Category Archives: Intentional Witnesses

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Being Prepared to Witness Doesn’t Take A Lot of Time

Photo courtesy Pixabay.com

Photo courtesy Pixabay.com

Being prepared to verbally share with others about what God has done for you in your life doesn’t have to take a lot of time, or effort. Simply take a few minutes and write a 2 to 3 sentence description of a time when the Lord:

 

1. Saved you:  Describe how and when you came to know the Lord.  Include a specific difference He has made in your life or what having a relationship with Jesus means to you.

2. Healed you:  Describe how the Lord healed you and why you believe in His healing power.

3. Met a need for you:  Describe a time when you were needing a miracle in your finances for example, and how that supply came about.

Now all you have to do is memorize your story, remain aware of those you come in contact with who may have a similar need, and you will be prepared to bring hope and encouragement to people God has placed in your life.

Helpful hints:

  • Pray for opportunities to share what God has done for you.
  • Remain alert throughout your day to the needs of those around you.
  • Focus on the positive side of your story – do not dwell on the negative aspects.
  • Make sure that you keep Jesus as the central focus.
  • If they ask you questions and you don’t have the answer, be honest.
  • Don’t be pushy or arrogant.  Remain humble and sensitive to their receptivity.
  • Respect their time, especially if you’re at work.
  • If possible, be sure to follow up on how they are doing.

In all of this remain dependent on the Holy Spirit to lead you.  And remember, this is His work you are participating in.  Leave the results in His hands as you continue to pray and look for additional opportunities.

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Have You Ever Felt Like a Failure at Witnessing?

How to Avoid Guilt Over not Getting Someone to "Say the Prayer"

Guilt over FailureHave you ever felt like a total failure when witnessing because you were not able to get someone to pray the sinner’s prayer? To relieve any feelings of the “pressure to perform” which can lead to guilt, it’s helpful to first of all know your purpose for witnessing.

While leading people to Jesus is a crucial desire in witnessing, that should not be our only purpose.  Many times the Lord brings us across someone’s path for other purposes as well.  This may include

  • Expressing His love for them
  • Bringing them to a place of spiritual readiness to receive Him, or
  • Deepening their understanding of spiritual matters.

And what if the person is already a Christian?  If our only goal is to have someone “pray the prayer” we may miss the opportunity to share a truth that would help them grow in their walk with the Lord.

Speaking with them helps us to assess where they are in their journey (so that you know what to share with them). The chart below is a tool that can be used for this assessment.  It gives us a general perspective of the journey that all of us have taken, all the way from not being a Christian (beginning at -10 at the bottom of the chart) to becoming a disciple and discipling others (+10 at the top).

We are all on a journey:

Stages of Evan for Blog

This model provides us with a true measure of our effectiveness when sharing with someone about Christ. Understanding the process of moving someone further along in their journey with the Lord can remove any feeling of failure in witnessing.  It also gives you the assurance that you have made a difference in their lives through witnessing.

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Does God Really Care About Numbers?

Add subtitle textDoes God really care about the number of people in your church?  Or is He more concerned about spiritual growth? The answer is “yes” to both.  God is concerned about both the quality of the spiritual condition of your church and the quantity of people attending.

First of all, numerical growth was important enough to God to make note of it in scripture.  In just the first 9 chapters of the book of Acts, he repeatedly mentions the increasing number of people being added to the church:

  •  About 3,000 were added to their number (2:41)
  • The Lord added to their number daily (2:47)
  • Many who heard the message believed and the number of men grew to about 5,000 (4:4)
  • More and more men and women believed and were added to their number (5:14) 
  • The number of disciples was increasing (6:1) 
  • The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith, (6:7)  
  • The church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria…grew in numbers (9:31)

Each one of these numbers represents a person that was in need of a Savior.  So God does care about the numbers?   Not for the sake of our reputation, but because of His love for each individual.  However, it’s also important to note that the increase in numbers was a direct result of the Spiritual condition of the church.  According to Acts 1:14, God’s plan was to empower His people so they would be equipped to reach the lost:

  • They were filled with the Spirit:  Acts 2:4
  • They were in unity and met together regularly: Acts 1:14, 2:44, 2:46
  • They were empowered to do the miraculous: Acts 2:43
  • They were filled with compassion and met the needs of others Acts 2:44-45
  • They had an attitude of praise Acts 2:46
  • As a result, people were saved, and the Lord added to their number daily: Acts 2:47

This same power and love of God is available to us today and we too must care about the numbers of people we come across everyday:  our family, our neighbors, our co-workers, and acquaintances.  We must care enough to pray for them and step out in faith to share the good news that Jesus came to do for them what He did for us.

(If you need specific ways on how to be a witness read our previous blog 4 Ways to Share Your Faith.)

KEY INSIGHT:  It was the Lord Himself that added to their number.  He alone is the one who saves.  We are not called to save people, we are called to be His witnesses and make disciples of those who choose to follow.  This will be discussed more in depth in our next blog concerning the false pressure that is often placed on the church to ‘get people saved’. 

