How IBM Helped Me Learn to Share the Gospel

My interview with IBM changed my life in more ways than one

If there’s one thing that consistently stirs fear in the hearts of multitudes of Christians, it’s the prospect of personally sharing the gospel with another person. Sometimes it’s fear of rejection. Often, it’s fear of being seen as some kind of religious fanatic. But in my experience as a pastor, the biggest obstacle that prevents many sincere Christians from sharing their faith is the fear that they won’t know what to say or how to say it.

That was certainly the case with me. I became a Christian at an evangelistic Bible camp when I was pretty young. From the very beginning, I was taught that I, like every believer, was called to go into all the world and share the gospel with everyone I could (Matthew 28:19–20). Yet, for me the idea of doing that was almost terrifying.

“But I’m an introvert!”

As someone with an introverted personality, the prospect of having a one-on-one conversation with another person about Jesus was immensely intimidating. You hear testimonies about people who are seated in the middle of the row on an airplane. By the time the plane lands, they’ve gotten the people on both sides of them saved. I’m the kind of guy who gets on a plane and goes to sleep — preferably without having to say a word to anybody.

Add to that the anxiety I felt about my ability to adequately explain the gospel message, and talking with someone about Jesus just wasn’t something I was eager to do.

But an experience I had near the end of my senior year in college gave me a new perspective that made me more confident about my ability to share Christ face to face.

What interviewing with IBM taught me

I was looking forward to getting my degree in electrical engineering. EE graduates were in high demand at that time, and recruiters from a number of high-tech companies came to campus looking for likely candidates. If you did well in your on-campus interview, your reward was an invitation to the company’s facility for a final set of interviews there.

One of the recruiters I interviewed with was from IBM, which was, at the time, probably the premier high-tech company in the world. I was thrilled when he invited me to interview at one of their laboratories. He also told me that IBM did technical interviews. That meant they weren’t content to simply have you dazzle them with your sparkling personality. They would pose engineering problems and challenge you to solve them on the spot.

I was well aware that the possibility of being hired by IBM was, for me, the opportunity of a lifetime. So in the week or so before the interview, I got out all my old textbooks and ran through every type of engineering scenario I could think of. By the time I got on the plane to go to that interview, I was ready. In fact, I was confident!

Far from being intimidated because my entire future could depend on how well I performed in solving the engineering problems they threw at me, I attacked those exercises with gusto — I actually enjoyed it! Why? Because I knew I was well prepared.

That preparation gave me confidence, and it showed. I performed well because I had prepared well. I didn’t just show up and try to wing it. I understood that the key to doing well in a potentially highly stressful situation was doing a good job of preparation beforehand.

What I’ve discovered in my Christian journey is that the same principle applies when it comes to sharing my faith.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15, NIV)

If I needed to prepare myself to land a job as an engineer, how much more do I need to prepare myself for my real job in life as a representative of Jesus Christ.

Preparing to share the gospel

What does it take to prepare yourself to share the gospel? Here is a four-step process that’s worked well for me.

1. Learn a good outline of the gospel message

If you are to always be prepared to share your hope in Christ, it’s important to have a clear, concise summary of the gospel message that you can present directly from the Bible or from memory. I’ve found outlines such as the Romans Road and the Four Spiritual Laws to be easy to understand, easy to remember, and easy to explain.

2. Prepare your testimony

As Jesus demonstrated with His parables, stories can be a powerful means of imparting truth. And one story all believers have is our own testimony of how we came to faith in Christ. Prepare to share your testimony by writing out a two or three minute description of what you were like before you came to Christ, what brought you to put your trust in Him, and how your life has been different since Jesus came into it.

3. Practice

Ask friends and family members to help you build confidence by letting you share your testimony and gospel presentation with them. Then, once you’re comfortable sharing, ask a couple of friends or coworkers who are not Christians to allow you to practice sharing with them. You may be surprised at how many are quite willing to help you in this way.

4. Rely on God, not your preparation!

It may seem paradoxical to say that you should spend all this time and effort preparing, but then you shouldn’t rely on your preparation. As the apostle Paul made clear, it won’t be our preparation or our eloquence that changes hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. (1 Corinthians 2:4, NIV)

Jesus Himself showed us where the real power for sharing the gospel comes from:

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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19–20, NIV)

So, before you open your mouth to share the gospel with anyone, ask God to guide and empower you, and commit the entire encounter into His hands.

Still, preparation has a vital role to play in helping you overcome the fear of not knowing what to say. So, do your homework! Then, when you have your “interview” with someone who desperately needs to hear how their life can be transformed through faith in Jesus Christ, you’ll be ready and confident, just like I was when I interviewed with IBM.

And, by the way, I got the job.

This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family, and fun.

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