Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: witnessing

  • Witnessing and Friendship (Again)

    Some time back I wrote a post titled Witness without Being a Pest. There are a number of things that make Christians pests when they witness, but I think the most important is when we think witnessing is a separate activity that we “do” as opposed to something that happens when we live. If you take the name of Christ (Christian), then you are a witness. You might be a very bad witness. You might even be driving people away, but you can’t not witness.

    So when I caught wind of an article in Outreach titled My Jehovah’s Witness Broke Up with Me (HT: John Meunier), it drew my interest. I find the story and the article interesting and helpful, yet I can’t help but question certain things.

    These two men got together for the purpose of converting one another. Was it ever likely that this friendship would last? How much “friendship” is produced by questioning one another’s faith for an hour each week? I don’t have a problem with such discussions when both parties want to be involved. But when you meet for the purpose of changing someone’s religion, I think trouble is around the corner. One problem is that doubtless someone will eventually detect the fact that you are in the conversation to change their religion.

    Friendship can only be friendship when you’re not trying to get something out of it. I don’t mean the general mutual things friends do for one another. What I mean is a situation where one person is “friends” solely for the purpose of accomplish some goal. I suspect some Christians will object that in trying to change this other person’s religion, they are not trying to accomplish some personal goal. They’re trying to save the other person’s soul! It’s for their own good!

    This reminds me of a Bible study group I led during a time of disunity in the congregation. At one point members of the group were complaining how the people of the other party in the church put them down, questioned their salvation, whether they “had” the Holy Spirit (who on earth can “possess” the Holy Spirit?), and so forth. After listening to the complaints, I asked them if they had not, perhaps, done many of those same things to non-Christians they encountered. Everyone was very honest and acknowledged that they had done precisely that. I had to confess that myself. It was an important lesson to us.

    It’s not my job to save people. It’s simply my job to be a witness. Let God take care of the rest. If you’re getting nervous and thinking you have to push your friends into a decision, or if you feel that you need to make an end of an unfruitful friendship, then you need to do two things. First, check your motivation. If you find a friendship unfruitful, perhaps you were only there for what you could get. Second, check whether you truly trust God to do God’s work.

    Just be who you are (a Christian) and be a friend. Sometimes talk will happen. Sometimes it won’t. Somebody might express great interest in your faith, and then again they might not. It’s not your problem, and it shouldn’t change your friendship.

     

  • A Simple Witness

    The man was a good Christian. Any of us would be quite pleased to have his reputation for faith and Christian charity. He was part of a study group I led, and we were discussing witnessing.

    “I’m afraid to put a fish symbol on my car,” he said. “I might do something that’s not Christlike, and then what would someone think?”

    There is a risk in being a witness, but at the same time, a silent witness may not be sufficient. It’s important to be identified as a recipient of God’s grace through Jesus Christ, i.e. as a Christian person and not just a nice person.

    I was struck by the simplicity of it today in reading the lectionary passage for a week from Sunday. It starts with Genesis 24:34:

    And he [Abraham’s servant] said, “I am Abraham’s servant.”

    It’s easy to read right past that, but this morning it halted me. How simple! Abraham’s servant wasn’t certain he was going to be successful. In fact, he had asked Abraham to absolve him of failure ahead of time, should that failure result from a negative response from the family in Haran.

    It reminded me of a missionary who told me that he simply did good deeds, in his case feeding children in need. If asked, he would say, “I’m doing this because Jesus told me today.”

    Might it be possible that the one thing that needs to be added to your life and Christian witness is that simple statement, something like: “I am Christ’s servant?”

  • Silent Witness?

    Laura at Pursuing Holiness is concerned with the idea of a “silent witness,” as accomplished by wearing cheesy buttons. No, she’s not talking about the need to shout, but rather the need to be clear and Biblical in the way in which one witnesses. Her particular target is the AFA’s program of Easter buttons which look much more like a fundraising gambit than a good witnessing idea.

    Christians you encounter might smile and nod approvingly, perhaps wishing they were so bold as to wear a button with an Easter message on it, but non-Christians – unless they are the type of person who’s just looking to pick a fight – will avoid you when you wear this button. Look at it from their perspective. They already (wrongly) think they’re going to have to give up all kinds of fun and freedom in order to be a Christian. Now they’re going to have to wear a cheesy button, too. That’s enticing, all right. They’re afraid that if they become Christians they’ll have to wear a “Look out! I’m a Godbag!” button.

    Just so.

    And in case someone’s out there thinking I just say this because I’m a liberal and don’t believe in witnessing, let me say that I believe very much in witnessing. I believe in good witnessing that reflects well on the Person to whom we bear witness. It seems to me that some people think that witnessing is a convention of Rude and Obnoxious People for Jesus.

    When you take on the name “Christian” or “follower of Jesus” or however you want to say it, you don’t merely have the option of witness. You are a witness. I remember vividly the moment this was engraved in my brain. Some years ago I was under substantial pressure over something at work (I was not working as a Bible teacher at the time!). In the break area I started to cuss the person responsible with every word I had heard. After the incident, a coworker walked up to me and said, “I thought you were a Christian.” He might as well have thrown me up against the wall, and it couldn’t have shocked me any more. Such a shock is very good for the system!

    You are a witness. What type?