Treasure Hunting: How To Guide
One of my first posts was about this amazing technique for sharing the love of God with people called, Treasure Hunting. At the time, I focused on the difference between this technique and other street evangelism techniques I’ve tried. Primarily, instead of leading off with bad news, you share the truth that God sees them as a treasure and loves them, which is entirely in accordance with the ancient manusripts.
The basic premise is it generally takes people 7 to 9 positive experiences before someone will enter a relationship with God through Jesus. By blessing people on the street with the love of God, it’s the intent of treasure hunting to add one of those positive experiences. What I’d like to do today is actually explain how the technique works so you can do it for yourself.
1. Gather. You should at least go out in pairs. Those going out on a particular day should gather to pray.
2. Prayer. Though God loves everybody, we know the Holy Spirit is often working specifically on certain individuals at one time. Ask God to lead you to those individuals today.
3. Clues. Ask God for clues to direct you to the right people. We have a worksheet where the top part of the worksheet is for writing down the clues. The clues come in 5 categories.
- Location – Where in the town will we find these people
- Appearance – What are they wearing or carrying
- Unusual Indicators – Unusual things like balloons, flowers or elephants (Don’t laugh – one lady in our group a few weeks ago had the store, Boots, a yellow bag and elephants. We saw a lady walk into Boots with a yellow bag and orange elephants on the bag. We immediately found our fellow treasure hunter with these clues and she and her partner caught up with this woman inside Boots and had great conversation and time of prayer with her.)
- Name – This won’t be obvious right away, but if they give their name in conversation and it’s on your list, it’s another confirmation.
- Needs – This often won’t be obvious either, but again is another confirmation if it comes up in coversation.
Try to get 3 to 5 clues in each category. Don’t think to much about it. Write down whatever comes into your head. The more clues, the more treasure to look for! 
4. Share your clues with the group. Help look for each others clues, as well as looking for multiples. If more than one person has the same clue, then maybe God is trying to say something specific.
5. Divide into teams. Go in pairs (or more, but only approach other people in pairs). It’s preferable for a man and woman to be partnered together. Also look at the clues to see if you have similarities with another person, then perhaps you should be partnered together.
6. Set a Time Limit and meet back location. We generally find 60 to 90 minutes is enough, especially if you are organized and going out regularly as more than that could wear people out. I’ve talked to as few as 3 and as many as 25 in an hour.
7. Go out in your groups and head to the locations on your clues list. Keep your clues list out so you can keep checking for clues. How long you stay at a location is up to you. Our town, Leatherhead, is small, so we’ll linger in one location for a few minutes then move to the next, and can usually make 2-4 rounds in the hour.
8. Look for treasure, someone that matches your clues. We look for someone with at least 2 clues, unless it is a really unusual one.
9. Approach the treasure. When you spot someone with at least two clues, approach in pairs and say something like, ‘This may seem a little odd, but we’re on a treasure hunt, and we think you are a treasure.’ The usual response is, ‘No, I’m not.’ We then show them the list and point out the clues that they match. At this point they generally ask what they have to do, we explain you don’t have to do anything.
10. Build rapport. Try to have a conversation, and find out their names. If their name is on the clue list, you can share that it’s another matching clue. You want to get to the point where you tell them that we are Christians from a local church, and what you to know you are God’s treasure today.
11. Ask to pray for them. Ask if there is anything you can do for them or if they have any needs that you can pray with them about. Be encouraging. If they don’t have anything or want you to pray for them, wish them a good day and enjoy being a treasure.
12. Prayer. If they do ask for prayer, be sensitive not to embarrass them in public. We tend to pray on the spot, and here are some guidelines:
- Keep you eyes open
- Ask for the presence of God to come
- Pray in a normal tone of voice
- Avoid Christianeze in the language you use
- Do not pray in tongues (at least out loud)
- If you have a word for them, share it in a conversational way rather than ‘Thus sayeth the Lord.’
- Always be encouraging
If you were praying for healing, take authority, but don’t do so in a way that would embarrass them. Ask them to test it out (if possible) and how does it feel on a scale of 1-10, and is it better. Ask if there is something they can do now that they couldn’t do before you prayed.
If they are healed or had an encounter with God, explain what happened and that God loves them, cares for them, and wants the best for them. If they are not a Christian, ask if they want to know Jesus personally. If they say, ‘Yes,’ go ahead and lead them in a prayer to ask Jesus into their life.
13. Literature. If appropriate, have a church card to give them as follow-up.
14. Look for your next treasure
15. Meet Back Together. At the end, gather at the appointed place and time to share stories, pray over the people you spoke to, and pray over each other.
Other Tips
- A man and woman pair can talk to anyone.
- Two men should not approach women or children.
- Two women should not approach men.
- If a child has the clues, approach the parent(s) first and ask permission
- If someone is in a hurry or otherwise occupied, let them be. We are not here to harass people, and chasing someone down the street could scare someone more than blessing them. If they have several clues, ask God to bring them your way again when they are less hurried.
- We are not entering a debate or trying to be right if we engage in a discussion. That said, if someone wants to discuss, don’t hide the truth either. Be sensitive. Just keep in mind the objective is to bless people. If it is getting argumentative, get out of the conversation.
- Getting out on the streets is a victory in itself. If we can help people on their journey to God, then all the better.
Anyone can do this technique. I would advise going with someone who’s done it before before trying yourself for the first time.
In 2 months of doing this and speaking to over 100 people, I’ve never had an angry reaction. We’ve had a few people not interested, and just wished them a good day and enjoy being a treasure, but never an angry response. Far more have been quite appreciative!
At Pioneer Engage Church, we go out every Saturday in Leatherhead, England. We encourage people to go for it at any time during the week, but recommend first timers come out with the team on Saturday morning to get a little training and experience first. We meet at Costa Coffee in the Swan Centre at 9:45am. Everyone is welcome!
If you’d like to come along, email me at daveb.uk@hotmail.com, and I’ll give you the contact person for that week. I can also send you the clues and basic instruction sheet we use in either MS Word or Acrobat PDF file.
