- Well, sharing the gospel is nothing more

than mouth to ear resuscitation

so says Pastor Dudley Rutherford.

He also says that anybeliever can share the gospel

effectively with the propertraining, take a look.

- If someone comes up to youand specifically asked you

how to become a Christian,and your first thought is

I need to call my pastor,something is wrong with that.

- [Reporter] Dudley Rutherfordis the senior pastor

of Shepherd Church, the 15,000 member

congregation in Los Angeles.

Over the years he's observedthat many Christians

feel uncomfortable feeling their faith.

He says the church is in need of people

who will share the lifechanging message of Jesus,

to a world that is spiritually bankrupt.

In his latest book Compelled, Dudley

gives practical methods to help you share

the gospel effectively and with boldness

to those around you.

- All right, DudleyRutherford joins us now.

Great to have you here.

- Thank you boss, it's good to be here.

- Appreciate you being with us.

I love, I want you to start our talk today

the way you start the book.

And that is this really powerfulstory at Dodger Stadium,

tell us about it.

- True story, I'm sittingthere, Dodger Stadium

and off to my left I see aboy, he's about 12 years old.

He's totally blind, hiseyes are like rolled up in

the top of his head, he'ssitting there with a baseball

glove like he's gonna catch a fly ball.

His mother is sittingnext to him and every play

she's telling him whathappened with that play.

And again, I just keptlooking at him there

thinking he's gonna catch a fly ball.

Totally blind, and sureenough about the fourth,

fifth inning there's afly ball, a foul ball

that comes our direction,I think it's coming to me,

I see it curve towardshim, I never once thought

it was gonna land inhis glove, I'm thinking

it's gonna hit him inthe head and kill him.

And it just literally grazesthe back of his head, it goes

right behind him, andI see a bunch of people

fighting for the ball behind him,

and he's in his chair doing this,

he doesn't know what's going on.

The ball rolls down about 12, 15 feet,

and there's a lady sittingover there with her

boyfriend, not evenpaying attention and looks

down and picks up the ball.

- It's always the peoplethat don't pay attention

to get the foul ball.

- Yeah and she's standingup there holding the ball,

and I'm the one who says guyslook the ball's over there.

The lady's got the ball over there.

So I'm sitting with a buddy of mine

and I said I'm gonna go ask that lady

if she'll give me thatball to give to that kid.

The kid's sitting there the entire game.

It was the greatest pictureof faith I've ever seen.

And my buddy said let medo it, he wanted to do it.

- Who wouldn't give theyoung man a ball anyway.

- Well I ended up giving them $20 and said

if she won't give it to you, offer her

some money for the ball.

She starts to hand the ball over,

and her boyfriend says no,we're not giving the ball.

And the boy says this, he says it's a once

in a lifetime opportunityto go to a Dodger game,

and to catch a foul ball,we're not giving it to anybody.

And when he told me that,I know I'm a pastor,

I know I'm a Christian but Idid not have Christian thoughts

when I heard that, cause I wanted to say

a once in a lifetimeopportunity is not going to

a Dodger game, and catching a foul ball.

A once in a lifetimeopportunity is going to a Dodger

game and catching a foulball and looking over and

seeing a 12 year old boywho has never seen a thing,

never will see anything,and going over and putting

that ball in his glove, and saying

there you go kid, there's the ball.

- They refused, and I keptwaiting for a happy ending

to this story, there wasn't one.

So how does that tie into your instruction--

- It's a great question.

I believe that we'relike that lady that God's

grace has just fallen in our lap.

We didn't deserve anythingand God redeemed us, saved us.

We were blessed to havethis precious gift called

salvation and we have it.

And if you look around, allaround us people are blind.

People are empty, people are searching.

There's all kinds of peoplethat would love to have

this piece, this truth that we have

and we keep it to ourself.

- [andrew] Why do we do that?

- There's a lot of reasons but obviously,

I think the Devildoesn't want you to share

but we're afraid of a lot of things.

We're fearful, we thinkwe don't know what to say

if someone asks a question, that we won't

have the right answer.

- Well and that fearis a big one isn't it?

You say in your book howfear is maybe the greatest

tactic the enemy has,what do you mean by that?

- I think there's thishurdle, it's like almost

a wall, we know, I believe this, Andrew,

I think that every Christian deep down

that we want to share our faith,

we know that we should share our faith.

But we just struggle in sharing our faith.

