Is It What We Say or What We Are?
. When I first became a Christian, the people who led me to conversion gave me the standard "pep" talk about what I needed to do now that I was a believer in Christ. I call it a standard "pep" talk because of the fact that most of the various formulas of advice given to new believers have three things in common: Bible study, prayer, and witness. If one takes a healthy dose of each of these every day, one is supposed to grow into a mature disciple of Jesus.
. On the whole, the advice given to me was very profitable. Up until then the sum total of my knowledge of Bible content was Genesis 1:1 – "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Prayer was also something that I wouldn't have done much of if I had not had the constant encouragement and prompting of some older Christians. Therefore, diligent Bible study and regular dialogue with God in prayer served much to strengthen my character and renew my mind.
. In the area of witness, or telling others about Jesus Christ, I was also very diligent. I was excited about my new life and I wanted others among my friends and family to be able to share it. I was also exhorted by my elders that it was my responsibility to inform everyone that I could as to how the might be "born again" and come to experience God's love in Christ. So, I was on the street or in shopping malls at least two or three days a week, passing out gospel tracts and "witnessing." I must have passed out somewhere ten thousand tracts with my own hands that first year alone. I went with groups to witness and I witnessed by myself constantly while at work, with my family, or with unbelieving friends.
. "Boy!", you may be thinking, "He must have been a real pain to be around!" I must admit, I succeeded in alienating most of my family and friends, thinking to myself that it was simply persecution for the Gospel's sake.
. It's been sixteen years now, and my understanding of discipleship and Christian maturity has developed and changed in many ways. It's taken years, but I have corrected some of the damage that I did to my family relationships through my witnessing. This could not have happened if my understanding of witness itself had not changed.
. Through the years I have come to see that the times when I have had the greatest impact on other lives for Christ have been those in which I have been able to be comfortable with myself, unconscious of the need to fill the role of Christian "witness." It has been those times when I have been accepting of others as they are, and able to make them feel comfortable with me. As I have simply been concerned with being a friend, with caring and relating intimately on a personal level, others who were not "in the fold" have often responded positively and opened up to receive the love that I had to offer them. I have been able to affect others in ways that I never could when I utilized a "canned" approach to evangelism.
. People are not objects, numbers, or trophies to be won or collected so that we might have something to point to in proof of our Christian obedience and discipleship. They are not simply the means to our rewards in heaven. Not objects but, like ourselves, subjects of God's love and concern. And, like ourselves, unique, complex individuals with many deep needs, hurts and longings, and most of them are crying out inside for someone to care enough to want to meet those needs, to heal those hurts, and to satisfy those longings.
. But shallow approaches do not meet deep needs. I believe that is why my old "Roman Roadmap" type of approach often met with hostility and rejection. People were not persecuting me for the Gospel's sake, they were simply – and I believe rightly – rejecting an approach to them that did not take adequate account of who and what they were as human beings.
. Instead of having or following a particular "canned" approach to evangelism now, I am more concerned with BEING the person that God has created me to be. I believe that the most effective witness for Christian truth springs from what we are and how that comes across to others, and not necessarily any particular thing that we might do or say.
. So, as I have concerned myself with becoming a whole person in the image of Christ, I have found myself caring more deeply and sincerely for others as individuals, and I have thus also found them responding more positively to the message that I have to offer.
. In Acts 1:8, Christ states that "you will be witnesses for me". I don't believe that he meant that the disciples would simply act and speak on his behalf, but that they were going to experience such a change in their own character that what they became as a result would be for the whole world a testimony of what God could and would do for every individual who would accept his love in Jesus Christ. I think that we are most effective in our witness for Christ when we are concentrating on being the people that he created us to be, not necessarily on saying the "right thing at the right time." It's what you ARE that counts, not what you say.
Charles Shelton
Computers for Christ – Chicago