- If you wish for someone to enter your world of beliefs, you first have to enter his world. That is done by building bridges into his life.
- Witnessing is more than just preaching or handing out tracts on the streets. If so, we miss the wider implication of our lives as witnesses.
- Integrity as witnesses occurs when our words line up with the way we live our lives.
- Poweful evangelism is evangelism that has integrity.
- If our hearts are not filled with the love for God, it will show in our words.
- We cannot lead a person any closer to Jesus than we are ourselves.
- We cannot pass on to another perosn a spiritual truth unless it is first a firm reality in our lives.
What was Christ like?
- Jesus gave up his rights in order to come to us.
- People who give up their rights, particularly in order to build friendships and solve conflicts with others, have the power of unselfish love on their side. This way of living is attractive beacuse of its unselfishness.
- Jesus was also a servant. We are to serve others.
- Jesus came as a friend. He was available to people in all manner of situations. He encouraged people, listened to them, was encouraging, honest, forgiving and accepting. In short, he was a genuine friend, the kind of person whom people felt could understand their problems.
- Jesus was obedient
- If we are to be effective in evangelism, we must go about it in the same manner as Jesus did.
To be effective evangelists, we must follow Jesus' pattern:
1. Identifying
- He showed people the utmost respect. He put himself in their place, felt what they felt, laughed when they laughed, and cried when they cried. In doing so, he identified with them and their needs.
- Having been forgiven by God, we have all the more reason to identify with those that we are reaching out to.
- When we respond to people out of genuine love and respect, the walls they have built around their lives being to crumble.
2. Listening
- All too often in our eagerness to share the gospel, we fail to take time to listen to their concerns. We start conversations in which we do not really want to hear the other person's point of view.
- We need to listen ingelligently to other people to ask questions and find out what their views are. When a person senses we are interested in what they are saying, they are likely to open up further. And we have alot to learn from others!
- People have a right to their views, and we should be honoured that they took the time to share them with us.
3. Responding in Love and Wisdom
- Though a person's seperation from God is his or her most obvious need to us as Christians, it is not necessarily that which must be addressed first. Other needs, such as friendship and acceptance, dignity, self-esteem etc.. are often the felt needs of the person you want to befriend. Taking care of those needs will open a door of friendship through we can minister ot their needs to know Christ as Saviour.
- There are 3 basic inherited human needs that are common to us all. These needs must be recognized and respected in all human relationships. Evangelism that ignores these needs can bend up being very impersonal in nature.
- First, all people have a need to belong and to be wanted.
- Second, there is a need for significance and importance.
- Third, is the human need for security and safety
4. A Consistent Lifestyle
- Words lack the power to bring conviction and change if they are not reflected in the life of the person speaking.
- Everything we choose to do, or not to do - our attitudes, the way we treat others, our words - all have an impact on someone. We cannot go through a day or week without our life influencing somebody.
- The question is not whether we will witness, but how.
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