Street Witness?
Hello hello hello!
Again, it's been a while. What can I say, busy life! Now that i have internet at home I have a chance to update my blog a little more often and answer comments left to me. So let people at CPC and such places know what my new blog URL is alright? thanks, that'd be great.
On wednesday we played our quater final game and lost. So now we're done for the season. That's JV Girls Basketball out here in Portage. Paul and I had a great time coaching though. Today and tomorrow is our last tournament in Neepawa. We lost tonight by 4 points. Our girls played really well and we were pleased with their effort.
I want to write about something really deep but I have so much going through my mind that I can't seem to get it all into words.
Well, i'll write about something that happened this evening. Our team was sitting in Chicken Corall in Neepawa when one of our players pulled out this red pen and handed it to me. She asked me if i had ever seen anything like this before. On it is said stuff like "Jesus is the only way to Heaven" " He died for our sins...etc." She and another team memeber said they were sitting in Robin's Doughnuts when this guy came up to them and started talking to them about Jesus. They said it was really akward. Then he sang them a song "Jesus loves me 1-2-3." These girls are 16 years old... keep that in mind. So i said, well, it's true what the pen said. And one said to me "so even if i do one sin then i can't go to heaven?" I said "yes, but Jesus died to forgive all of our sins." She didn't want to go deep at that point and so i left it. The whole table of girls was listening. I felt kinda' embarassed that the other Christian guy had made them feel akward. I don't know if that kind of evangelism works anymore. I think it needs to be based on relationship. Yet, i was thrilled for the opportunity to share with these girls who i do have a bit of relationship with...all because of that pen...
So here's my question...
Should we be "street" witnessing or does the akwardness of it turn people off and make it harder for other Christians to win favor and share Christ?
posted by Little Worshiper @ 9:55 PM
6 Comments:
At 10:17 AM,
Anonymous said…
I definitely like your thought process. Challenging and I'm trying to get through the same thing right now.
One thing for sure, I know there is a need for everything. Maybe it wasn't good for your girls to be approached and made to feel uncomfortable, but if they hadn't, maybe they wouldn't have come to you (someone they trust) with that question.
Crazy how things work. I can't wait to talk to you guys about tonight and what your thoughts are. We've really got to get a lock on where we're going with the Crossing. It's sometimes frustrating but in the end, if it all works out to be fantastic this will all be worth it.
At 12:30 AM,
Sarah said…
Wow does Street witnessing still work????? Well here are my thoughts.
Street witnessing scares me to death since I am not someone who can go up to someone I don’t know and just start talking to them. I do want to say that at least this guy failed while doing something then while doing nothing. He did take the step that a lot of Christians don’t take to share the Gospel. But the approach defiantly could use some work. I wasn’t there and I don’t know how he approached them. From what I gather it was to the point “Do you know Jesus” kind of a thing. That may not be the best way to go about it. Like Jen said we need to build relationship but also in building a relationship you also tend to not want to share Christ either. Anyways back to the point in the casual talk you ask about the person family, interests that kind of thing. Which is allowing you to dig deeper into the person and be able to ask religion and faith type questions or what not. One of my teachers told us to watch and listen for OPENING LINES, which are things people say that open the door for you to ask about faith, God, Jesus, what they believe and they will either close that door right then or answer you and you can go from there.
Really what I am trying to say is that it does work, but your motive and intentions need to be in the right, far to many times we view the person as the next saved person on our get a bigger crown in heaven card, when in all reality winning someone to Christ is a big responsibility they are new babe in Christ and need someone (the someone who saved them) to walk along side of them and help disciple them…. Now how many of us Christians want to spend that kind of time, energy and money into disciplining a new Christian???? Very very very very few or us. I’m going to stop now b4 I go any farther on my soapbox.
I hope you don’t give up on street witnessing, its not a bad idea if you have the right tools and view the person as a person rather then a number.
At 4:18 PM,
Little Worshiper said…
Hey! Thanks for your comments. It’s crazy to think that the thing that irritates me most (annoying witnessing) is the very thing that opened the door for conversation.
Sarah, you said that “Really what I am trying to say is that it does work, but your motive and intentions need to be in the right, far to many times we view the person as the next saved person on our get a bigger crown in heaven card.” I think you have a very good point there.
I would even go as far to say we should NEVER see someone as our prize in heaven (i'm not implying that you do). In fact, I don’t even care about that. Who knows if we’re even getting crowns in heaven? That could all be figurative anyway. Growing up I used to see people as projects to be saved. I think Christians see others as projects to get saved still. That’s not what I understand Jesus’ ministry to be. He walked the journey with people, met them where they were at and ministered to them. I don’t think it should be any different than that. We want to share Jesus with people so they can know God and do his will in this life, then have the privilege of spending eternity with Him, yeah?
Hey Sarah, you said “I hope you don’t give up on street witnessing, it’s not a bad idea if you have the right tools and view the person as a person rather then a number.” Could you elaborate on the kind of tools you believe can be used for effective street witnessing? Thanks!
At 10:59 PM,
Julie said…
Hey... I think that while there MAY be some merit to telling random strangers about Christ, the only real impact we will have is through well-developed relationships. "Lifestyle Evangelism."
Obviously people like Billy Graham and even your pen guy do have some impact, but how much stronger of an impact can we have if we share within the context of an open, loving relationship? And then we are also perfectly poised for discipleship when they do cross that "threshold."
How's it going, my cousin?
At 1:38 PM,
Sarah said…
Hey Jen, Sorry I took so long to get back to you.
The Tools we have are being prayed up, understanding and knowing the Word, Having the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. Also in reading people through what they say, if they are opening doors for you to share or closing them. Also is the format you are using. In our witnessing class our textbook showed an example about the way you can direct the conversation to God.
But I think my teacher is right in talking about opening lines as he calls them. Just in talking with people on the bus or at the store, they can open up the door for you to share Christ even just a little bit.
In all this wondering and hashing out if street witnessing is for now or not. I think we need to look back to scripture, Christ to us to Go into all the world and spread the Good News, Teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. When God gives us an opportunity to share Christ we need to take it, every time we say no he’s going to give us less opportunity to share. If we have shared Christ we have witnessed successfully, and its not about if they do accept Christ after, we may only be planting the seed or watering it.
Like I said before I am not the best at “street” witnessing, I don’t like talking to people I don’t know, but I do feel and see the importance of getting the Gospel out.
Did you know that if ever Christian won one person to Christ and spent that year disciplining them and walking beside them as they grew up in God, every year the world would be saved in a matter of a few years? It’s a shame that many Christians (myself included) wont give up their own time, money, and effort to work on bringing people to Christ, no matter if they are someone off the street, friend or a family member.
At 6:21 PM,
Searching For Truth said…
U should update ur blog and I'll ready it again.
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