Witnessing is a vital part of the Christian life;
the Bible teaches that the true believer will desire to share with others what
God has done for him; read John 4:28-30,39-42
and 1 John 1:1-4. God commands us and empowers us to
be His witnesses (Matthew 4:19 and Acts
1:8). Our testimony will not always be accepted, but through the Holy Spirit
indwelling our hearts we receive power to live a victorious Christian life and
serve Christ effectively; read Ephesians 5:18 and Luke
11:13.
Here are a few suggestions that might help you to lead others to Christ: Live a consistent Christ-centered life; be a friend and a good listener; pray that the Holy Spirit will give opportunity for witness and prepare the individual to receive the Word of life (John 16:7-11); and avoid arrogance and preachiness. You should pray daily for the people on your prayer list and ask God for wisdom to present the claims of Christ to them; read James 1:5, 3:17.
Are you a Lumberjack or a Faith-Sharer? by Douglas Dalton
During the month of August my grandmother was here visiting, and she told me a story my grandfather used to tell when he was a minister for Christ. She stated that he would tell this story to people whenever he spoke about the responsibility of Christians in sharing their faith. The story goes like this:
There once was a lumberjack who stayed in the mountains of Oregon. Year-round he stayed in the mountains to cut timber. But on the few occasions he made it into town he always looked forward to going into the saloons and having a good old-time, getting drunk, and getting into fights. On this particular Sunday it had been several months since he had been into town. He was looking forward to going into town and going to his favorite saloon. But this time when he arrived into town he could hear a different type of music coming out of his favorite bar. As he arrived at the bar he had not realized that it had been converted into a church but he knew that it was somehow a different place. The tune that he heard made him step inside so that he could hear the music and the words even better. As the congregation sang Amazing Grace he sat down to listen and his heart was filled with joy and sorrow at the wonder of it. By the end of that service when the altar call was made that old sinner of a lumberjack went forward, and with tears in his eyes he bent down to confess his sinful nature and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. At the end of the service he met with the minister and told the minister about his life and why he was so happy to be a Christian now. Shortly thereafter he returned to the mountains to continue cutting timber. Several months went by in which the minister eagerly awaited the return of the lumberjack. When that day finally arrived the lumberjack was at the Sunday service, giving praise to God, singing, praying, and shouting Amen to everything the minister said in his sermon. Following the service the minister met with the lumberjack, eagerly awaiting to hear about his experiences as a Christian lumberjack in the mountains of Oregon. When the minister asked the lumberjack how it went the lumberjack replied, "It went so well that nobody even caught on."
We can relate to this experience today. Often times as Christians we continue to live our life without sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and the atonement of His blood. There are many excuses for why we don't share our faith in Jesus Christ with others but in reality not one of them is a legitimate reason. A friend of mine named Rick sent me an e-mail today and it read in part "Being a Christian is not doing what God doesn't like to keep him from getting mad. Being a Christian is doing what God likes because you love him!" Because we love God we should be sharing our faith about Jesus Christ so that others can experience that same love and atonement.
Unfortunately, many times we are afraid to share our faith with others or we don't know how to share our faith with others. I think that is the position that our Christian lumberjack was in -- he was afraid to share his faith and did not know how to share his faith. The key to sharing our faith depends upon several disciplines: 1. Reading the Bible and understanding the Good News so that you can share with others; 2. A prayer life that requires you to pray for others, those of whom you would like to share your faith with and for the opportunity to share your faith with; 3. A prayer life that asks the Holy Spirit to energize you in your efforts to share faith; and 4. an understanding that sharing faith is the direct result of your relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
Sharing faith does not demand a lifelong study of how to share faith. It emanates from your love of God and your desire to share that same love of God with others. So you may be asking "How do I share my faith?" I think the best way to answer that initially is to explain to you the process by which people become Christians. The 'Engel Scale of Spiritual Decision', produced by the missiologist James Engel in his book What's Gone Wrong with the Harvest, (Zondervan 1975) is one very useful way of seeing the process.
