Scott McNamara developed a powerful training tool for witnessing named, “Jesus At the Door.” On today’s episode of The Evangelism Podcast, he shares how to use “Jesus at the Door” to lead people to Jesus. You will also learn about his innovative strategy for bridging the gap between when someone accepts the Gospel until they start attending church. Scott calls it the ABC’s of the Gospel: First they Accept the Gospel, then you provide a Bridge, finally they start attending Church.
Learn More About Jesus at the Door: https://jesusatthedoor.com/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Scott McNamara. Thank you so much for joining me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (00:10):
Thank you, Daniel. Great to be here.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:12):
So your ministry is called Jesus at the Door, and you specialize in taking Jesus to the door of every person’s heart. Tell me a little bit about yourself and how your ministry got started.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (00:26):
Yeah, so Jesus at the door, this is kind of what it looks like. It’s framed around the picture of Jesus knocking on one side with the handle on the inside of the door. And then on the back we have nine imagery laden PowerPoints that articulate succinctly the message of the gospel. So really on one side is the image and the other side is the message. It’s a real simple way of presenting the gospel. I got into this, I guess accidentally. I was a musician, came to the Lord, wanted to continue to be a musician, and the Holy Spirit said, no, I have other plans for you. I want you to be an evangelist. And I wrestled with the Lord akin to Jacob, wrestling with the angel of the Lord, and he came away blessed with a hip replacement. I kind of feel that way. I came away blessed with Jesus at the door and also a hip replacement.
(01:08):
I realized that to be hip is to be holy, humility, integrity, and purity. The Lord began to speak to me about the hipness of my heart to say, only with a pure heart will you really see the things that I want you to see working through you. So yeah, I guess the Lord began to do surgery in me in terms of having a heart that ss to be humble, having purity inside of my heart. So that was the building blocks for becoming an evangelist and then becoming an evangelist. I guess it was just accidental. I just talked to everybody that moved about Jesus and somebody told me there’s a title for that. It’s called an Evangelist, and my pastor employed me to be an evangelist in 2014. He told me to stand on the street corner every day, all day. And I did that for three years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:50):
And where was
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (01:51):
That? That’s in Northern Ireland.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:52):
Northern Ireland. Well, and so you stood there, you’re talking to people as they’re walking by and from all of your conversations you came up with some really great lines and ways of presenting the gospel to people. Talk to me how that process went.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (02:09):
Kind of. I mean, I can’t really take credit for it if I’m honest. I was sharing with people as best as I could, but the Holy Spirit would drop phrases into my heart and the phrases he dropped were the phrases that compiled Jesus at the door. So I don’t think I can take credit for it. I was more of a conduit than a creator, but I just received what the Lord gave me and I would write them down in my phone as the person walked away. And that’s what, over a number of months, we ended up with this and then it kind of grew legs and run around the world. Really
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:40):
Pretend that I’m someone that you’re talking to on the street corner and you’re using this tool in order to tell me about, just kind of walk me through how you would do it and how you would train someone to use this tool.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (02:52):
Yeah, I will do so. Obviously, evangelism is partnership and partnership is power. If we bring the partnership, he the power. So everything we do in Jesus at the door is in partnership with the Holy Spirit. I don’t believe you can do evangelism without partnership, but it is very significant for us to understand that this is not just some kind of scripture reading. This is an invitation into partnership. That’s kind of how I view it, because the Lord gave it. So with me going through this, I’m already locking in with the spirit, and that’s the most beautiful thing about it. So I would approach you, I’d say, excuse me, if you’re on the street, excuse me, sir, can ask you a quick question. Now if you say to me, no, I’m good, then I don’t believe he’s drawing you, John 6 44. Nobody can come unless the father draws them. I’m saying, Lord, you are my evangelism partner. Who are you drawing? So even down to that detail, I
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:41):
Let the Lord show. So you’re not pestering people, you’re giving an invitation, and then if they respond, then you’re ready to start to talk to
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (03:47):
Them. Yeah, yeah. Because important that we don’t possess, we partner but don’t possess. So I’m going to just partner and say, Lord, where are you going? So if you agree to allow me to talk to you, I would say, have you seen this picture before? Do you pray is what I would ask you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:01):
I pray sometimes. I don’t know if I’ve seen this
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (04:04):
