Chapter 3

3 More W’s

Who, Where, When

Remember in grade school when you were taught about the ‘five W’s and an H’? Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. These questions are so elementary that they are first taught in about second grade, yet they are so significant that they are the basis of the most sophisticated analytical processes in the world. They are used by school children, reporters, criminal investigators, operational researchers, engineers, and scientists.

So far we have discussed what I believe are the most important of these questions – what & why. Section two of this book is dedicated to providing very practical tips on the how of Christian witnessing. But right now, we will take a look at the three W’s that define the greatest impediments to witnessing. By the time we are through, I hope that you will agree that these three W’s aren’t actually the greatest impediments, but are the greatest facilitators of our witnessing effort.

Snapshots of Witnessing

What image comes to your mind when a pastor implores you to be a witness for Christ? Take a moment to picture yourself as a witness. Who do you envision sharing the Gospel with? Where do you do this? When do you do it? How much time does witnessing take?

One common picture that comes to the minds of many people is something like this. Our church is going to sponsor an evangelistic series. The personal ministries director has organized a special witnessing effort to draw people into the evangelistic meetings. So each weekend for a two months prior to the meetings teams of church members will stand on street corners handing out religious tracts. Others will scour the local neighborhoods, knocking on doors, offering to conduct Bible studies or to pray with the people who live there. Those who are apprehensive about this close personal contact with strangers will stuff flyers in envelopes for mass mailings to the surrounding community. In this case who and where are strangers in the community. When is time set aside on weekends.

There is another common picture that many people have. A pig and a chicken were walking down the street and they saw a billboard advertisement for a bacon and eggs breakfast at a local restaurant. Seeing this, the chicken said to the pig, "Look, we’re famous." The pig replied, "That’s easy for you to say. For you it’s just a day’s work. For me its total commitment." The other common picture that many people have of witnessing is one of total commitment. These people have been very convicted by the Holy Spirit acting through ministers. They realize that the Great Commission implores us to take the Gospel to the entire world, not just to the local community. These fully committed individuals see themselves selling all their worldly possessions, moving to the jungles of Africa, and building a church in an Aborigine tribal village. Here the who and where are lost peoples in foreign lands. The when is somewhere between a year and a lifetime, depending on the level of commitment.

Which picture is yours? Does your picture of witnessing resemble one of these? Are these wrong pictures? Indeed, are there any right or wrong perceptions of witnessing? I would suggest to you that there are not really any wrong methods of witnessing, if they are truly based on selflessness and love. Certainly those examples given above would represent honest efforts to share God’s message of salvation. I sincerely believe that God will bless any honest, heartfelt effort to serve Him. However, some images of witnessing actually prevent people from sharing their personal testimony. Any image that has this effect is indeed a wrong one.

Think back to our examples. Can you picture yourself standing on a street corner handing out tracts to strangers? Can you envision yourself on a one-year, ten-year, or lifetime mission to the backwoods of Zimbabwe? Perhaps you can, but many people cannot. I have heard people say, "I just cannot stand on street corners and pass out tracts, so I cannot be a witness for Jesus. I just don’t deal well with strangers. Besides, I just don’t have the time to set aside. I will just have to be a silent witness through the way I live my life." As we took a look at what witnessing was in Chapter 1, we discovered that it is often confused with evangelism or missionary work. As we now take a look at the Bible, we may discover that there are also similar misconceptions about the who, where, and when of witnessing.

The Bible Picture

Consider Jesus’ instructions to his disciples. Shortly after Jesus first selected the twelve men who were to become His closest disciples, He sent them out on their own. This particular calling wasn’t exactly the same as His calling to the average person. These men were to be apostles, so as Jesus sent them out, He empowered them with a large number of special gifts for ministry. However, His instructions to them about where they were to go and to whom they were to minister, contain a lesson for all of us.

Matt 10:5-6

These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (NAS)

The book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke phrase the Great Commission in the following ways. Notice the similarity to those earlier instructions to the disciples.

Acts 1:8

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (NKJ)

Luke 24:46-48

He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Who and where does Jesus say to begin with in our witnessing? He says to begin right here, in our own hometowns. Perhaps it should be even closer than that. Perhaps we should begin with our own families and friends.

WHY?

Here’s that ubiquitous question again. Why do you suppose that Jesus tells us to go to our friends and family first? Dou you remember the answer to our original why question? Jesus’ call to witnessing is really a call to relationship. Though witnessing, Jesus wants to help us to deepen our relationships of love with Him and with each other. Well, Jesus knows that our concept of right relationships had been damaged and distorted by sin. So He developed an on-the-job training program. He doesn’t expect us to immediately jump in and establish deep, loving relationships with total strangers. He allows us to learn by building on the relationships that we have already developed. He would like for us to deepen our current worldly relationships by adding a spiritual dimension to them. God is Love. For a true loving relationship to exist, God has to be in there somewhere. If you think about it, even the relationships that we have with our fellow church members often lack God’s presence. We go to church, sit and listen to the sermons together, and then spend five or ten minutes talking to each other about our worldly businesses, occupations, and hobbies before parting company for another week.

