Sharing the Faith With Friends – Rachel Allen

In this breakout talk, Rachel Allen shared her experience as a teenager, how she was on fire for her faith but not sure how to share it. During this talk, Rachel provided some nuts-and-bolts to teens to overcome the challenge of being an evangelist.

She started by asking the teens to consider what their priority was. Since priority literally means “first thing,” we can have but one priority, and God should be that priority.

Rachel equipped the teens for the work of evangelization by taking apart Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.” Scripture tells us that there are four pillars to growing in the faith: continually learning more about the faith, being plugged into a community of faith, making Mass a priority, and praying constantly.

Rachel noted that there are really two aspects to talking with your friends about the faith: (1) knowing the basic Gospel message and (2) knowing your story. By being prepared to share your testimony and living an authentic life, you are able to place your friends in the hands of Jesus so that He can work in their lives.

Quotables:

“They won’t care about what you know until they know you care about them.”

“A good evangelist listens.”

“The very basic Gospel message is this: remember there is a God, and it’s not me.”

Written by Stephanie To
Stephanie To works for the Respect Life Apostolate for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. A lawyer and bioethicist by training, she is passionate about the Catholic faith and pro-life issues. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys making music (playing the violin, playing the handbells, and singing), cheering on the St. Louis Cardinals and KU Jayhawks, and hanging out with friends. You can follow her on Twitter at @stephaniehto.