Picture. You don’t recognize it. No. So this is Jesus knocking at the door of your heart. The handles on the inside only you can let him in. Now lots of people pray, praying can be like talking through the door. He’s there somewhere, but you don’t know him personally. And then I’m going to pause because for the born again believer, if I challenge you on the street as you and me as me, you would probably bring some rebuttal there. You’d say, well, I do know Jesus personally, so I’m going to let that simmer. But for the individual who doesn’t know Jesus, that’s going to sit and they’re going to think, man, I don’t know him. So there’s a couple of moments where they’re born. Again, believer can out themselves as it were, and say, I do know Christ. And that would be one of them. So then I would say, visualize wearing a backpack. If we filled it with all of your sin, would it be heavy?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:47):
Yeah, it
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (04:49):
Would. There’d be something in there. And that represents your debt with God. It stops you having a relationship with him. So if you owed the bank a million dollars and I gave you a check for that amount and you gave it to the bank, what would happen to your debt?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:04):
They paid off.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (05:04):
It’d be paid off. It’d be clear. Huh? That would be a good day for you. That’s what Jesus did when he died on the cross. He wrote your check, signed in his blood with your name on it. What is your name, sir? Daniel. Daniel. So he wrote you that Check Daniel in his blood, then he rose again, and today he’s standing at the door of your heart wanting you to cash it. If Jesus were here right now, would you let him in?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:26):
Yeah. If he showed up.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (05:28):
If you knew it was him. Yeah. So if we took a walk outside, can you see the wind? Can you visibly see the wind?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:34):
No. You can’t see the
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (05:35):
Wind. You can’t see it, but you can feel it, right? So like the wind, I believe Jesus is here right now. Could I pray for you to feel his presence?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:42):
Sure.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (05:42):
Yeah. Can I put my hand on your shoulder? Sure. Which obviously we don’t need the Holy Spirit, don’t need your hand. But I’m a tactile guy. So Lord, I pray for Daniel right now by the power of your Holy Spirit. Would you touch his heart? Let him feel your presence. Let him know you’re here. Let him know you are real. Change the atmosphere as he sits here and reveal how personal of a God you are, how personal of a father you are. You love him like a son and Him reveal you loved him in this moment, in Jesus’ name. Then I would ask you, what did you feel when I prayed for you? What did you feel?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:10):
Well, peace.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (06:12):
Peace. Come on. Amen. And Jesus was the prince of peace as we read in the Book of Eyes Eye. So what we’re doing is in essence we’re saying, if Jesus were here, would you let him in? And they’re saying, yeah, and then we have to prove that Jesus is here, but we can’t prove that, but the Holy Spirit can. So we give all control so that he can take full control and let the Holy Spirit do what he does best, which is shine. So after that moment, do you believe he’s here? What did you feel? Yeah. Okay, great. The last thing, now you’re on a road of life going this direction without Jesus, you need to turn from your sin, change direction and follow him. My question, I want to ask you and think before you answer, do you want to follow Him?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:53):
Yes
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (06:54):
You do. Praise God. So the Bible says invite him with your mouth, mean it in your heart. So just echo this prayer with me. Just say, Jesus, Jesus, forgive me for my sins.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:02):
Forgive me for my sins. I
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (07:03):
Open the door of my heart.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:04):
I open the door of my
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (07:05):
Heart. I make you Lord of my
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:06):
Life. I make you the Lord of my life.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (07:07):
Fill me with your spirit. Fill
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:09):
Me with your spirit. Amen.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (07:10):
Amen. Amen. So our prayer, we call it repent, believe, received just a simple way that we break down that prayer. Now after this is why I believe Jesus at the door is one of the most exciting evangelistic techniques on the planet. Because the Holy Spirit has not only given me a gospel presentation that is so easy and works with anybody, but he’s given me the part that happens next, the part that you do next. So Rahar, who’s a great inspiration in all of our lives, evangelist Bonnke said, he talked about the ABCs of evangelism as in the simple gospel, simple nuts and bolts of the gospel. I took that, sat with it, and the Holy Spirit fleshed it out for me. The A is the acceptance, and C is church, but B is the bridge. And there’s a lot of people who are saying amen on the acceptance, but they’re not coming to church and they’re not coming anywhere after because we have a great chasm, because we have no bridge, that we have nothing to walk them across.