And the biggest struggle is our fear,

it's the fear factor thatwe don't know what to say,

we have the fear ofrejection, they're gonna

reject us, we're afraidthat the words are gonna

come out wrong or that we're gonna

be considered a crazy person.

- Or that we don't knowenough about theology.

All I maybe have is my testimony,

but your book says that may be enough.

- I think the greatesttool is your testimony.

That story that you have, that I have,

of what our life was likebefore we were saved.

How we got saved, and whatour life has been like

since we've been saved.

And I encourage people to write it down.

It starts with that,write your testimony down.

You can take your time,take a week, take a month.

But write it down, howdid you find Christ?

Who invited you?

Did someone give you a bible,did they invite you to church?

Were you watching the 700 Club?

Were you watching, howdid you find Christ?

Write it down, and thenread it, start to read

your own testimony, you justread it, read it, read it.

And then it will become familiar with you.

Then maybe share it withsomeone who's already

saved, say okay Alex, I wantto practice my testimony.

And eventually, you'llbe able to share that

with someone that God opensthe door with you to share.

- We need to be carefulof our walk too don't we?

You talk about traits people have who

were effective in sharing the gospel.

Just one little sentenceyou have in there,

that I love, you say look,if you're mean to people,

you do not win many souls.

We need to live of authenticity.

- Well, I think when you look at Jesus

in the new testament, healways befriended people

somehow he had this repore where people

wanted to be around him.

He was often found eating with "sinners".

I think he was someone that sinners wanted

to be around, that therewas something about him

that was engaging, and Ithink that we as Christian's

need to have a littlebit more of that quality.

- What if we're flat out rejected?

We share the gospel, and we're met

with a harsh, cold response?

What would you guide usto do in that situation?

Once we have the courage to share?

- I always share firstCorinthians 3:6 that

we're to either plantseeds or water a seed,

and then God will give the increase.

And the bible never sayshow many seeds we're

supposed to plant, you're justsupposed to keep planting.

Doesn't say how long we'resupposed to keep water,

just keep watering, you water, you plant,

God will give the increase.

And when you share with someone,

they might reject you at that time,

but that memory is a powerful tool.

They remember that invitation,

they remember that moment.

And then someone elsewill come along and God

will build on top of that.

And they start to add all this up,

and they start to see the changed lives,

and I believe that they will one day come

to put their faith in Christ.

- Tell me briefly about this interchange

that you have in your bookthat happened on Instagram

I believe, I think it'sa really cool story.

That you were following numerous people.

- Yes, my son was runningmy social media accounts.

And he follows and unfollows people hoping

that they'll follow me backand this guy gets on there

and he starts to talk about that he's a

homosexual atheist or something,satanist is what he said.

And I asked my church what would you say

if you got a question,a guy said that to you?

How would you respond?

- What was his question?

Why were you following me?

I'm a homosexual satanist?

- Yes, I'm a homosexual satanist,

and I just skipped rightover the homosexual part,

I said how did you become a satanist?

I kind of wanted to engagein a simple conversation

with him, I could've just unfriended him.

But I wanted to engage, he spoke to me,

I wanted to engage.

And he told me later he wasnot a homosexual satanist,

that he was an atheist.

And so I said, I responded,you're a comedic atheist.

You're a comedian?

And it just began to open up the door

and he, I encouraged him to read the bible

and he said I would never read the bible,

it's a book full of fairy tales.

And then I said why don't you just Google

James Chapter one.

- Why James one?

Out of all you could've led him to?

- Because James is the mostpractical book in the bible.

And it also talks about trials,

and overcoming trials andeverybody in the world has trials.

But he's never read the bible, thinks

it's a book of fairy tales,I'd say why don't you read

James chapter one, and I saidif it means nothing to you

then I won't bring it up anymore.

But just give it a chance,I don't hear a thing from

this guy for several days.

And then I get this response that

says best read of my life.

And since then we've engagedin further conversations

and I'm still working on that guy.

- Civil conversations.

- Civil conversation, whichis what's missing in our

country today, we are a divisive country.

We're polarized, we'refighting with each other.

It seems like now membersof congress are encouraging

us to fight, we're so messed up right now,

we need Jesus now more thanwe've ever needed him before.

- Love your approach, it's a great book.

It's called Compelled, the irresistible

call to share your faith.

It's available wherever books are sold.

Thanks so much for being here.

- Thank you so much.

- Really appreciate it, great book.

We'll be back with more700 Club Interactive

right after this, stay with us.