Practising Personal Witnessing - by Dr. Douglas Yade

Dr. Doug Yade, an elder in the fellowship of believers in Kirkland Lake, ON works with young people in various venues, including Seed Sowers in promoting personal witnessing. You will find his posting below very helpful. If you would like to contact Doug Yade, click on his name.

Maybe a shy young teen is wishing they could initiate a conversation with an unbeliever but feel their lack of experience. Here is a powerful tip.

Practised Starting Line

It is very helpful to have a Practised Starting Line handy for such times. A simple question is this: do you have an interest in spiritual things? I like the question because it is somewhat softer than 'Are you born again?' or 'Are you saved?'

If the person replies, "No I don't," the conversation can continue along other lines to a more opportune time and they have not likely been scared off.

If the person says, "Yes I do, then you can respond a number of ways such as,

1. Can you tell me about it?
2. Have you found what you’re looking for or are you still on the way?
3. To you, who is Jesus Christ?

Memorize

You must first of all memorize these three questions. It won't be difficult. Then keep then handy, near the tip of your tongue.

Practice

The Chief point is this: you MUST practise the lines. Look at yourself in the mirror and ask, Do you have an interest in spiritual things? Practise on your Christian peers. (Come to Seed Sowers where we’’ll practise it.) After you have asked a few strangers the question, you will be impressed with how people react.

A Personal Experience

In real life it may sound like this, an experience I had at the Crystal Lake beach when a young man came down to watch the sunset and stood near the table where my wife and I sat. We would likely never meet again. I wanted to give him something to think about.

Hi, nice evening.

     Yeah, sure is.

Nice view from here . . . great park . . .

     Just great . . .

(More small talk, establishing a little rapport, being friendly,)

Say, do you have an interest in spiritual things?

     Um, I guess, maybe . . . I believe there has to be something out there.

Now that the ice is somewhat broken, the conversation can go many ways. I was ready to ask the above three questions but went with this line since he seemed to have little to say.

I said then:

Can I ask you a question about something Jesus said?

     Well, OK, sure.

With permission granted (so how could he complain) I simply asked,

What did Jesus mean when He said we must be born again if we plan to be in heaven?

     Well, I don’’t really know. I never thought of that before, I don’’t know much about that . . .

. . . and away we go explaining it while trying to engage him with questions.

What happened in the end? He went back to his tent. Maybe you’ll bump into him tomorrow. Try THE question.

Submitted by: Dr. Doug Yade, Kirkland Lake, On