Sunday after church, I tagged along with two of our home groups as they went on their “fishing trip” to the mall. It was awesome! We all had the opportunity to go out and share our faith (or at least attempt to do so) with complete strangers. For some, the experience was great: we were able to start a conversation, then swing it to the eternal, hold up the mirror of the law to reveal their sin before God, and then share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Others were able to get the gospel message into someone’s hand by giving them a tract. But not everyone had a good experience - in fact, many in our group suffered rejection and some disappointment. One of our girls had a particularly interesting encounter. She had approached a woman and tried to share her faith with her earlier in the day. The woman said she was a Christian, so that was that.. so we thought. Later in the day, the woman tracked down our fellow soldier and began to express her distaste for the way that she was approached. I was able to witness the conversation from a distance; and while I couldn’t hear what was being said, the woman’s body language made it pretty clear that she was NOT happy. She did most of the talking, and the whole time she was pointing her finger at our student - shaking her head and bobbing from side to side. After it was all said and done, we discovered this woman was a preacher’s wife. Wow! The only person who had a serious problem with our witnessing in the mall was another believer in Christ. (Well, actually, we did have one other person complain - and they were a Christian also!) What’s the deal? Where is the encouragement? You would think an older believer would be stoked that a young person is out sharing their faith. How about something like, “That took a lot of courage to step out of your comfort zone, move past your fear and approach me like that. I appreciate what you are doing, and I will be praying for you”. Instead, she chased her down to offer a rebuke. Perhaps it was conviction. I wonder, when was the last time the preacher’s wife shared her faith?
I know that what we are doing in our fishing trips is not for everyone. In fact, some of you that went and experienced rejection are probably viewing it as a failure. Let me assure you that it wasn’t. First of all, you can never fail when you share the good news - regardless of the response. If they reject what you are saying, or even get mad and curse you; “happy are ye that suffer for my name’s sake”. Victory! Jesus said it would go like that sometimes. If they hear what you have to say and tell you that they will consider it - Victory! You successfully planted the seed of the gospel. If they are convicted of their sin and want to repent and trust Christ as Saviour - Victory! You win every time. But some of you are saying, “I’m just not the type of person to approach total strangers to share my faith”. You are probably right; some of us are naturally gifted by God to be able to confront and be direct, while others are gifted by God to be more non-confrontational and indirect. Neither is better than the other - but we all still have the same responsibility to share our faith. So whether you are doing it in by approaching total strangers on the street, or by targeting those you already know - the question is: are you being a witness for Jesus Christ? Are you daily being intentional about sharing your faith? When was the last time you spoke to someone about eternity, or handed a tract to someone, or took a good friend out to dinner for the purpose of telling them about Jesus? This is the reason God left us on planet earth after he saved us. If you are still breathing, then you should be witnessing. We have been called to a mission - Paul said that we have been given a “ministry of reconciliation”. How is your ministry doing?
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