame rather than innocence and guilt.
Power Over Fear offers a gospel invitation through yet another lens. This tool explains that spiritual forces keep us from knowing God and experiencing a relationship with Him. But Jesus’ death and resurrection free us from sin’s power, and when we trust in Him, the Holy Spirit gives us power over that fear. “This tool was designed for people living in cultures with a constant awareness of the reality, presence, and power of spiritual forces,” it says.
Knowing God Personally is another tool for guilt/innocence cultures. This tool focuses on Christian life as a relationship with God, that sin separates us from Him, and through Jesus, we can know God personally. The tool is similar to the Four Spiritual Laws but more emotional rather than logical.
Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages is a popular book that helps people understand how they experience love and how they and their partner can love each other well. The tool Seen. Known. Loved. uses those concepts to explain how we can have a loving relationship with God. It starts with defining the different love languages, which you can skip if you already know your love language, and then provides some reflection questions. Whatever your love language is, God loves you in that way. For example, my love language is Quality Time, so the tool tells me, “God loves to spend time with you.” It explains how God does this, including some biblical references. Unfortunately, we pushed God away through sin. Through Jesus, God came to be with us so we can be reunited with Him, just like the climactic scene in any romantic comedy movie. This is a good tool for anyone who is highly relational and longs to experience the loving embrace of God.
Finally, the Filter of Hope tool was created in partnership with Filter of Hope, a Christian organization that brings clean water to thirsty people around the world. The tool takes the four principles of Knowing God Personally and adds water analogies. The water references make sense if you’re talking to someone about Jesus while helping provide clean drinking water. If you’re not, it’s probably better to use Knowing God Personally instead.
Each tool includes a suggested prayer for those who decided to accept Christ and ends with some next steps. Which tool is the best depends on your situation. You might use a few, but most people only need one. If you live in an honor/shame culture, Honor Restored is usually the best tool for you. If you live in a guilt/innocence culture, you can choose your favorite tool and stick with it. You might occasionally switch it up when speaking with someone from a different culture.
Each tool includes a suggested prayer for those who decided to accept Christ and ends with some next steps. Which tool is the best depends on your situation.
Final thoughts
GodTools is an app designed to help you talk to someone about God. There are quite a few options for someone looking for help in that area.
Lessons give some great context and helpful tips for a number of topics that commonly act as barriers to sharing your faith.
Its Training gives a basic understanding of how to share your faith, along with tips, best practices, and encouragement. If your most significant barrier to talking to someone about God is a lack of confidence or just not knowing how to do it, Teach Me To Share helps.
If your most significant barrier is breaking the ice and bringing a conversation to a deeper, more spiritual level, the Conversation Starters are helpful.
The Spiritual Growth tool is good if you know a Christian who isn’t satisfied with their relationship with God.
And if your biggest barrier to talking to someone about God is not knowing how to explain the complex gospel, GodTools offers several Gospel Invitation tools covering different worldviews.
Anyone looking for help talking to someone about God would do well to try out GodTools. Of the different tools and training available, at least one will likely be beneficial.
Try this
Pray for the Lord to reveal to you someone in your life who you should invite to talk to about God. Use the GodTools app to help you.
* Disclaimer: Indigitous has a close relationship with the GodTools team, and we have promoted the app many times. So, we won’t pretend that this is an unbiased review when we have a long history of loving this app.