“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” 
John 21:25

How old is the earth? How did the dinosaurs go extinct? Well, what about post-rapture or pre-rapture? If God is real, why do bad things happen? What is the difference in allah and God? Are they the same?  

Have you ever been asked a question as a Christian that you were not able to answer? I know I have. 

Growing up, I was taught what to do and what not to do. I was taught to follow the rules and to tell people about Jesus. I came from a wonderful church and a wonderful family that instilled wonderful values into me. 

There are lots of churches and families out there that are great at that! 

One thing I think we could do better at as a Church, however, is telling our kids HOW to witness to people. What do we say? What do we do? What tools are there to use? Better yet, what do we do when we encounter people that don’t believe in any God or in anything? 

Roby, Texas is a rural community of less than 1,000 people. That being said, there is not a lot of diversity and if you ask people the common answer to religion is “Yes, I believe in God,” or “Yes. I am a Christian.” There are plenty of unchurched people, but they will still tell you they believe regardless. So growing up, I experienced some resistance to the Gospel, but I could count on my hands the people I knew that claimed to not believe at all. 

Roby, Texas, that being said, is one of the best places on earth with great people. 

I went from a town of less than 1,000 to a college town of more than 100,000, experiencing an oil boom and housing three times its population. It was a cultural shock- to say the least, and it was here that I started to realize I was really good at telling others about Jesus and bringing Him up in conversation- but I didn’t always have the tools that I needed in knowing HOW to do this. 

So let’s go over five things that are a key ingredient to witnessing to those that are different cultures, different religions, or perhaps no religion at all.

(PS For some strange reason my page won’t let me number these correctly, so they all say #1… my blog can’t count.) LOL  

1. Listen– “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” James 1:19. There is something that some church bodies lack. We are very good at giving advice, telling others what to do, telling others what we would do, but we are not the best at listening. This is not a CHURCH issue, this is a HUMAN issue. Humans at their core can be pretty selfish creatures. We have to teach a child, “We share our toys. We play with others. We don’t take what isn’t ours.” Kids don’t come out of the womb knowing how to be kind, considerate and loving. Even if some may be that way intrinsically, a child must be disciplined. Adults are the same way at times, we have to be reminded that listening goes a long way.

1. Respect– “Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3  I have had many conversations with people who do not believe in God at all, and those who believe but do not seem to care. In each conversation, I know very few to none that have ended badly. The key ingredient to this (besides listening) is respect. They had respect for me and I had respect for them. I did not demean them for their beliefs, nor did they demean me. We were not out to “get” one another, we were out to see the others points of view in an adult manner. When the Holy Spirit is present, it is evident. When the other party is rude, totally closed off, or even hostile it is usually best to disengage. We will talk more in the coming weeks about ways to disengage and engage when necessary. 

1. Humor– “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:2One thing that has gotten me a long way in witnessing and having conversations with others is humor. Choosing to laugh and making light of things, appropriately, at times can clear the air. This is not always a good strategy, especially if the other party is content of the seriousness and would feel mocked or threatened by humor, but most of the time I have found it helps. 

1. Don’t Feel Like You Have to Know Everything- “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” John 20:29 Discouragement is a hard thing to deal with and nothing discourages a person that is witnessing more than not being to answer questions. May I just say, breathe. It’s okay. In fact, it shows you truly believe if you do not understand everything and still believe.  If someone is bent on not believing, even if you knew all the answers, they would choose not to believe you. Give yourself some grace. No one knows everything. Breathe and pray. Which brings us to: 

1. Engage the Holy Spirit- “for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” Luke 12:12- Praying while witnessing can be a HUGE way to impact and engage the Spirit and the person you are witnessing to. You can’t witness about Jesus without the Spirit present. He is there and if you are His, He lives in you. (Read this as Rafikis’ voice in the Lion King…) He is choosing to use you as a vessel, so ask Him for help. Even if you don’t feel like you are doing a good job, continue to pray. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be willing.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,  keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
1 Peter 3: 15-16

God doesn’t demand we know the answers to all the questions, He simply wants us to be able to tell others why we believe. Why do we believe? Is it because of our parents? Our grandmas? Our grandpas? Perhaps asking yourself why you believe the way you do is the first step to knowing how to share your story with others. 

There you go! Five key ingredients to a great witnessing session. I will be doing other blogs on this subject and perhaps get more in-depth about certain issues but for now, I hope this helps. 

Remember you are loved, valued and useful.