So, I'm quite introverted and shy and don't feel comfortable talking to strangers. I can ask for directions and if someone stops me on the street to ask something is ok too but for me to walk up to someone and start talking about something is a bit of a nightmare. It's not that I feel ashamed to talk about God, I'm just not confident enough to strike a conversation. If someone asks me if i believe in God etc I happily say yes. It feels like i "have to" go out and spread the gospel and it's frustrating. Not only that, what if people ask questions i can't answer? The closest to talking about God is me sharing Christian videos on Instagram but it feels like i should do more but what? Can I write little Bible verses and hide them here and there for people to find?
I just remembered a book called Tactics or something and i think it tells how to talk about God as an introvert but I'm not sure. Has anyone here read it?
There is a strange notion that's become popular in some modern Christian circles that literally everyone is supposed to be a missionary preaching on street corners and walking into crowds of people to try and convert them to Christianity.
But, here's the thing, that's never been the case. There have always been people who have been sent to preach on missions; but they have also often been people who have spent a lot of time learning, studying, and being equipped for missions in the Church. St. Paul, in the New Testament, is a notable exception; but even Paul says that he spent years in Arabia between his miraculous conversion story and the beginning of his apostolic ministry in Antioch. And given the uniqueness of Paul, and indeed of all the Apostles really, we should not imagine that just because they were out in the streets that all Christians are supposed to be out in the streets. They were apostles, called for a very specific task and mission. After the apostles, the Church continued to call and send missionaries, we have some very famous missionary examples in people like St. Patrick to the Irish, St. Boniface to the Saxons and other Germanic Pagan tribes, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius to the various Slavic tribes and kingdoms.
You don't have to be a missionary to be a Christian.
You can still share the Gospel, you can still point to your hope and faith in Jesus, and why you put your hope and faith in Jesus, we can do that with friends and family in those opportunities that are afforded to us.
It's not your job to try and bring all your co-workers to Jesus.
It's your job to be a Christian in relation to your co-workers by loving them, being honest with them, being kind to them, and if it also just so happens that the conversation goes that direction, St. Peter tells us that we should "be ready to give answer to any who asks concerning the hope that is in you, doing so with kindness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15).
And we can look to our Lord's own example, in the Gospels a group of disciples from John came to Jesus with the question, "Are you the One we have been waiting for? Or should we look for another?" Jesus responds, "Go and report to John what you see and hear" (Matthew 11:3-4), in the Gospel of John, two of John the Baptist's disciples, Simon and his brother Andrew, came to Jesus after hearing John declare that Jesus is the Lamb of God, and ask, "Rabbi, where do you live?" To which Jesus responds, "Come and see".
Jesus doesn't argue people into becoming His disciples, instead He invites them to come and bear witness to Him, to what He says and does.
In a way, that's what we are supposed to be doing; not trying to push people through the doors of the church, but keeping the doors opened and inviting people to "Come and see". Come, see what Christ is doing, hear what Christ is saying.
Because we can be confident that God works faith through the Gospel, Romans 10:17 says that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ".
Not everyone is a naturally extroverted person who naturally mingles with crowds of people. And one doesn't have to be an extrovert to be a Christian.
There are many ways to serve Christ in our day-to-day vocations of life. And not everyone is called to be a missionary, or a pastor, or a teacher. But we are, all of us, called to love our neighbor, and confess Christ in the midst of the world. How that love and confession is expressed is going to be different for every person, because everyone is different, with different circumstances.
We aren't clones, we are complex human persons. And there is room for that complexity in the Church, because the Church isn't a country club for saints, but a hospital for sinners. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 that the gifts of the Spirit are diverse, but they are nevertheless of the same Holy Spirit; all of our gifts, our talents, we all have our "places" where we fit, to live this life of Christian discipleship.
-CryptoLutheran