1. Yelling at random people on a street corner calling them whores and whore mongers.
2. Trying to outsmart them by using clever turns of phrase which really do not make your case, just make your opponent unable to answer.
3. Quoting scripture. What is scripture to someone who does not believe in the Bible? Also scripture quoting is usually employed in a barrage to show off and to try and remove any possible personal discussion from the witnessing.
4. Using "Science". God cannot be proven via the scientific method, the other good news is that he cannot be disproven either. Here you think: Wait, I am sure she meant to say "but the good news is". No I believe that not being able to prove the existance of God is a good thing because the second we prove him belief is no longer neccesary defeating the whole point of seeking Him.
5. Handing out tracks. If a person is supposed to be brought to a personal knowledge of Christ you need something personal there. Come on, would be Apostles, get your hands dirty. Get down there with the sinners like Jesus did. Open up. Give of yourself in order to give God.
Witnessing is a personal act that requires you to care about the person on a personal individual level. I mean, you must care about him as a person, not just as a potential soul you can help usher into the kindom of God. When people figure out it is just about winning souls they will became jaded with Christians and what a person thinks about Christians they start thinking about Christ.
Edit: I noticed a typing error which changed the meaning of what I was trying to say. Originally I had said "I mean, you must care about him as a person, as a potential soul you can help usher into the kindom of God." What I had intended to say was, "I mean, you must care about him as a person, not just as a potential soul you can help usher into the kindom of God." It has been corrected in the post to reflect my sentiments. 09:46, 25.8.11
Wise words, SkeptiGirl.
ReplyDeleteI think I take a different perspective than your #4 conclusion, but that's okay.
I like that you have called-out for a personal approach to what is reputedly a personal gospel.
Cheers!
Kane
Kane - I think what she's referring to when she puts "science" in quotation marks like that means something more along the lines of "very not science, but for the sake of disputing science we'll make up our own, simply because we have no faith in real science. If people say our science is fake, we simply point out that in the light of the Bible, real science is absolutely phony as well." Like dinosaurs and men walking around together until just before the flood (using an apocryphal text about David fighting a dragon to prove the point). Or that, rather than the Earth having a magma core, it has a water one. Continental drift happened during the Great flood, when in addition to the rains, the ground opened up releasing massive amounts of water (this line of "science" states that there is no magma under the Earth's crust, only water), causing the great land masses to scatter.
ReplyDeleteThat sort of thing.
Great post. I used to evangelise this way. Being rather introverted made me feel like a failure.
ReplyDelete