Blog

Written by Lisa Mason
on 6th July 2022

It’s time to get practical. In the next few posts we’re going to remind ourselves of some of the things we learned in training as well as some extra nuggets that Chris and I have picked up in our coaching sessions that will help us to keep implementing all that we are learning about making disciples who make disciples.

On a typical day, we all have plenty of conversations with people: family, colleagues, shop assistants, neighbours- I could go on. Usually the conversations we have with strangers are fairly shallow, those with close friends might be deeper.

The image of the conversation quadrant on this page can be a helpful tool when we think about who we are regularly interacting with. Start by drawing one for yourself on a piece of paper and then think back over your day. Who did you talk to - which part of the quadrant would you put those conversations in? The quadrant shows a typical way that our conversations might progress, we generally would expect them to start casually, then become more meaningful. A meaningful conversation has the potential to become spiritual which could then lead to discovery. A discovery conversation is one where you share a story from God’s word with someone and invite them to discover more about Jesus through DBS (Discovery Bible Study).

Take some time to think about the conversations you are having regularly, how could you move them onto the next stage? What questions could you ask somebody in order to find out about the meaningful things in their life? How can you share meaningful parts of your own life? Perhaps you could offer to pray for someone in order to open a spiritual conversation. Depending on the prayer request that they share, the Spirit might bring to mind a story from God’s word that enables the conversation to become a discovery one.

Obviously no two people or conversations are the same and in every interaction, we are seeking primarily to be listening to the Spirit, letting God reveal his heart for the person we are speaking to and loving them as best we can without seeking anything in return. But hopefully this little tool is a practical way to help us as we search for those who are open to hearing stories from God’s word. I hope you also find it encouraging as you begin to see how many meaningful conversations you have and ask Holy Spirit how he wants to lead you into more spiritual conversations- with your believing friends as well as those who don't know Jesus yet.

This tool is also a great help for our prayer times too - you can write the names of people you know into the quadrant, commit to praying regularly for them and then, as your conversations deepen, you can move their names along into the next box. You could even ask God to give you a goal - how many discovery conversations are you asking him for this week/month/year?