Five Minute Ministry

The scriptures are filled with many admonitions to encourage one another, one Christian to another. Hebrews 3:13, 1 Thess 3:3,4:18,5:11, These verses show a context to the word 'encourage'. We tend to think of it as 'cheer up' but it has more to do with the root 'courage'. Encourage and exhort are pretty much synonyms in the NT. These verses talk about encouraging one another with the Gospel message of hope and the promise of a life with God after the persecutions and trials of this world. To try to encourage a non-believer without the gospel would be more like telling a dying cancer patient to cheer up and he'll be okay. Wouldn't it be more encouraging to confirm their dire state instead of ignoring and then offer the cure, the gospel? So, one way to practice Five Minute Ministry in a very practical way is to send an encouraging card, one that builds their faith in Christ, strengthens them in the midst of trials, and exhorts them to further go

It is worth reading first to see what their thinking and arguments are so we can understand and be able to address what they believe and not just what we think they believe. Here is a tract by Catholic Answers on praying to the saints from a Roman Catholic viewpoint: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/praying-to-the-saints Here is a Protestant counter point article answering the above.  You might want to think what your answers would be first before reading this to test your own reason and knowledge of the subject. http://bnonn.thinkingmatters.org.nz/3-reasons-christianity-plus-prayer-to-saints-equals-polytheism/

Jeff Durbin of Apologia Radio does a great job of working with Mormon elders on the street.  You'll notice that he's memorized a number of references.  That may be a bit challenging for most people to accomplish but I'd like you to pay more attention to his attitude than his arguments.  Even if you don't have all the references memorized you can still have his patience and compassion when you interact with Mormon elders.