That Moment when...

[BenjamintheWolf]

You're Defending your faith!!!! How i'm treading carefully to avoid building adversarial relationships with non-believers in my life...And here's why.

Reason 1) I love them and will pray at some point they will see the changes in me and start to ask questions. Then I'll minister to them.

Reason 2) So many Christians I've met since coming to the Lord have their rhetorical foundation in arguments with non-believers and sinners. It seems spiritually counter-productive to repeat thoughts about conflict. I don't think we need to fine tune the way we rebuke this imperfect world.

Reason 3) Too much talk about what's NOT Christian and very little talk about what is. e.g.

Reason 4) I simply don't have the biblical foundation to defend myself much less the whole Captial C. Among the sleepers I am the seeds on the path, or in the thorns...not the seeds in good soil.

 

[PKFox]

I understand that it's hard building close relationships with people who believe differently than you, especially from a personal experience with an old friend.

Just don't think that you are unqualified to teach someone who wants to learn more about your faith. If you don't have all the answers, write down the questions and find someone who can help explain those answers, because it's okay to admit that you don't know everything, especially since nobody does either.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

God's made you a unique individual. There are people that you will be uniquely suited for reaching in a way that is unique to you.

Too often, "evangelism" and "witnessing" have become 1. memorizing all the answers and responses to every question and objection a non-believer might raise, and 2. making sure the non-believer is clearly and forcefully confronted with all their sins so they'll become convinced they're under God's judgement and need a Savior. Your effectiveness as an evangelist can then be rated by how many people you lead in a sinner's prayer. Okay, this was somewhat sarcastic, but not too far from what I've observed in some circles.

To me, witnessing is simply relating in a natural manner what God has done and is doing in my life (and others that I know). Effective witnessing is being comfortable about doing this and recognizing when people are hitting open moments or crisis moments where they need your spiritual support.

Over 40 years as a Christian and having read more books than I can remember and honing my reasoning skills as a scientist and engineer, I can hold my own in most debates or dialogues on a range of topics. However, I much prefer to get to know people. God has made every person to be a unique treasure who is meant to reflect His glory in a way that only they can. When you see people as unique individuals, "witnessing" and "evangelism" is less about applying standard methods and techniques to convert them than it is about seeing the work of God progress in that person's life to see them bloom into the person God wants them to be. The moment of conversion becomes one (important) step in God's life-long work in making them the beautiful person He intends for them to become.