Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Witnessing: And Were Even Afraid to Ask

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1

Why We Don’t Witness

Chapter 2

WDJD?

Chapter 3

Roads to Faith

Chapter 4

Do’s and Don’ts

Chapter 5

Addressing Obstacles

Chapter 6

Intellectual Obstacles

Chapter 7

Memory Obstacles

Chapter 8

A Great Work For You

Appendix A:

Lifestyle Witnessing

Appendix B:

The Gospel

Appendix C:

Your Personal Testimony

Bibliography

About the Author

With special thanks to all those to whom I’ve witnessed, for their willingness to openly share their life experiences with me. You have taught me much.

Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Preface

Okay, some have been trying to get me to sit down and write a book on the subject of witnessing. So, here goes. But, why would they want me to write this book?

Well, I suppose it’s because they know I’ve spent a lot of time honing the craft, er, make that art (if caring about people can be called an art), of witnessing and have learned some things. I have spoken extensively on witnessing and read just about anything I can get hold of on the subject of witnessing and/or apologetics. I’ve also created a website (www.luke418min.com) that deals with this subject and other related matters. I have to admit, it seems a shame to not share with others what I’ve learned. Why take it to my grave?

Since 1991, I have embarked on the frightening task of cold, door-to-door witnessing. Yeah, that’s right. I just randomly pick out a street and start knocking on doors. Am I crazy or what?

Usually, I go out once every other week for a couple hours. This adds up to a mere fifty-two hours per year. Multiplied by the number of years I’ve been doing this, it comes up to a little over one-thousand hours, or around twenty-six forty-hour work weeks. This seems like precious little time to me. However, it is no doubt about one-thousand more hours of door-to-door witnessing than most anyone else has experienced.

Of course, door-to-door witnessing does not constitute all of the types of witnessing I’ve done. I can’t put a number on the hours I’ve spent witnessing in other ways.

In an attempt to help others become laborers in God’s field, I have developed an eight-week witnessing course that has been taught in a number of churches. This course involves sixteen hours of in-class work and eight hours of actually going door-to-door and practicing what we are learning. The class heavily emphasizes apologetics, which I discuss in Chapter 3. In the process of doing this, I have taken many people with me for training in the art of witnessing.

I constantly prod Christians to be about the business of sharing God’s love with others. So, I guess, since it’s my passion and I have experience with this subject, some consider me qualified to write this book.

There are several books that have been written about witnessing and I have learned much from others. I have incorporated much of what they teach into my methodology. There are many different methods and each author contributes something. Most all methods have merit and I always advise that people use whatever method works best for them.

Keep in mind that a book on witnessing does not require one to witness door-to-door and is not beneficial only to those who practice this type of outreach. Principles found in this book are applicable to absolutely any witnessing venture or mode, be it in the home, the marketplace, the workplace, or any other place. So, don’t make the mistake of thinking that this book is just for those who want to witness door-to-door. If it were for those, only, I’d sell about zero books.

One thing I hate and the last thing I want to do is put guilt trips on people. I am not trying to be Holy Ghost, Jr.. Although it may sound otherwise as you read this book, I don’t intend to convey the message that you are a bad Christian or are going to Hell if you don’t witness as I think we should. What you do is between you and God. I will urge and encourage you to become an active witness and will attempt to give you helpful information that, should you decide to try your hand at witnessing, will give you every advantage to be successful.

In any witnessing endeavor, one should rely heavily upon the Holy Spirit. He is with you and will lead you in the right direction. He will prepare the hearts of those that you approach. He will go before you. Your success will depend upon His guidance.

Witnessing is immensely rewarding as you go about touching lives in eternal ways.

Acknowledgments

Several people reviewed portions of this book and provided their thoughts in the areas that applied to their particular fields of expertise. I am very grateful for their time and comments.

Thank you.

Introduction

Many Christians feel overwhelmed at the thought of witnessing to others about their faith. Feelings of inadequacy grip them. As a result, they become frustrated and feel helpless when desiring to help others, including friends and family, find the relationship with God that they, themselves, enjoy.

This book helps Christians deal with these feelings of being overwhelmed and encourages them to rise above them. This book gives readers practical tools which will help them become effective witnesses. It explains to them the reasons people don’t readily accept the Christian faith.