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Witnessing Through Prayer

LYC 3d ImageIn our last blog about “Loving Your City” through intentional witnessing, we said Jesus had many ways of intentionally expressing the love of His Father to people around Him.   

One of the best ways to share the love of God with someone in your daily routine is to find someone who has an obvious need and offer to pray for them.  Following are some helpful tips and wisdom for the expression of prayer evangelism when you are made aware of a need:

  • Ask, “How can I pray with you?”
  • Pray quietly in a manner so as not to draw attention to yourself.
  • Remain sensitive as to whether or not you should touch them.
  • Use common language, not words like, “thee or thou” or other unexplained phrases that someone outside of church may not understand. 
  • If allowed, pray at that time.  If not, let them know you will pray at home and do not be offended if not allowed to pray.
  • Your prayer does not have to be lengthy.

Consider developing a lifestyle of praying quietly in your area of influence as you go about your day.  And over the next few weeks, be intentional about looking for someone to pray for.  You will be amazed at the number of opportunities that will arise when you make yourself available to be used by God in this manner.

If you have ever prayed for someone in public, please share your story! 

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4 Ways to Share Your Faith

Intentionally Expressing the Love of God in Your Daily Routine

According to The Evangelism Institute and The Barna Group, even though 85% of all evangelical churches have evangelism in their mission statement, only 5% of Christians in a typical church are personally involved in evangelism ministry/sharing their faith.

LYC 3d ImageJesus had many ways of intentionally expressing the love of His Father to people around Him. 

Below are 4 ways to share your faith so you can develop a lifestyle of witnessing.  In our conference we discuss a total of seven expressions, but for brevity in this blog we will limit it to 4.  As you read through them, remain open to incorporating each of these expressions into your life.

  1. Prayer (praying for people with obvious needs) 
  2. Conversation (bringing Jesus into a conversation or asking leading questions)
  3.  Story (sharing a personal testimony/your story of salvation for instance)
  4.  Compassion (finding a need and meeting it while expressing Christ’s love)

In our next few blogs we will examine each one of these in more detail and how they can be woven into your daily routine.  For now, please leave a reply answering the following question:

Which of the above avenues would you feel most comfortable using, or have used, as a tool for witnessing?  

Click here to obtain your copy of “Loving Your City”

Loving Your City Conference

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Removing the Pressure of “Evangelism”

LYC 3d Image

The word Evangelist is mentioned only 2 times in Scripture.  First in reference to Philip who held the office of Evangelist (Acts 21:8) and then to Timothy who was told as a Pastor to do the work of an Evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5).

In both cases the word Evangelist refers to someone who declares good news.  So the truth is, even if we are not called to serve in the official role of an Evangelist we do have good news to share and God has commanded us to share it.

The primary avenue through which we share the good news was defined by Jesus when He said we would “be His witnesses ” (Acts 1:8).

So the true question for each of us must be, what does a “witness” do?  A witness tells what they have seen, what they have heard, and what they know to be true from something they experienced first hand.  Every person that has a personal relationship with the Lord can do exactly that.

Thinking about sharing your faith from the perspective of being a witness, as opposed to thinking you have to become like some famous evangelist, removes the pressure to perform, or come up with something special to say.  All you have to do is be prepared to share the good news concerning what you already know about Jesus.

Click here to discover:

  • 4 ways you can be prepared to share the good news about what Jesus has done for you.

For now, leave a reply and tell us one thing that you feel prevents some people from witnessing:

You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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Introduction to Intentional Witnesses

Impacting Your City One Life at a Time

Our first series of blogs on Intentional Witnessing will be excerpts from our “Loving Your City” Manual. The early church impacted 32 countries and 54 cities with the power and love of God. Imagine a world with no mass transit, no internet, no Christian television, or technology. And yet they became a model of what is needed for the church of today to fulfill their part of the Great Commission which is for each one of us to “go and make disciples.” (Matt 28:19)

LYC 3d ImageThe journey of the early church began with and was inspired by realizing God’s great love for them through the life and teachings of Jesus.  After receiving His love, they were then highly motivated as individuals to proclaim and release His amazing power to people they came in contact with during their daily routine.

In the same way, everything we do for the Lord throughout our day must be motivated by the two greatest commandments which are to:

LOVE GOD, and LOVE OTHERS

Jesus said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)

 The more we comprehend God’s great love and compassion for us, the better equipped and inspired we will be to release intentional expressions of His power to those around us:

When we see someone with a tangible need, we look for ways to be generous because we don’t want to leave that person in need.

When we encounter someone who is ill, we step out in faith to pray for them because we want that person to be well.

When we see a life that is broken, we speak the wisdom of God to them so we can help bring restoration to their lives.

In the midst of this journey of learning to demonstrate the love and power of God we will overcome fears and barriers to being a witness as we strategize, practice, and encourage one another to impact our city with the love of God – one life at a time:

In our family

At work

In our neighborhood

In our community

Our future blogs are intended to help people overcome fear and intimidation in witnessing, and equip them with the tools necessary for sharing their faith.  For now, encourage others by leaving a comment which describes a situation where you felt motivated by the love of God to share your faith.

You can leave a comment by clicking here.