God Is With Us

Witness Understanding

This understanding results from a lesson series developed and used by a local cell. It was a book-based series, based on the book; Tell It How It Is – subtitled; Don’t be a Witless Witness – by Fritz Ridenour. This is a remarkable book – in its sixth edition, which was printed in 1971 – available on Amazon – and is rated five stars.

The series concluded with a concise summary of understanding and a reminder list summarizing the approach.

Summary

  • Think of God as the Trinity, that is all three together. Then God sent part of himself to be human. Thus, did he let us know that he, who created everything, is our father and that we can be with him forever.
  • Apply Scripture in context
  • Avoid premises that are not scripturally sound
  • Don't complicate, but do provide understanding
  • Witnessing effectively – based on seven techniques from the Scripture on the woman at the well: John 4:4–42

Reminder List

  1. First, contact the other socially- Jesus went to Samaria and said; will you give me a drink?
  2. Establish a common interest - ask a question or questions that are in important to them.
  3. Arouse curiosity but avoid Trickery - or maybe talk about some need that they mentioned.
  4. Don't rush things. Let the other one continue at their own speed but at the same time, make them more interesting in hearing more.
  5. Cultivate the relationship and establish that you are an understanding person - don't condemn.
  6. Don't get engaged in a pointless argument. It's not about where, how or even what you say or think - it's about your heart. Don't get sidetracked onto secondary issues. It should be a light to illuminate the truth, not a club to clobber a sinner.
  7. Bring your listener face-to-face with Jesus Christ.

We came to believe that our best general approach to witnessing is a personal witness of a loving God always with us. But in these days, many might feel more comfortable witnessing through social media.

Prof. Chu, when a faculty member of the United Church of Christ’s Web University, focused on reaching young adults through the Internet. Through face-to-face meetings and internet surveys, Chu found that the single most popular venue for relational evangelism with young adults is on the internet, specifically through social media, such as Facebook. According to Chu, Facebook is the second or third most frequented website in the United States and an important evangelistic tool capable of an incredibly broad reach of constituents with the added capacity to explore deep topics. Chu’s approach relies on young people’s individual friend requests and over the course of two years he accumulated nearly 1,000 friends.

A recent event that occurred in Tennessee provides a strong basis for relational evangelism on social media. See this amazing event.

Jacqui and her husband were interviewed in a local church worship service with profound results. To see the interview, click here. You can also read The Jacqui Pierce Witness interview.

To use Jacqui’s profound experience to impact the lives of your friends you can send them this short insight into Jacqui’s experience along with your comments – tailored appropriately for each recipient. It includes links that provide understanding of Jacqui and the presence of God in her life.

It is sometimes applicable to one-time encounters – like the woman at the well – but is also applicable to lifelong endeavors – like family members who are not believers. Cell members have written letters to non-believing family members living in distant locations.

  • A letter to a 78 year-old cousin – a Christian in his youth but began to seriously question to the point of being agnostic. He was struggling to recover from major surgery and died about four weeks after the letter was written.
  • Letter to an 81 year-old cousin – a minister for a few weeks after college graduation, and then resigned. He became agnostic, but still tried to live his life by the Golden rule – and by all appearances did so. At the time of the letter he was in a healthcare facility with advanced Alzheimer’s. He was a big football fan.
  • Letter to Wendy – a man's daughter, Wendy, asked her father to write something to her regarding proof of the existence of Jesus. Since Jesus was both human and God when he came to us, the answer covered many questions surrounding His existence – including 5 questions for her to ask herself.

An overview of this approach is provided in Relational Witnessing