Do's and Don'ts of Witnessing

[BAChristian]

Fr. Corey had posted this in the Witnessing section of our forums awhile back. I thought this was so good, that I sent it to some friends of mine...and I thought I'd post it here in OBOB...

The Do's and Don'ts of Witnessing

"Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person" (Colossians 4:5-6). Like most things in life, witnessing has guidelines.
Following is a list of 20 Do's and 12 Don'ts. They should aid you while witnessing and help prevent serious errors. If, however, you choose to ignore them, witnessing will be difficult and awkward.

Do's
1. Do Pray.
2. Do speak to please God.
3. Do read your Bible.
4. Do start with a positive witness for Christ.
5. Do keep things simple.
6. Do share your salvation experience with them.
7. Do know what you believe.
8. Do have a genuine love.
9. Do be simple and define your terms.
10. Do memorize appropriate Scriptures if possible.
11. Do be ready to learn from the people you witness to.
12. Do be patient and gentle.
13. Do listen attentively.
14. Do answer their questions.
15. Do ask questions.
16. Do let him save face.
17. Do bring him, if possible, to a decision about Jesus.
18. Do encourage him to study the Bible by itself.
19. Do use Scripture in context.
20. Do remember that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Don'ts
1. Don't attack directly or make fun of someone.
2. Don't jump from one subject to another.
3. Don't expect too much from him.
4. Don't have a spiritual chip on your shoulder.
5. Don't lose patience.
6. Don't come on too strong.
7. Don't debate peripheral issues or doctrines.
8. Don't get sidetracked defending your denomination.
9. Don't be uptight.
10. Don't assume.
11. Don't argue.
12. Don't speak too fast or unclearly.

I hope these do's and don't's have brought to your attention areas that would
improve your witnessing. If some of them have struck you as being particularly applicable then I would suggest you think them over and in prayer ask God to work on your heart and teach you the right way to witness. He will bless you. All you need is to trust Him and go witness.

 

[ukok]

I hope these do's and don't's have brought to your attention areas that would
improve your witnessing. If some of them have struck you as being particularly applicable then I would suggest you think them over and in prayer ask God to work on your heart and teach you the right way to witness. He will bless you. All you need is to trust Him and go witness.

Brother BA, there's only one thing that i would alter in the above quote...and that is that i would change the word you to we/our/us. We all need to examine ourselves as examples for the Lord.

so perhap's it could now read:

"I hope these do's and don't's have brought to our attention areas that would
improve our witnessing. If some of them have struck us as being particularly applicable then I would suggest we think them over and in prayer ask God to work on our heart's and teach us the right way to witness. He will bless us. All we need is to trust Him and go witness."

Now, that's a more generic pill to swallow.

In Christ

 

[AsburyJuke]

Awesome thread, thank you.

Now this is the kind of thing I meant I was looking for in my thread yesterday... lol

 

[JeffreyLloyd]

 

[ej]

Thanks Woody

I can see where I stumble now - I'm pretty good at doing the do list, but I also do a lot of the things in the don't list (2,5 and 12 particularly)

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

I am guilt of 1-12 in the don't list, I think...doh!

 

[kern]

I think that patience is very important, perhaps *the* most important virtue in witnessing. Knowledge and willigness to discuss and answer questions is *very* important as well. You definitely need to be able to accept and answer the common (and reasonable) questions that people are going to ask -- i.e. "why doesn't God just save everyone", "How can you believe in God when there's no proof", "If prayer works then why do so many religious people suffer", etc.

Unfortunately I've seen a number of evangelists whose process goes something like this:

1. Ask someone if they are Christian.
2. Give them a 2-page tract that tells them they will go to hell if they don't believe in Jesus.
3. After that, wash your hands of them -- they've been presented with the truth and it's up to them to accept or reject it. If they try to ask questions like "How can a loving God create eternal punishment?" then God will judge them for their blasphemy; you don't need to worry about it.

-Chris