As anyone in business knows, understanding your clientele is crucial to achieving success. Likewise, understanding people who don’t have a personal relationship with Christ is the real key to becoming a successful and effective witness. This book helps Christians understand and effectively approach people lost to Christ.

Chapter 1

Why We Don’t Witness

I have found myself thinking that very few Christians would care to learn about witnessing (leading me to the title of this book). Several reasons have led me to this conclusion.

Although I don’t talk about it all that much (believe it or not), from time to time I’ll find myself in a small group of Christians and I’ll bring up one or two of my witnessing encounters. Personally, I find it interesting to recount some of the things I’ve run into when talking to strangers about God and I expect Christians to, at least, be somewhat curious. However, the opposite seems to be true. They will get quiet, there will be an awkward minute or two, then someone will bring up another subject.

This is somewhat baffling to me. I’m not trying to lay guilt trips on anyone, but maybe they feel guilty for not witnessing more. I don’t know. They may think witnessing is silly. If so, I would find that rather baffling, too. Whatever it is, the subject seems to make others uncomfortable.

Then again, it could be fear. My experience has been that many Christians are scared half out of their minds at the prospect of face to face witnessing. Fear grips their souls, and perspiration breaks out on their palms. Wild and crazy scenarios play out in their imaginations. They quickly steer their minds to think of something more pleasant, like root canals or brain cancer. They stammer and stutter and change the subject.

How ‘bout those Bears? they blurt out. But, what are they afraid of? A number of things, it seems.

Fear

Let me say, up front, that fears of witnessing are understandable. They are also totally unfounded. Understand the source of these fears. They don’t come from God, and they don’t come from some natural, inward, God-created defense mechanism.

Some fears protect us. Fear that you experience when crossing a busy highway or hearing an intruder breaking into your home is founded and legitimate. It causes you to become extra cautious, and it kicks your adrenaline into a higher gear to meet the task at hand. It heightens your senses and makes you more aware. Danger lurks!

Sharing good news with someone, however, should not cause your body to react the same as it does when danger is lurking. You should not see sharing good news as dangerous unless something is being or has been distorted.

I have never felt fear when witnessing. The first time I knocked on a door, I did not feel fear. Later, I’ll address why that was.

According to 2 Timothy 1:7, God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Unfounded fear does not come from a sound mind. The Greek word translated fear in this verse is deilia and could have also been translated timidity. It comes from the root word, deilos, which means timid, faithless, and fearful. Timidity comes not from God but from something unnatural. It is a form of unnatural fear.

Be aware that the enemy of your soul will cause unnatural fear to rise up in you in order to achieve his desired effect. That desired effect is to stop you in your tracks. The enemy uses fear as a tool of intimidation. If you choose to give into this intimidation, it will only worsen. Over time, intimidation will become more pronounced. Satan will use whatever method works on you. If intimidation stops you, you’ll be hounded by intimidation until the day you die.

Now, giving into this fearful intimidation is a choice. Feeling fearful is not always in your control, but acting on that feeling does lie within your control. You can choose not to allow fear to stop you. You can push through it. Yes, you can.

If you will be bold enough to rise above it, fear will eventually diminish and go away. One way to defeat fear is to ignore it. Laugh at it, even if it’s a fake laugh. Yes, you can laugh at fear. Even though the feeling of fear is very real, resist and ignore it.

The Bible says to resist the Devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7). Fear of witnessing is unfounded, unnatural, and illegitimate. You are sharing good news, not crossing a busy highway.

Fear of Rejection

One of the fears that people often share with me is the fear of being personally rejected. This stems from a skewed or incomplete view of what is taking place when you witness. Reading this book should give you a much clearer understanding of witnessing and of those to whom you are witnessing.

As you read, you’ll come to realize that their resistance is not a personal rejection of you. If you are aware that you are not being rejected personally, you’ll no longer fear rejection. In a nutshell, when rejection happens, don’t take it personally. Yes, it’s that simple.

Notice that I qualified this rejection as personal. Rejection will happen repeatedly; at least it will appear to happen repeatedly. This rejection should not, however, be considered personal.

Notice, again, that I said rejection will appear to happen. Many times, I’ve thought that my attempt to minister to someone had fallen on deaf ears. The person to whom I was ministering would act totally disinterested, even irritated. I could have gone away feeling rejected. I would find out later, though, that the person had been deeply moved by my words. The Holy Spirit was working along with me, and I didn’t detect it. I had no clue that my witness was getting through.