Jesus realized that his disciples had some very serious relationship problems with the Gentiles and the Samaritans. The Pharisees taught that these people were "unclean" and that Jewish people should have little or no contact with them. They actually considered them to be like dogs. [see John 4:9, Matt 15:26, Acts 10:28, 11:3, Mark 7:3] Now, Jesus was working to break through that prejudicial mindset. Look at His interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well [John 4:4-42], His encounter with the Syrophoenician woman [Matt 15:21-28], and His parable of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10:29-37]. But He knew that the learning process would take time. Therefore, He told his disciples not to go out and try to convert the Gentiles or the Samaritans. Instead, He told them to first go to their lost family, friends, and neighbors.

This was not a new concept. Several hundred years earlier, God had given almost identical instructions to the prophet Ezekiel. Look what He told Ezekiel.

In effect, God is telling Ezekiel, "I’m not sending you out to preach to foreigners and strangers. I’m sending you to your own people who live in the same place, speak the same language, and have the same history and culture as you do." Does this mean that the Gentiles were not worthy of salvation? Absolutely not! It was just that if the Jews could not get the message of God’s salvation straight among themselves, how would they ever be able to communicate it to anyone else?

Jesus tells His disciples that after they get the idea down with their own people, then He would send them out to progressively greater numbers of people. "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And God followed through on His word. However, He did not do it converting everyone in Jerusalem, then everyone in Judea & Samaria, and then the rest of the world. He also did not do it primarily by sending the apostles out on missionary trips. He did it by developing a small core of dedicated followers in Jerusalem, and then He scattered them throughout the known world. As these groups were scattered, new communities of believers grew up where they settled. The apostles travelled extensively between these groups, providing an element of unity among them.

Please, please remember that the call to witnessing is a call to relationships. Don’t get witnessing confused with evangelism. Evangelism is a reaping process. The focus of evangelism is to lead people to a commitment. God has gifted certain men with the ability to help people make a decision to follow Christ. "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers…" Eph 4:11 (NAS) Some, not all. The experience surrounding evangelism is usually very intense. It is also usually very short. Evangelism is the work of a moment. Witnessing is the work of a lifetime.

Look at the following illustration from the Bible. There were a large number of people who were converted after Peter’s sermon on Pentecost. But this was not the first time that these people had heard about Jesus. Their total knowledge of Christ did not come from Peter’s ten minute appeal. Most of these people had personally known Jesus. Many of them were in the crowd yelling, "Crucify Him!" Many more of them had been healed by Jesus. Jesus Himself had born testimony to these people over the three and a half years of His ministry. Peter’s sermon, along with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost just brought these people to make a commitment. See how the Bible depicts this.

The final scene at the cross:

Excerpts from Peter’s sermon at Pentecost:

God’s Army

Let’s take this opportunity to clarify the differences between missionaries, evangelists, and witnesses. God has an army that is in spiritual warfare with Satan. This warfare was symbolized in the Old Testament by the warfare between Israel and the pagan nations that surrounded them. King David had a vast army at his disposal, which consisted of men selected from all the tribes of Israel. Actually any male between certain ages was eligible to be called to military service. The vast majority of the men in the army of Israel were common foot soldiers. But David had a select few men who performed specialized functions. These men had specially gifted by God for these roles. One group was called the "Thirty Mighty Men". Each one of these men could slay several hundred other men in close combat. Another group was referred to as "the Three". On one occasion these three men had broken into the Philistine camp at night just to get David a drink of water. These men specialized in operations behind enemy lines.

Our modern American army has similar capabilities. We have Special Operations Forces which operate behind enemy lines. They receive special language and cultural training that allows them to function in foreign communities. They are also given extensive survival training so that they can operate independently for long periods of time. They have very specialized missions, one of which is to organize resistance cells among the indigenous "enemy" population that will support the American war effort. We also have Ranger battalions. These groups are few and small in number, but are composed of highly trained experts. They, like David’s Thirty Mighty Men, are able to defeat foes of much greater numbers. Then we have the Regular Army Officer Corps, made up of full time professionals. These officers are responsible to lead, train, and equip their soldiers for combat. Finally we have the front line soldiers. In combat, each one of these soldiers is responsible for a very small section of the battle effort. For example, a defensive line is normally divided up into individual sectors of fire. Each soldier is only responsible to engage the targets that enter into his sector of fire.