(08:04):
So the Holy Spirit began to give me a bridge, a training materials. We have another card that is like this, that I train my team in how we access this bridge. Quick example, after you say amen, a lot of people will say, here’s a church card, let me send you a text or whatever. But in that moment, right, there is a very special moment like akin to the golden hour moment, the magic hour when the sun’s coming down that last hour, it’s a holy moment. It’s a moment where the sun is warmest to the horizon. It’s closest to the horizon. Your new believer, the sun, Jesus is warmer and closer than he’s ever been probably in their life. And we move past that moment quickly instead of hitting the pause. So what I’m going to do, I’m going to pause there. I’m going to say, sir, now you said you want to follow Jesus.
(08:48):
The last thing you said is you want to follow Jesus. You can’t follow somebody if you don’t move and you don’t follow with your words, you follow your feet. So you need to put faith to your feet and walk it out. If you can’t walk it out, don’t talk it out because talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. And I’ll just use some phrases like this, which ultimately what I’m doing is flipping the script and saying that instead of this mentality of come to my church, come hang out with me, can be my friend, it’s about you. Now, you said you want to do this. You said that this is the life you said you want to follow. Let me help you do what you said you want to do. And that really, really helps creating a bridge for these individuals to walk across. And we do this through Jesus at the Door app where we have access to send the person. Just real quick, I’ll show you. So here we have,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:30):
Okay, so this is Jesus at the Door app, which is free. So how would you find it? You would go to the Apple app store,
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (09:36):
Go to the app store, type in Google, Jesus at the door, type in Jesus, Jesus at the door. And literally you just download that, it’s free and you can click onto, we have an equipping card and a follow-up card on the follow-up card we have. When this thing gets geofenced in a community, if we have a partner church there, right here with Nations, we can click on that button of the partner church, and we have a custom made follow-up card at a drop of a button we can send to a brand new believer that connects them to that local church. Now, what’s really important about this is the equity that I have with you is pretty much non-existent. You didn’t accept the Lord because I’m a nice guy. You accepted the Lord because through this picture, the Holy Spirit enlightened your soul to accept him.
(10:13):
So the equity lies here, not here. And what we’re trying to do is use equity. We don’t have be my friend, come hang out with me. We don’t have that, but this has it. So as soon as you say Amen, I say, I want to send you a picture of this image so you can remember the day you accepted Jesus. And then I send you, I get your name and number in front of you, and I send this image to you, but like a carrot with a stick hanging on the end of that stick is the carrot. And that’s what we want them to really have. And that’s all the information for the local church. And then we begin our follow-up process that way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:43):
Wow. So this app is really valuable and people can go download it for free,
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (10:47):
Download it for free,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:48):
And then they can have access to the script, to the picture. They can use it on their phone. And I think this is brilliant. Everyone has their phone everywhere they go. And so maybe you’re in a line at a coffee shop and you feel prompted to share the gospel somewhere. You can pull it out and say, Hey, have you seen this picture before? Definitely. And the picture creates curiosity. So people start looking at it and then you can start the conversation. Amen.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (11:10):
And a picture paints a thousand words here. And we have, if you go to a equipping card and the globe in the top right corner, we have multiple languages in many countries what individuals can use. We now have users in 129 nations utilizing this app with accounts. If you go to new Believer’s info, you’ll store the name and the number and the date of your last salvation, it will log it right here and it’ll log all of them in date form. And then if you go to Jad stories, it drops a pin of an apple in the location with accepted Christ. And we have pretty much most continents around the world, apples that have been dropped by individuals.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:45):
And so you’re the evangelism director here at Nation’s Church in Orlando, Florida, pastored by Daniel Kalinda from Christ for All Nations. And so talk to me about what you’re doing here in the church to activate people for evangelism.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (12:01):
So what we do is we run trainings where all the everyday individuals, I mean our tagline is equipping everyday believers to win everyday people. That’s what Jesus the door is about. We’re not just equipping evangelists, we’re equipping Starbucks workers, single moms, doctors, bankers, dentists so that they can go back into their sphere of influence. This is not a hard presentation to begin with. It’s not offensive. It’s a picture that’s very anointed. This image was illustrated by a Manny woman and Oscar last year. This year the Oscars, Charlie MCee won an Oscar for the best animated story. He illustrated this image, very famous artist, people. We’ve seen people cry and say things like, I saw that in a dream and get saved just from looking at the picture. So what we do here is we train everyday believers in our church and then we send them back into their sphere of influence to be fruitful. And we have a new believer group. So when people get saved, we don’t just obviously leave them there, we invite them into our new believers groups. And in those new believer groups, we filter those people through into the Sunday service where we have a reserve section on a Sunday morning at Nations Church for all these new converts to come in and feel like part of the family.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:07):
And then you also go and travel to other churches, help train them in evangelism. And you have teams that have been trained in Jesus at the door and they go and teach other people how to get involved. So what does that look like if you go into a church and do a training?