The Engel Scale proposed 13 steps through which people usually travel on their spiritual journey:
-8 Awareness of supreme being, no knowledge of Gospel
-7 Initial awareness of Gospel
-6 Awareness of fundamentals of Gospel
-5 Grasp implications of Gospel
-4 Positive attitude towards Gospel
-3 Personal problem recognition
-2 Decision to act
-1 Repentance and faith in Christ
New birth
+1 Post-decision evaluation
+2 Incorporation into Body
+3 Conceptual and behavioral growth
+4 Communion with God
+5 Stewardship
For a more detailed graphical explanation view the following:
You can see from this scale that perhaps we should present the Gospel differently to people who are at different points. Someone at -7 on the scale cannot be treated the same as a person at -3 who has already understood much of the Truth and is almost ready to place their faith in Jesus.
The problem is that Christian outreach often only touches people who already have an understanding of the Gospel because of previous church background. They know the language and concepts already. So, we can be quite good at reaching the 'once-churched', yet may miss the 'never-churched' completely.
We must assume that people have zero Christian knowledge. We therefore need to avoid using Christian jargon words. "Most Christian literature... begins too far along the evangelistic process; it assumes that the reader has at least some basic knowledge of Christianity and biblical concepts," said the director of a very effective literature outreach recently in Interlit magazine. We live in a post-Christian culture. Since most people have never attended church, been to Sunday School, or learned anything of the Bible in school, they have a complete lack of knowledge or understanding, and no biblical framework in their minds. Any 'spirituality' that people have, is usually shaped by New Age ideas.
For people who may be antagonistic or uninterested, we must work hard to identify with their feelings. We must avoid a 'preachy' approach, and instead place ourselves at their level, in their shoes, relating to their interests and language. This is sometimes called "contextualization". It has nothing to do with compromising or watering down the Gospel. Catherine Booth, co-founder of Salvation Army, said,
"God forbid that I should ever teach any adaptation of the Gospel. But I contend
that we may serve it up in any sort of dish that will induce the people to
partake of it."
Contextualization is important to communicate with those of other faiths or none. "You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door." (Henry Ward Beecher)
In other words, the sharing of faith depends upon developing relationships with whom you are trying to share faith with. So you may ask yourself “How do I develop a relationship?” I think the best way of developing a relationship with another person is by discussing areas of shared experiences. It is here where meaningful communication takes place. An easier way to understand this is by looking at this graphic:
Wilbur Schramm's simple diagram of overlapping circles demonstrates visually 1 Cor 9:19-23 - seeking to identify and find areas of common ground: 19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23) NIV
If you want to engage people in a relationship talk to them about things that interest them. Such topics can include:
Sport
Health
Sex and relationships
Advice on personal problems
Hobbies
Local information
Tourism ideas
Humor
Films
Music
News-related things
Famous people
plus a million other things
Developing a relationship based upon similar interest will allow you to establish a bond of trust and similarity. By identifying with their real interest and your real interest you are building a bridge whereby you can share your faith and your testimony -- your story and your life. Introduce yourself first, where you live, what you like, etc. Then go on to explain how something happened to you which changed your whole view of life. People are interested in people.
And at some point you will be ready to discuss the essentials of the Gospel. It is actually hard to explain the essentials of Gospel but when you do you remember to consider the following:
use easy non-religious language when communicating the Gospel.
clearly explain that the Gospel is completely free (few non-Christians understand this), yet balancing it with the other truth -- that it is not "easy-believism".
Show that God wants to care and support people in every problem of life -- yet there are no automatic promises of health or wealth.
Discuss with them how God loves his creation, especially people.
Explain to them that God's Grace is for all.
Explain to them that the bondage of sin is universal.
Tell them how He has made a way for people to escape the human problem we are all born with - self-centeredness and sin.
Show them how He sent his Son Jesus to be born as a person, so that:
-
we can see and understand what God is like.
- He could pay the punishment we deserve. If Jesus had been only a perfect human
person, his death could only pay for the sins of one human. If Jesus was God but
not also a true man, he could not really die. But because he was completely God
and completely man, his life was of sufficient value to pay for all the sins of
everyone, ever. (That's why his mother Mary was a virgin - because he had human
and divine parentage.)
