Witness.

I’ve never really gotten this whole evangelism thing.

Now, I don’t mean that I don’t think it’s imperative for the kingdom, nor do I mean that I think everyone does it wrong (that’s another post entirely); It’s just that I don’t find myself in situations to do this. At least not the level that I’ve been on the periphery of these last 6 months.

I seem to find myself in situations where I’m either amongst Christians who already have the good word, or I’m among people who couldn’t care less about Jesus (seriously, I tried – it did not go well).  I’ve always said that unless the Lord was giving big opportunities or the conversation was steering in that direction, I would keep my mouth shut.  Nothing says crazy like, “Do you have a personal relationship with our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God Jesus Christ the Messiah???” Sure, I’d love for those people to have a relationship with the Creator that makes them whole and brings them eternal hope and joy, but I’ve been given very few opportunities to speak of the Good News.

Christine, my wife, on the other hand, gets enough for 5 people.

It’s amazing that Christine has found her way humbly into the faith journeys of people across the spectrum (lapsed, atheist, agnostic, theist, weird heresies, etc. ) and has clearly been an impact on these people’s lives.  And for Christine, she just feels like she’s telling her story.  And people hear a story of creation, fall, redemption, kingdom, and love without the judgement that sadly has pervaded these peoples’ views of Christianity. I get kind of jealous sometimes, but mostly I just feel really lucky to know someone who is expanding the kingdom on the frontiers for those of us back on the homefront.

So here’s the thing: to be a witness – to testify in court – isn’t to prove one’s case, like a lawyer, or pass judgement, like a judge; it’s to simply tell your story.  If you tell your story, then how will judgement enter the arena?  How does condemnation of others fall into your story?  It doesn’t, because it is about you, and your story. That’s it.

That’s probably the greatest gift our culture of individualism and postmodernity has done for us. No more proofs, no more join the crowd. It’s all about telling a story and letting God sort out the rest.

Tell a story.

WK

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This entry was written by Will, posted on November 22, 2008 at 12:32 am, filed under Christianity and tagged Christianity, evangelism, witness. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.