As I’m learning how to evangelize to the world around me, I find myself drawing on my experience in working with horses. There are three areas especially that come to my mind that can apply to training a horse and teaching a prospect.

When starting to work with any horse, it is vital to build a relationship with him. I get to know the horse by spending time with him and doing activities the horse is comfortable with. Things like grazing or just hanging out together help me get to know the horse and help him become comfortable with me. I also observe the animal in his natural surroundings. I watch how he interacts with other horses and how he reacts to everyday things like paper blowing across the road. These observations tell me if the horse is a skittish animal or if he is confident.

Next I begin the actual training process, which is a fancy way of saying I start to communicate with him. I put many of my observations into action. For example, watching the horse interact with other horses shows me how I can communicate with him. I also try to move each of these training sessions along at an individualized, organized pace. Some horses, like some people, learn faster than others. The pace should be tailored to fit each horse’s need. I also have a certain method I use each time I work with a horse. In illustration, I always teach a horse ‘ground manners’ (how to respect my space, stand tied, pick up his feet, etc.) before putting a saddle on.

The third thing I keep in mind when working with a horse is that it is a continuous process. As long as I train a horse, I will continue to build our relationship. Also, every session we review the things we learned the last session, work on things we didn’t understand, and, if time allows, we move on to new things (generally each session lasts 40 to 60 minutes). Another element of the continuous process is that things learned in the first session are used for higher level training. For example, part of ground manners is teaching the horse to move the front half of his body away from you with the point of a finger. Later on, I will use this movement as a stepping stone to teach the horse to ‘rock back’ on his hindquarters, plant one hind foot, and ‘spin’ on that foot (which looks really cool!).

Now I bet you are wondering what all this has to do with evangelism. Well, when you find someone to study with, you first build a relationship with him or her. This involves doing things the individual enjoys and observing his or her interactions with other people. When we sit down to study, I can build our sessions on the relationship we have. Also, I make sure that the study moves along at the right pace for the prospect in an organized manner.

Teaching a person about Christ is also a continuous process. We continue to build our relationship. We work on each point of scripture until there are no questions. And I show the person I’m studying with how to apply the things we discover in our day to day lives.