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (13:23):
Yeah, so I would go in on a, we call it evangelism made easy weekend. I’ll go on a Saturday and we do an all day training on a Saturday that involves classroom training, involves role play. So the individuals get a chance to go through it to try it. And then we take ’em onto the streets for a couple of hours, do a breakout session. We come back, we have glory stories, share what the Lord did and people’s lives. And then I preach on the Sunday morning at the church as well. So that’s kind of like the evangelism made easy weekend.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:49):
And if someone wants to connect with your ministry, find out more about you, maybe download the card or support your ministry, maybe invite you to come to their church. What’s your website?
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (14:00):
So jesus@thedoor.com is the website. And then you can get us on Instagram, Jesus at the door, Facebook, we have a YouTube channel with many training videos just to Jesus at the door. Again, many resources available there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:13):
And what would you say to someone who they feel like they know they should witness, but they’ve never really gone out there and actually talked to someone. How would you encourage them to take a step of faith and to actually start up a conversation?
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (14:28):
Well, first of all, I would look below the hood or look at the root level. Why should we share you? Maybe you hear evangelist saying, go and share. Go and share. But the person hasn’t really captured the heart of why should I share? Well, Jesus, when he gave the great commission, he didn’t give it to evangelists for starters, he gave it to disciples. So every disciple has been mandated, commissioned, and to share the gospel and to make disciples not just share the gospel, but to make disciples. So this is something that we all have to do and one day we’re going to look our Lord in the eye and we’re going to have to give account for the talents and how we stewarded that which he gave us. So Jesus at the door is the way that I’ve seen in my life the easiest way that is the most anointed, that you can share the gospel in a matter of minutes.
(15:13):
I’ve seen children who’ve read this thing and people have started crying and got saved. When my boy, my son was seven, he read this to a family of four. The mom was covered in tattoos. He got two steps down. The man started crying and my seven year old son led them all to the Lord. I baptized free of that family on the same day. I baptized my son in a parking lot from a seven year old boy shaking and nervous and whispering this card, but it was the power of the Holy Spirit that he released and that’s
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:41):
What happened. And so if God can use a seven year old, he can use anyone. Amen. What if someone that you’re talking to with the card is more antagonistic than I was? I was pretty acceptance saying yes. But some people want to get into argument or they want to start discussing more philosophically some of the different questions. How do you bring them back to the gospel?
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (16:01):
So first of all, it’s key to note that Jesus does what we call a reaping tool. Now, when I first entered onto those streets of Northern Ireland, I didn’t know what I was doing. I wouldn’t have called myself an evangelist. But the Holy Spirit spoke to me within the first two weeks. He said, imagine all these people are like apples on a tree. So I did that. I saw all these people walking around. He said, when you share, I’ll shake. And I had a revelation of what evangelism was. Up until that point, I thought it was about how good or bad or able I was, but the law was showing me. It was about how available I was willing to make myself. You see, some apples will fall, some will move a little and some won’t move at all. My job is not to make those apples fall or not. All I have to do is be willing to catch them when they fall. We’re all priceless apples that one day we were apples on a tree until somebody caught us. And the Lord is shaking people’s lives. And all he asked us to do, like the apostle Paul told Timothy, preach the gospel in season and out of season. So all we need to do is be willing to share faithfully. And I believe the Lord will do miracles in that way.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:01):
Amen. Well, I think it’s absolutely brilliant what God has given you, and it’s such an important tool for sharing the gospel. I think it’s a great way to start out for someone to just have the bullets. If you have something in your hand that you can read, even if you forget, you can look down and read it and go through the pictures with people. I think it’s a very powerful tool for people. And so if you’re listening and you want to be used by God, especially in personal witnessing going out, I encourage you to go find Jesus at the door, download it to your phone, get the app, go to the website, get the cards, and use them to lead people to Jesus. Amen. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism podcast.
Scott McNamara | Jesus at the Door (17:45):
Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me.
