The ShareAsYouGo.com site will be the new home for both the new relational evangelism resources; RELAY and CROSS Evangelism training.

RELAY evangelism focus is not on teaching you a particular presentation of the gospel, but to help you better share the gospel presentation you already know, in the context of your relationships. For more information on RELAY click here.

CROSS Evangelism Training does teach you a particular presentation of the gospel. Actually, CROSS teaches you 6 ways of shareing the gospel of Christ. At least one of these ways should suite you and be good for the person(s) to whom you are sharing the most important thing. For more information on CROSS click here.

Just like RELAY, CROSS has many free downloads to help not only the leader of the CROSS Evangelism Training but also the participants. To view the free downloads, click here.

RELAY: Sharing Your Faith Your Way materials are ready for order from the NAMB Store. The materials are being delivered to the store this week and will be availble for shipping by the end of next week. You can place your order for the RELAY materials by clicking here and typing "RELAY" in the Search Criteria box.

All of the RELAY materials will be available next week! It has been a long process of writing, testing, meeting with consultants and focus groups, video taping and editing. The process has taken over a year and half to complete.

Check here after June 30th to find out how to order the RELAY Resources.

There are several who deserve special mention and a little promotion for their ministry as well.

Chris Forbes, Marketing Consultant, has helped in the development of this website. Chris also organized the pilot groups all over the US and Canada and later went back and combined members of these groups into focus groups.

Mark Kelly, Editor took the drafts of THE RELAY BOOK, Participant Guide and Leader Guide making them better than I could have hoped. The storyline Mark wrote using pieces of my life and his great imagination add much to the book.

PLACE Ministry has generously given resources and consulting in developing The RELAY Profile on this site. The free profile is very specific for evangelism. For more resources that cover all aspects of life in ministry contact PLACE Ministry.

Eye On Creative, shot the video and handled all the post production. Thanks Doug, Paul, and Roger.

Zenith Design Group took the RELAY concept and provided excellent graphic design. Bonnie, Tammy, and your team, thanks for the great work.

NAMB with leadership of Jerry Pipes and Thomas Hammond got the ball rolling on a new relational evangelism resource. Judy Jarrell, project manager, is the queen of juggling timelines and projects. Thanks for your patience and especially your foresight. Thanks to all for the support.

All this was done so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could be magnified in all our lives. The desire for RELAY was to help the majority of believers who want to, but are not, become more passionate and active in sharing their faith in Christ. I pray Christ will be honored in all we do.

RELAY is only a few weeks away from release. The RELAY training resources will be available in mid-June. Pastors have asked, "How can we take all our collegiate and adult small groups through RELAY at the same time?" Uploaded on the resources page is a RELAY CHURCH EXPERIENCE document. You can download this and create an entire chruch emphasis on intentional relational evangelism.

There are several benefits in taking your church or minstry through a shared experience like this. First, it is easier to enlist people to take an evangelism course when their small group friends are doing it as well. Second, RELAY is taylored to the support system of a small group. They will have the prayers and support for their relational evangelism activity. RELAY has the ability to change an inwardly focused small group to one that actively seeks to include people far from Christ. Third, pastors can order the worship services to reflect and reinforce what member are doing the the small groups. This site will soon have sermon ideas and worship service suggestions for the Experience. Fourth, by doing this as a church you work off the synergy of the whole church instead of just depending on the individual parts. Fifth, at the conclusion of the experience, this could be the time to do that re-evaluation of ministries for evangelism that you as a pastor or church leader have wanted to do.

RELAY is not only sharing your faith your way, it's also your church or ministry sharing it's faith in it's own unique way as well.

There has been some discussion on the difference between a natural talent and a spiritual gift. For some of the gifts the distinction is not clear.  We need to remember, all the abilities we have do come from God in some way or another. Traditionally, when thinking about natural abilities we assume these come genetically, through our parents. Many great engineers, artists, teachers, etc. have come from families who have excelled in these areas.  On the other hand, a spiritual gift comes from God, independent of heritage or parentage. Taking this further, a natural talent has been there from the beginning but a spiritual gift manifests itself after conversion.

