The Practice of Trust
Before We Speak, We Love
Jesus did not treat people as projects. He noticed them. He listened to them. He ate with them. He entered their homes, received their questions, responded to their pain, and treated them with dignity.
That gives us an important starting point for evangelism. Our relationships with people are not simply opportunities to deliver a message. People are worth knowing, loving, and serving because they matter to God.
“The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:31Trust grows when someone discovers that our care for them is real, not dependent upon their agreement with us or their response to what we believe.
Understand
People Are Not Projects
Sometimes Christians approach evangelism with sincere intentions but an unhealthy sense of urgency. We can begin looking at every relationship primarily in terms of whether we have shared the gospel, invited someone to church, or helped them make a decision.
Without intending to, we can stop seeing the person and begin seeing the objective.
TELL begins somewhere different.
Trust means loving the person in front of us without making the relationship dependent upon a spiritual outcome.
That does not mean we hide our faith or avoid talking about Jesus. Genuine relationships allow us to be honest about who we are and what matters to us. But our friendship is not a strategy, and our care does not disappear if someone is uninterested in Christianity. If someone never responds to Jesus, they are still someone we are called to love.
We learn their story. We remember what matters to them. We celebrate with them. We grieve with them. We serve when opportunities arise. We become the kind of people with whom honest conversations are safe.
Be Present
Give people your attention. Genuine presence communicates that the person matters more than whatever you hope might happen next.
Be Curious
Learn their story. Ask about their experiences, hopes, questions, disappointments, relationships, and the things that matter to them.
Be Respectful
Make room for disagreement. Listening respectfully does not require abandoning your convictions. It communicates that love is not dependent upon agreement.
Be Consistent
Trust usually grows over time. Continue showing up, caring, serving, listening, and being a friend without demanding a particular response.
Different Places
Love Does Not Begin With Where Someone Is on a Scale
As you continue through TELL, you will learn about the SEEK Scale, a simple framework that helps us recognize that people may be at very different places in their spiritual journey.
One person may rarely think about God. Another may be wondering whether there is more to life. Someone else may be exploring faith, asking questions about Jesus, or considering whether to trust Him.
Recognizing those differences can eventually help us listen more carefully and offer appropriate next steps. But Trust comes first because a person’s place in that journey does not determine whether they deserve our friendship.
The SEEK Scale is not a way to label people. It is an editorial and listening framework, not an assessment of another person. We will explore it more fully in the Listen and Lead practices. People move through spiritual questions in different ways, and their journeys are rarely neat or predictable.
A Story We Carry
The Story Never Comes Before the Person
As you continue through TELL, you will also learn a simple way of understanding and sharing the biblical story called Life From the Tree. It traces the story of Scripture from the Tree of Life in Genesis, through humanity’s choice to seek life on our own, to the cross of Jesus and the restoration of life with God.
Learning that story gives us a helpful framework for talking naturally about life, God, our human condition, Jesus, and the hope of life with God. Sometimes we may share the story through a simple drawing. Sometimes knowing the story may simply help us recognize where a person’s questions connect with the larger biblical story.
But Trust reminds us of something essential: we do not build relationships so that we can eventually share Life From the Tree—or any other evangelistic tool. We build relationships because people are worth knowing and loving.
Life From the Tree is a story we learn to carry, not a reason for beginning a relationship.
If a spiritual conversation develops naturally, we can speak honestly about what we believe. If an opportunity comes to share part or all of the biblical story, we can do that without pressure. And if that opportunity never comes, the relationship still matters.
The person in front of us is always more important than finishing a drawing, completing a presentation, or reaching a particular outcome.
The same is true of SEEK, the question library at WhatIsLifeAbout.org. We do not build friendships so we can send people articles. If someone later raises a question and a resource would genuinely help, we can offer it without pressure. Whether they read it or not, we continue to value the person and the relationship.
Watch
Learning the Practice of Trust
In this short teaching, we will explore why genuine relationship is foundational to authentic evangelism and how we can learn to love people without turning them into projects.
Trust: Love People, Not Projects
Video teaching coming soonReflect
Think About the People Already Around You
You do not need to manufacture evangelistic opportunities. Begin by paying attention to the people God has already placed around you.
Who are the people in my life who do not currently follow Jesus?
What do I genuinely know about their stories, hopes, concerns, and questions?
Do they experience me as someone who listens and cares, or primarily as someone who wants them to believe what I believe?
Where could I become more present, curious, respectful, or consistent in these relationships?
Am I willing to continue loving and valuing someone even if they never respond to Jesus in the way I hope?
When someone shares something meaningful with me, am I listening because I genuinely want to understand them, or am I already looking for an opportunity to turn the conversation toward what I want to say?
Practice
Choose One Person
Think of one person in your life who does not currently follow Jesus. For now, do not begin by deciding what you need to say to them or what part of the biblical story you hope to share.
Begin by practicing Trust.
Your Practice
This week, intentionally invest in one relationship.
Pray. Ask the Father to help you genuinely love this person.
Notice. Pay attention to what is happening in their life.
Ask. Have a conversation and ask a sincere question about something that matters to them.
Listen. Resist the urge to turn the conversation somewhere else. Simply hear their story.
Remember. Hold onto something they shared so you can ask about it again later.
A Simple Prayer
Father, help me see the people around me as You see them. Teach me to love without an agenda, to listen with genuine curiosity, and to be faithfully present. Help me recognize what You are doing in their lives and teach me to participate in Your love for them. Amen.
The Practice of Trust
Love Comes Before the Outcome
You are not responsible for producing a spiritual response in another person. You are invited to love them, pay attention, remain available to the Spirit, and faithfully participate in what God may already be doing.
As TELL continues, you will learn ways to enter spiritual conversations, listen more deeply, carry the biblical story through Life From the Tree, and offer appropriate next steps toward Jesus. None of those practices changes the foundation established here: the person is someone to love, not an outcome to produce.
Love the person. Trust God with the journey.
If Trust was your recommended starting place, begin practicing what you have explored here. Your TELL journey will continue through Engage, Listen, and Lead in the order recommended by your assessment.