A couple of examples come to mind. A man stopped me on the street one day and asked me if my name was Ken. After confirming that I was who he thought I was, I asked him how he knew me. He told me that I once knocked on his door. I had no clue who this man was, so I asked him just when I did this.

Oh, he said, about seven years ago. Our meeting must not have made much of an impression on me, but it apparently made a big impression on him – at least, enough of an impression that he recognized me and remembered my name seven years later. Amazing!

Another man who acted totally aloof when my partner and I witnessed to him went to a church the next day and gave his heart to the Lord. The only way I found out about it was that he happened to tell a mutual acquaintance about two guys who came to his home the day before. He said that when we prayed for him, he was deeply moved. I had come away from the encounter thinking that he wasn’t even really listening.

Like me, you must learn to trust God with your witness. He is accomplishing more than you may ever know. The Bible says that we may plant and water, but God gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6).

When you plant a seed of corn in the ground, it doesn’t readily appear to be doing anything at all, does it? Does that mean that the ground has rejected you or that the seed was wasted? No. It takes time to see the growth of that planted seed.

The same principle applies in spiritual seed planting. The seed is your witness and the ground is the person into whom you are planting the seed. Just because you see no immediate results doesn’t mean the person (ground) has rejected you. You can trust God with your seed. He will give it increase. Let God be God.

Keep in mind, though, that unplanted seeds can’t be watered and will not yield a harvest. God cannot increase what hasn’t been planted. So, give God something to work with. Giving Him something to work with is, in itself, a major component of witnessing!

More often than not, you’ll never see any results in a particular person, for you may never see that person again. Rest assured, though, that God is still using that planted seed. Another person may come along and water your planted seed. Later, someone else may experience the joy of reaping the harvest.

John 4:36-38 says, he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

So, you may never know in this life how mightily your seed was used, but I suspect you’ll hear about it in the next life. So just because you never see the results of your witness, it doesn’t mean you’ve wasted your time or have been personally rejected.

Fear of Damaging Our Reputation

Some Christians may fear that, should they approach someone for the purpose of witnessing, they will appear to be Bible thumpers. Others will see people as glazed-eye weirdoes, wandering the streets and telling people about Jesus. They will be seen as brainwashed and cult-like, as pod-people, spewing Bible verses and wearing Jesus Loves You T-shirts and plastic smiles. Word will get out that they have become one of those nuts. They’ve gone overboard. Their friends will begin to avoid them, and they will develop a reputation. They will no longer be accepted in certain social circles.

If they are entrepreneurs, this perception may even harm their businesses, and they’ll suffer financially. This can be a scary scenario. Once again, however, this is a tool of intimidation intended to keep them from witnessing. For the most part, it is unfounded.

I say for the most part because there may be some truth to the notion that your reputation will be adversely affected, however remote that possibility is. Who knows how those who know you will react? Remember the reaction I described at the beginning of this chapter when I would bring up this subject in a group? Yes, I have seen people act funny when the subject of witnessing comes up. If they act funny, I just move onto another subject. Really, though, as long as you aren’t intruding on their space, most people don’t care what you do in your personal life.

Though a few of my acquaintances have acted uncomfortable, it is far more common that the opposite is true. Most admire me for doing what I do. My reputation hasn’t been damaged at all – far from it. My reputation has been enhanced. I am seen as a caring and brave person. Most wish they could do what I do. Most of my friends wish they could be so brave. They revere what I do and see the value in it. They honor me and praise me. (Then again, these are godly friends.)

Even more, my reputation with those to whom I witness goes through the roof. They are extremely appreciative that I cared enough to reach out to them. They respond to my witness like it’s good news, like thirsty men and women being offered water. They respond like they are being offered refuge, like they are close to getting answers to their questions. They feel like God cares about them and perceive my approaching them as evidence of that. They see me as an agent of God and have warm feelings toward me. They are deeply touched by my gesture and will probably never forget it, like the man mentioned previously who remembered my name seven years later.

So, whether we’re talking about acquaintances or strangers, the reputation improves immensely. I have discovered that the fear of damaging my reputation is a lie from Hell meant to stop me.

Even it were true, though, does it really matter what man thinks of you? Isn’t it more important to be available to God than be concerned with man’s opinion?

Philippians 2:7 instructs us to let the same mind be in us that was in Jesus. Jesus made himself of no reputation but took upon