Another way natural talents can be confused with spiritual gifts is the fact that both must be discovered, cultivated and practiced in order to grow and mature in them. Likewise, whether we have a natural talent of a spiritual gift; we need to use it for the benefit of others. Natural talents should be used for the benefit of all mankind and spiritual gifts for the building up of the church. “A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial” ( 1 Corinthians 12:7).

I believe God regularly takes natural talents and transforms them into spiritual gifts. I believe this happens most of the time.  There was a craftsman by the name of Bezalel. He was a craftsman already, but read what God told Moses about him. “I have filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every craft to design artistic works in gold, silvers and bronze, to cut gemstones for mounting, and to carve wood for work in every craft” (Exodus 31:3-6). God took a natural talent, granted it was from God in the beginning, and then God made it a gift of the Spirit. On the other hand, I have also been told by others God gave them a spiritual gift which before salvation they had no natural giftedness in that area.

What does all of this have to do with evangelism? When you think about sharing your faith your way, understanding how God has gifted you and how his Holy Spirit works to empower you in your life is key to your unique way of evangelism. It is God’s perfect way of evangelism for you. God can and will use your giftedness to build up the church and to relay your faith with others. Don’t discount any of your abilities to be used by God.

Some have heard of spiritual gifts for years, but have not thought about their implications for evangelism. For others, the concept of having a spiritual gift is brand new. I’ll explain briefly how you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, have at least one gift.

In the last days of Jesus’ ministry before He went to the cross, He made some big promises to His followers. He told them about the impact their lives and ministry would make. The reason for this kind of impact would be the Holy Spirit that would come and be with them and in them. Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world is unable to receive because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17, HCSB). Jesus promised His abiding presence through the Holy Spirit who would be “with” them and “in” them.

The Apostle Paul echoes this when he wrote about the Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead living inside you (Romans 8:11), making you alive to God, and able to do the works of God. He goes even further in writing that the dwelling place for the Spirit of God is in believers. He wrote, “Don’t you know you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, HCSB). You are God’s special holy place of living!

Now that we have established every believer has the Holy Spirit of God with them and living in them, let’s move on to how the gifts are given. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in you as a believer, that Spirit will make His presence known in various ways. One of these is with the special ability of a Spiritual gift. As mentioned before, everyone has at least one gift. The Apostle Paul wrote, “There are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God is active in everyone and everything. A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7, HCSB). That last sentence is key to this idea, “A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person…” A manifestation is a revealing sign of God working in your life. A gift appears as a tool in your hand to use for the common good. God wants you to use your gift to help relay your faith your way.

There are many different gifts and we will look at some of them later in the context of you relaying your faith. But for now, the important thing is to know where the gifts come from and that you have at least one. It may not be the same as another person. It could be the same, but may have a different degree of activity in that gift, a different degree of power. Your personality behavior will also affect the expression of your gift(s).

Welcome to the support site for RELAY. If you’ve already taken the RELAY Profile Assessment, this will help explain the assessment. If you haven’t taken the assessment, this will help prepare you for it.

The best way to understand and apply your RELAY Profile is in the context of a small group going through RELAY: Sharing Your Faith Your Way resource materials. If you’re not currently in a RELAY small group, but would like to understand more of your profile, this will help.

The first sentence of your profile identifies your primary personality behavior related to the DISC personality behavior profile and a combination of two possible spiritual gifts. The Bible is full of people with different personalities who were uniquely used by God. While the Bible doesn't specifically identify different personality types, even a cursory reading reveals several different kinds of personalities and behavioral preferences.

In the 1920s and 1930s, William Marston, a professor at Columbia University, developed the “DISC” model of human behavior to describe personality behavior. This model was built around four personality behavior types: “D” is for Driven or Dominant, “I” is for Inspiring, “S” is for Steady, and “C” is for Conscientious. There have been many adaptations of the DISC model since Marston’s original work. The one used in RELAY is a simplified version of the original model.  

