A2J's response in String's blowing off JWs was a good response. (don't read too far into it, dude! :P )

So how does one go about witnessing? Do we go knocking on stranger's doors and try ramming it down their throats, waving a pamphlet around? Do we set a Christian example to a non-Christian? Do we take a Bible and whack them upside the head and tell the person to read it and do what it says or else they're going to hell?


So, what do you think?

First we need to know our faith inside out, upside down, forward and backward, before we should even start to approach a JW or Morman. They are trained from the beginning in these things. They have an agenda and personally, I am in no place to even start to compete with their intense training... :wall:

Your life is a witness!

How do you act in the grocery store? When you're dealing with those nut jobs at school? When you're driving down the road?

Everything we do, we do as if unto Christ. You have no idea who's watching you, but rest assured, someone is.

Pray to witness. Ask God to give you opportunities to and that He would give you the words you need. But be ready, because as soon as you do, it'll happen! Plenty of people pray that God would place workers in the paths of their loved ones, to witness to them. Pray that you would be a worker for someone.

Look who God used to speak on His behalf. He didn't seek the most educated, the cleanest (John the Baptist!), the most well-spoken (Moses). He chose the pure of heart. And he chose each of us. Never underestimate who you are.

When we maintain a Christ-centered life we have all the tools we need to witness - even to Morman's and Jehovah's Witnesses. I have been in plenty of situations where I thought - oh man, what do I say now! And God just gave me the words.

Do you knock on doors? Stand at the mall with tracts? Stop strangers on the street? You could. Plenty of churches do. But, is that where God wants you? Only you know where God wants you to be.

:agree: Lynn!

To add some more: Some of us are gifted with evangelism, others are not.

My witness, I've found, involves sitting in a room with a bunch of prison inmates. I tell them where I've been. I tell them how Jesus has worked in my life - when I let Him. And they ask me how they can do the same. I've never reaped the harvest. But I have tended the fields quite a bit.

Many of us witness in ways we are not aware of. Do you have a fish on the back of your car? Do you drive as if it were there? We've been given a raw deal about what to expect in evangelism. Watch this video to see what I mean. Yeah, we're all expected to knock on doors or stand on street corners with tracts. Heck, I haven't seen a tract since college.

When a neighbor needs help, what do you do?
When a homeless guy asks for money, what do you do?
When a new person arrives in church, what do you do?

Depends....

Sometimes you just gotta smack the hell out of someone (pun intended) and just blast them from out of the blue, sometimes you have to take a mroe sublte approach.....

Depends on how they're living...

For instance if my son started to join a cult, and act all freaky... Option A - Full frontal assult.....

Co-Worker talks about the crap going on in their life - Gently ask about their relationship with God, and how they handle the tests and trials God places before them....

Good points, Raspy. :thumbsup:

"Do we set a Christian example to a non-Christian?"

In response to Honey I'd say that'd be the one to go with. Being nice and stuff. But it has to be real, not something that disappears if they don't convert or you get bored of them.

But I don't know how this works for getting people to convert, on a practical level. In the end Christians are the same flesh and blood as any other human. Some are mean and some are nice. At the end of the day (figuratively speaking) I found that I received more unconditional love and support from the unbelievers than the believers (this is just my own experience, however, not a judgment on Christians in general). But I'm rambling again. This thread isn't about me!

Very common behavior from "Christians"....They like to "play church" and wear their "Sunday smiles" but when it comes down to it, inside they are just as or even more selfish and dark than the non-Christians....

My DH recently started a new job. He's got this funky Jesus fish on the back of his truck and his new helper comented on it earlier this week. He told the guy he was a Christian and the guy said ok. The next day the guy explains to my DH that when he told his girfriend Tommy was a Christian she said "Is he ramming religion down your throat all day? That's what those people do you know." Which set off an attack on Christianity as a religion. Tommy set the guy straight in the end.

So I was thinking, who the heck witnessed to that poor woman? Probably a new, overly zealous Christian. OR possibly, a JW or Mormon. Unless it's explained to them, most people don't know the difference. It's just so sad that we're sometimes the only bible people will ever read. That's a lot of responsibility, isn't it?

Stereotyping sucks.

Agreed.



And BTW, I love your avatar.

The goal shouldn't be "converting" people or "winning" people. god isn't keeping score & whoever "converts" the most people wins.
I've never gone to approach someone with the mindset, "I need to bring this person to Christ." when you go in with that type of mindset - the person can totally pick it up. You are talking to that person as a "goal" and people are just looking for relationships.

We live in a relationally deprived world and what people long for most is a simple relationship with someone. In those relationships is where true conversation is fostered. Through those conversations Christ speaks the loudest through us.

I don't need to know my "religion" inside & out before I can talk to a JW. I doubt the disciples felt ready to do what Jesus asked of them - but they did it anyway knowing that it wasn't about them - it was about Jesus. jesus told them that he was leaving but the Holy Spirit would be there for them -a nd it's here for us.