THREE CIRCLES
Three Circles is a basic evangelism tool used to help communicate the Story of God’s redemption in a simple, understandable way. Use this as a guide as you share and draw it, but we recommend you practice drawing and sharing a number of times before going through it.
God's Design
God has a design for what the good life looks like.
He has a design for our relations—with our spouses, our children, our friends, our community.
He has a design for how to live a fulfilled life. This is the story of creation: “God saw all that He had made and it was very good” (Gen. 1.31).
Sin & Death
However, creation did not follow God’s design. The first humans rejected God’s design and chose to follow their desires.
Thus, sin and death entered the world.
Sin is simply unbelief in who God is and how God works. It pursues our own wants and appetites.
The Bible explains it as Humanity has “exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1.24).
Brokenness
This led to brokenness in our world. The good earth that God created and designed is broken and fractured by the reign of sin and death.
We can see and experience brokenness all around us: broken relationships, pain, suffering, and death.
ASK: What brokenness have you experienced? (i.e. Racism? Death? Divorce? Pain?)
Escape
But we don’t want our world to be broken! We want it to be healthy, whole, and fulfilling.
So we try to escape the brokenness or fix the brokenness.
ASK: What are some ways that you cope with the brokenness; or try to help fix the brokenness?
Escape examples: Addictions, Sex, Entertainment, Work, Money.
Fix examples: engage in social justice, volunteer at a homeless shelter, philanthropy, “go” to church.
Good News
There is Good News though:
God sent Jesus, His Son, into the brokenness. He lived within God’s perfect design. He never stepped outside that design, not once.
He was then crucified for the sins of the world: He took that brokenness—our shame, our guilt, our meaninglessness, our fear—upon Himself on the cross. Through his death the power of sin, which led to our broken world, was dealt with.
However, He did not stay dead! He rose again on the third day in victory over death. He ascended into heaven and is seated on the right hand of God the Father.
Jesus has made a way for us to enter back into God’s design.
Repent & Believe
When we repent and believe in Jesus—who He says He is and what He accomplished for all humanity—we can enter back into God’s design for the world.
Restore & Recover
He has given us a way to recover from what has happened in the past—we get a fresh start with our life with God.
We also get to take part in restoring God’s design in the world.
Go
Then, as God’s representatives, we go into the brokenness to announce and reveal God’s design for the world through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