Spiritual gifts are given to every person who is born again––including you! God doesn't want you to be uninformed about your giftedness. The Bible says, “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant” (1 Corinthians 12:1, NIV). God wants you to know and use the spiritual gifts He has given you. He wants you to use them, as they are manifested through your personality, so many people will come to know Christ. This is God’s enabling by the Holy Spirit that lives in you and works through your personality. For more information on the DISC and Spiritual Gifts for evangelism, read chapter 4 in THE RELAY BOOK.

Your RELAY Profile is divided into several sections. The first section is possible evangelism behavior tendencies for your personality. A personality tendency for evangelism is how, under normal conditions, you might typically approach an unbeliever with the gospel. Each personality tendency will have strengths and as a result, have weaknesses as well.  

The second section alerts you to some potential personality weaknesses which could surface when you are out operating out of fellowship with God. This is an area of sin and should be confessed as such when it happens. It is possible to turn unbelievers away from Christ with sinful attitudes and actions. You guard against these when you become aware of them and submit yourself to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

The third section points out how you may relate evangelistically to others in specific ways. These include both strengths and weaknesses in your approach to relationships. The last part of this section includes biblical references in helping you apply the Word of God to your personality in evangelism.

The fourth section illustrates how your spiritual gifts may impact your evangelism; helping you to become a more effective witness for Christ. If you can identify with this assessment, make it your aim to become involved in your church or small group where you are able to maximize these gifts. You should view them as a way to reach the world around you.

The last section of the profile is for application. This section assists you in putting your personality behavior tendency and spiritual giftedness to its best use for relational evangelism. This is all part of the wonderful journey in discovering, becoming, and doing all the things God planned for you before the worlds were made. It is relaying the faith your way.

In addition, you may share your RELAY Profile with other believers, especially those who know you best. They could give additional insight into how you can become a more effective witness for Christ. In turn, they may want your feedback on their assessments. Together, all of you may discover ways to work as a team supporting each other in relaying the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I've had some people say, "Why do we need another evangelism training? Don't we have enough already? Why not just use (and they name an evangelism training)?" These are good questions. I'll explain why RELAY is different, and different in a way that compliments other evangelism trainings.

First, RELAY does not teach a particular way of sharing the gospel. That's right, with RELAY you don't have The Four Spiritual Laws, or the Roman Road, or  even the Bridge presentation of the gospel. RELAY instead focuses on helping you better share the gospel you already know. It does not focus on the presentation of the gospel, but on your relationship to the gospel and to your spiritually lost friend or family member and how to make a connection between the two.

Second, RELAY is evangelism from the inside out. It begins by focusing on the wonder of the gospel. It leads to to a deeper appreciation for what Christ has done. It takes that appreciation among other things, and turns it into motivation for helping others come to Christ.

Third, RELAY helps you to discover how God created you for relaying your faith. God created you with a certain personality, gifts, and life experiences. This means you will share your faith in a diffferent way, your way. God wants you to share your faith the way He made you. While in seminary, I learned a definition for preaching. "Preaching is God's revelation through human personality." That definition could be used for sharing your faith your way. It is the good news of Jesus Christ for fallen men and women through your personality. Check out the free online RELAY Profile in this site. It's just one of the tools that can help you to become more effective in relaying your faith in your relationships.

Fourth, RELAY gives you the tools for discovering the spiritual address of a non-Christian and then helps you to relay your faith at a time and in a way that will be most receptive to them. It helps you to know when the timing is right. Let's face it, a lot of us have tried to share the gospel with friends and family. But what do you do after you have tried and they have turned you down? RELAY helps in cultivating that relationship and knowing the right time to share again.

If this sounds interesting to you, then give RELAY a try. Oh, something else, it's most effective in a small group setting.