Siege Warfare Evangelism - Witnessing Effectively to Those Most Likely to get Saved

In every city, there are those who should be more likely to get saved than others. These are the friends, family members, school-mates, and work-mates, of Christians. This group is in proximity to blood-washed, born-again, Holy Spirit indwelled believers, often every day for months, years and even decades. They should be hearing the message of Jesus in various forms so often, that the long-term, continuous wooing of the Holy Spirit draws them to the altar in droves.
This is also the group of people born-again Christians are most concerned about. Even genuine believers who are not overly concerned about seeing the lost in their city come to know Christ, want to see their loved ones get saved. The problem is, however, how does one witness to those who are in proximity to us? It is easy to steer the conversation to the gospel once, twice, even three times perhaps, but what do we do after they have heard the gospel again and again, and still reject Jesus? The standard answer is to pray for them, and just be an example. In other words, shut up about Jesus Christ. It is very unfortunate this has become the standard fallback procedure for evangelizing the obdurate unbelievers to whom we are close, because while an example is greater than our words, no example is greater than God’s words. As Lord Jesus Christ said, “It is the Spirit that quickened, the flesh profited nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” We need to keep speaking God’s words.
Having been an actively evangelizing Christian in the work force since the 80’s, and now an ordained pastor who still supports his family with a secular job, I have some experience in this. One of the simplest, and best ways to keep a low key, long-term pressure on the lost is through testimonies of people who have been truly born again. It has been my experience that even hardened unbelief is heavily challenged, when over a period of months, they hear story after story after story of different people who met Lord Jesus Christ, and whose lives were transformed by His power. Over the years I have collected many good stories of genuine new birth testimonies, and they are available to use for free if you contact me at [email protected].
Here is a procedure I have found that works when I find myself consistently working with someone. First, I set my spiritual sights on them. I want to see them gat saved, I pray that they get saved, and ask prayer for them at Wednesday night prayer service. I find out what they enjoy talking about, and begin educating myself on those topics so I can be a conversationalist they will enjoy talking to. I begin tithing on my conversations with them. For nine conversations I will talk about things they enjoy. On or about the tenth one though I will direct the conversation toward spiritual things, and give them the gospel. Then go back to being a great conversationalist to them. For about nine more conversations I talk with them on topics they enjoy. Once again though, about nine conversations later I will direct the conversation toward spiritual matters. This time I might use a news article of a drug bust to bring up the topic of addictions. Once that topic is opened, it is natural to mention an interesting story of someone who was saved and delivered from such addiction. I like to use Mel Trotter’s testimony in this case. Afterwards, again I go back to being a great conversationalist for about nine conversations. Once when I was doing this, and it was about time for the tenth conversation, the Holy Spirit seemed to direct me to talk about a new testimony I had just researched, a story of a homosexual who had gotten saved, and was delivered from his cravings. I resisted strongly. I didn’t like talking about it, and I was sure my work-mate didn’t want to hear about it. The burden persisted though, and I told the story. Afterwards there were tears in her eyes, because she had a relative who was homosexual, and was very concerned about him.
Testimonies are easy to use, they fit naturally into so many conversations. They also are powerful. They show that God is real, and can be really known by people. They show that sin matters to God, that He went to great efforts to save people from their sins, and He does save people today. It lends justification to Hell. If God has provided a salvation from sin, He will certainly judge those who reject His salvation. It provides a natural backdrop to repeating the gospel, and quoting Bible verses in the story narrative. It brings questions to people’s minds, that open up other conversations.
I hope this helps those who are searching for ways to keep witnessing to their lost loved ones.

 

Mexdeaf is correct. While people certainly have created Christian straw-men to demonize, they still have a God given desire to know Him, and are challenged by the genuine Christian article. I say this, having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, the most unchurched area in the US. The trick I have struggled with, is how to keep the conversation going over months and years. I witnessed to an atheist co-worker for almost a year, using the best apologetics I had studied out. I became very discouraged as my best arguments seemed like shooting BB's at a battleship. Then I told a story of a friend of mine who trusted Jesus as his Savior and whose life was utterly transformed. For the first time in the conversation he lost his cool, and began throwing "Where did Cain get his wife?" type questions at me rapid fire. I weathered the storm, and a few weeks later he told me that when I first started working there, he thought Jesus was bologna, but that now he was beginning to see that there was something to Him. He never got saved while I was there, but another co-worker did. I was lay-preaching at my church, and invited him to come. My message was on the power of the new birth, and I used a lot of examples. At the altar call, he came forward, trusted Jesus, and was baptized the same day. He was a professed agnostic who seemed to care nothing about God when I started. From that point on, I began using testimonies heavily. Just this last year, a co-worker in another store in our chain trusted Jesus as his Savior. I had been witnessing to him using primarily testimonies for four years. He was very anti religion, having been unable to keep up with the strictures of the JW's as a child. Yet after hearing testimony after testimony in our conversations, when trouble came his way that scared him, he trusted Jesus and started going to church. Not the church I would have preferred, but it is one that preaches the gospel straight. If you want to see those closest to you get saved, this is worth a try. It works for me.

 

John, I appreciate very much your going to Japan to spread the gospel. I know what you are going through just being a Missionary. I have three siblings who are missionaries to foreign lands. What are the touchstones, if there are any, with Christianity in Japan? For example a friend of mine is a mis-nary in Isr-el, where they are adamantly opposed to Jesus Christ. Yet he has found a touchstone with them. He has an incredible testimony of a terrorist who was gloriously saved put to tract form, and titled: God's Ans-er to Anti-Semitism. Hardly anyone refuses the tract, and most of them start reading it immediately. Is there something Japanese would take from an American that would catch their eyes? I wonder if there is a testimony from anyone in the Manhattan Project who trusted Jesus as Savior? You might look up the testimony of Curt Sewell, and there may be others.

 

You're absolutely right, we don't choose, the Holy Spirit does. My point is this simply this, there are lost people with whom I find myself consistantly in proximity. There are lost people with whom every Christian finds himself consistantly in proximity. It would seem that all things being equal, these lost consistantly hearing the supernaturally quickening word, vs. others who don't, should manifest more conversions. It also seems to me, that as I am around them more than other lost with whom I sporadically come into contact, they are more my responsibility. This seems especially so, if there is a way to keep the spiritual pressure on without destroying the relationship. I believe I have found such a mechanism. It was used by our Lord Himself. I don't have my Bible at hand, but read the accounts of the Maniac of Gadara. The people around him rejected Jesus, wanted him to leave, the Maniac wanted to follow Jesus. Jesus instead asked him to stay and advertise his testimony. The next time our Lord went to Decapolis, He drew a crowd of people who wanted to hear Him, and be healed. Our culture has largely rejected Jesus, this is how Jesus responded in this situation, it seems to me we also ought to give it a try. I have some great testimonies, already in professional quality tracts I am willing to email freely to anyone to use. They are in color, and are printer ready. My email is [email protected].