Your Story, God's Story: Gospel Conversation

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Adapted from Field 2: Gospel – Seeded, part of the Four Fields framework created and published by the NoPlaceLeft International Coalition (noplaceleft.net), including their 3 Circles Gospel resource. Full training videos and practice slides are available at those links. This page summarizes the framework for our own use and always credits the original source.

Once a relationship is warm enough for a real conversation (Field 1), the next step isn't a memorized speech. It's two stories, told simply and in order: your story, then God's story. Together they move a conversation from "here's what happened to me" to "here's what's true for everyone," and they naturally lead to a moment where the other person has to respond.

Your Story: The 15-Second Testimony

Field 2 starts with an ultra-short version of your own testimony, short enough that it fits naturally into a conversation without becoming a monologue. The discipline of cutting your story down to 15 seconds forces clarity: what were you before, what changed, what's different now (the same "Before → Turning Point → After" shape we use in our own Sharing Your Story guide). A testimony that short is easy to remember, easy to say naturally, and easy to hand off into God's story next.

Watch: Your Story – 15 Second Testimony →

God's Story: The 3 Circles

Where your story ends, God's story picks up, told visually, with three simple circles drawn as you talk:

Design. The first circle represents the world as God intended it: good, whole, and in relationship with Him.
Brokenness. The second circle names what actually happened: sin, and the brokenness it caused in us and around us. Most people spend their lives cycling back and forth between trying to fix this brokenness on their own and returning to it, an exhausting loop the diagram makes visible.
Gospel & Restoration. The third circle breaks the cycle: the cross and resurrection of Jesus, and the new, restored life available on the other side of it. This is where the conversation turns from diagnosis to invitation.

The power of the 3 Circles is that it's simple enough to draw on a napkin, a whiteboard, or in the air with your hands, no notes required, and no theological vocabulary needed to follow along.

Watch: God's Story – 3 Circles → | Full 3 Circles Gospel resource →

4 Responses to the Gospel

Once the gospel has actually been presented, Field 2 also trains you to notice how the other person responds, because the response shapes what comes next, not the other way around. Responses to a real gospel conversation tend to land somewhere on a spectrum, from open curiosity and immediate belief, to wanting time to think it over, to polite disinterest, to outright resistance. Recognizing which one you're in the room with keeps you from either pushing too hard or backing off too soon.

The goal of Field 2 was never to "close" every conversation. It's to present the gospel clearly enough that a real response, whatever it is, becomes possible.

Watch: 4 Responses to the Gospel →

Whatever the response, remember it was never resting on you. You told your story and God's story. The conviction, the softening, the actual turning toward Christ, is the Holy Spirit's work, not the fruit of a well-run conversation. So cover it in prayer: before you speak, while you're speaking, and for as long as it takes after.

Source: Four Fields: NoPlaceLeft International Coalition. Video content and the 3 Circles diagram are the work of NPL Simple Tools / NoPlaceLeft and are linked here, not reproduced. Please visit their site for the full original training.