In God’s army of spiritual warriors, we have similar categories of people. Missionaries are specially gifted to introduce the Gospel into unreached foreign culture groups. In essence, they operate behind enemy lines. Evangelists, like David’s Mighty Men or the US Army Rangers, are specially gifted to add intense impact to draw large numbers of people to make decisions for Christ. Pastors are like the officers who are full time professionals that God has gifted to lead, equip, motivate, and train the front line troops. Finally we have the average everyday Christian soldiers. These people are not responsible for the big picture strategy or for converting large masses of people. These soldiers are called to engage any target that comes into their zone of fire. They are called to witness to the people that they come in contact with on a daily basis.

Multiplication By Division

I remember back in the late ‘70’s or early ‘80’s a shampoo company ran a television commercial that highlighted the power of word-of-mouth advertising. Maybe you remember it too. The image of one girl who had tried this incredible new shampoo filled the television screen. Then the girl said, "Just think what could happen if you try this shampoo and then tell two friends." At this point the screen divided into two parts with identical images of this same girl. Then she said (both of her), "And they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on." And your screen progressively divided into four images of this girl, then sixteen, then thirty-two. Pretty soon the whole screen was filled with a multitude of tiny images of one girl who shared a personal testimony about the good news of a new shampoo.

Have you ever stopped to consider the power of your own sphere of influence? These are the people that you are close to – the ones you encounter every day. How many people do you know? Fifty? One hundred? Five hundred? Here is an interesting exercise for you to do. Take out a sheet of paper and write down the names of everyone that you personally know. This would include all the people that you could walk up to, shake their hand, and call them by name. I have talked to people who put down about five or six names and say, "Well, Bryan, I just don’t know very many people." Then I ask them to pull out the invitation list for their wedding and the list instantaneously jumps from five to two hundred.

Now look at your list again. Is it really a complete list? Could you double it? Could you triple it? If you could spend a little time renewing old friendships and ties with people who are merely regular acquaintances, how large would your list become? Now look over your list. How many of these people are committed Christians? How many aren’t? And how many of the people are you not even certain about? Let me ask you another question. If you were able to introduce Jesus to all of these people, how many strangers would you have to witness to in order to spread the Gospel? If you knew these people well enough to pray for them when they were in need, how much time could you spend in prayer each day? What if you shared your testimony and your life with everyone on that list and only two of them ever became Christians? Remember the shampoo add? Add the power of the Holy Spirit and ask yourself that question again. What if you shared your testimony with everyone you knew and not a single one made a commitment to follow your Lord? Would it still be worth the effort?

Just about two thousand years ago, Jesus – the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God – came up out of the waters of the Jordan river. He wandered alone in the desert of Zin for forty days and was tempted by the devil. When He came out of that desert, He was prepared to begin his ministry to the people of this world. Take a look at how that ministry began to grow.

John 1:35-37, 40-46

Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus …One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

The next day He purposed to go forth into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." And Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him," Come and see." (NAS)

Preaching to the Choir

Witnessing is a call to relationship. Witnessing is the work of a lifetime. Who do you start with? Where do you start? How about starting with yourself and your Lord? Write down the story about how you first came to know Jesus as a personal Savior and Friend. Write down all the incredible blessings that he has brought to your life. Then spend a little time in prayer thanking God for seeking a friendship with you.

After you have done that start with the people who are closest to you. Start with your husband or wife or your children or your parents. Maybe then you could move on to the members of your church family. You might say, "But all these people are already Christians. Why would they need to hear my testimony?" A man named Norman Vincent Peale asked himself that same question many years ago. He wondered if Christians really needed to hear the testimonies of other Christians. He took a chance that they might indeed be interested to hear how God had been working in each other’s lives, and he put together a little magazine. Fifty years later, Guideposts magazine is the single best selling Christian publication aside from the Bible. The answer is that Christians need to tell their stories, and other Christians need to hear them. And in the process, everybody’s faith is strengthened. Besides, when you share your testimony with a fellow Christian, you are just about guaranteed to have a friendly audience. It’s good practice. It’s like rehearsing your acceptance speech for a big award in front of your family. It will give you the encouragement and the confidence you need to share it with someone a little less familiar.

After you have exhausted your family and your church family, take a step of faith and share some thoughts with a friend. And then another and another, until you run out of people you know. You may find out that you never have to meet another stranger again. Does that mean you never tell your testimony to someone you don’t know well? Not necessarily. Be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He has a way of placing the right people together at the right time to be a blessing to each other. Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch didn’t know each other at all; and they didn’t spend much time together either. But they were together at the right place, at the right time for a new child of God to be reborn. [Acts 8:26-40] But you probably won’t be ready for moments like those if you haven’t shared with your friends first. You will probably find it more difficult to love strangers on a spiritual level if you don’t even know your own family in that way yet. I also suspect that as you and your friends share your testimonies with each other, not only will you grow closer together, but you will also all grow closer to Jesus. It is a gift that you can give without measure.

When

I guess that leaves us with only one "W" left. I suppose that you already know the answer to this question. I have heard it stated in this way before. "If not me, then who? If not now, then when?" The Bible says this:

Heb 4:7

He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." (NAS)