Teach them there is nothing we can do to deserve God's goodness, or in any way pay for the things we do wrong, everything we receive from him is free. That's what 'grace' means. All that we can do is ask, trust, and receive. He promises us a place with Him forever, which we do not deserve and can never earn!
Show that person that everything we can do for God flows out of the fact that we are already accepted by Him. We cannot earn any more acceptance or love from him, because we already have it, 100%.
And help them see that Jesus actually understands the pains, problems and temptations we have, because he suffered them too.
Help them to understand that Salvation, redemption, and reconciliation are possible only through Jesus Christ.
Explain to them that the human response to God's love is repentance and trust.
Reassure them that Holy Spirit grants assurance to the heart of those who trust in God through Jesus Christ.
And help them to understand that holiness of heart and life is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and the world.
When you talk to people be sensitive to them. Never criticize someone's beliefs. Be positive - share what Jesus gives you in your life.
However, sharing your faith can never be complete until you extend the invitation to know Christ. In Eddie Fox's and George Morris's book, "Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So!" They make the following statement:
Because the call to respond is part of the essence of the gospel, the early apostles were not shy about asking people to decide for or against the God who had already decided for them. The apostles first proclaimed the deeds of salvation that put humankind right with God, and then they challenged persons to respond to this gift of forgiveness. It was natural for the hearers to inquire, "What shall we do to be saved?" The response that we sought was repentance, faith, and baptism. The early apostles understood the dynamic that makes it necessary for an offered gift to be accepted in order for it to be appropriated in the receiver's life.
Let us suppose that a person receives a check for a large sum of money. Everything is in order. It is clearly made out with the correct name. The individual who has the money in the bank has appropriately signed it with his signature. Once it is handed to the recipient, can the recipient spend the money? Is the money now in possession of the recipient? We are all well aware the money becomes a reality only when the recipient endorses the check. Like a check, undeserved, or unmerited, grace is given freely to all persons. Grace is adequate for everyone's salvation, and the prevenient grace of God frees the will and enables response. It requires only the response of acceptance. The recipient endorses with his/her life the grace of Christ Jesus, and grace is appropriated in one's experience. The gospel, of its very nature, is a knock at the door that claims attention and demands response.
This is the essential of sharing your faith -- developing an honest based relationship of common interest so that you can build a bridge in which to share your story and life in Jesus Christ, and extend to them an invitation to know Christ Jesus.
When we come to the end of our lives and stand before Christ and he asks us how it went are we going to reply "It went so well that nobody even caught on." Or are we going to say to Jesus Christ, "It went well Lord. Because of my love for you, and the energizing power of the Holy Spirit, I met with many people on your behalf. I made friends with them and developed relationships with them. I sharing your Good News with everyone I could just as you commanded me to. And I made an invitation to each one that they may know you. It went well Lord." I hope that someday each of us can stand before Christ and say "It went well Lord." So are you a lumberjack or a Faith-Sharer?
Bibliography:
Bessie Guthrie for the lumberjack story my grandfather Franklin Wayne Guthrie told.
Eddie Fox, and George Morris, "Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So!", Providence House Publishers, Franklin, Tennessee, 2nd Edition, 1999, P. 70.
"Web Evangelism through Faith Sharing", http://www.orthovox.org/cornerstone/web_evangelism.htm
'Engel Scale of Spiritual Decision', produced by James Engel What's Gone Wrong with the Harvest, (Zondervan 1975).http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/pics/engel5.gif
“Other religions - the differences between Christianity and other faiths”, http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/sidepage/religion.php
“The Schramm concept of effective communication”, http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/sidepage/communicate.php
Wilbur Schramm principle of communication demonstrated in the Bible, http://www.gospelcom.net/guide/pics/schram.gif
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28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. NIV
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." NIV
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. NIV
19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." NIV
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." NIV
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. NIV
13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" NIV
7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. NIV
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. NIV
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. NIV