Several people have asked me questions about doing
EV in the workplace. My new book has a chapter on this and there will be at
least two workshops on witnessing in the workplace at the OPEN Connect in August,
but I wish to remind ourselves of several key issues that we need to understand
as we seek to shine our lights “before all men”.
Witnessing is a skill. It is a skill every believer can learn. Having fruit in EV is not simply a divine
miracle that is bestowed upon people in some mysterious and mystical way. Yes, it is a spiritual gift, and as with all
gifts, those having this gift will excel in it.
Yet as we well know, simply because we do not have the gift of teaching
or giving, does not mean we cannot or should not teach or give generously. There is also many who fall into one of two
harmful errors. Some of us believe that
EV is a supernatural process, which has little or no relationship to human
methodology. Conversely, some of us
believe that we would become fruitful if only we could increase our knowledge
of evangelistic techniques.
We need to be aware that the precious doctrine of
the sovereignty of God can be a refuge for our own inadequacies and
failings. Since God is sovereign over
all, if He decides not to produce fruit through me, then I am relieved of all
responsibility. Of course, very few of
us believe that God arbitrarily decides that He will give fruit to this one and
not to another. However, we are all too
quick not to take upon our own shoulders, the responsibility for harvesting
lives.
Who does God hold responsible?
I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and
stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy
it, but I found none. So I will pour out
my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their
heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Ezekiel 22:30,31)
God
looked for a man, yet He did not find one.
Because He could not find a man He could use, He consumed the
people. God is looking for men and women
whom He can use. He has already gone on
record that it is His will for us to bear fruit.
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you
to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last.
Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:16)
God always keeps His promises. If we are not seeing fruit, we must not blame
God.
The foolishness of making our fruitlessness God's
fault is described by Charles Finney. What does Finney say about reaching
others (which he called revival)?
"Revival is the result of the right use of
constituted means. It is not a miracle,
nor dependent on a miracle. There has
long been an idea prevalent that promoting religion has something very peculiar
in it, not to be judged by the ordinary rules of cause and effect. No doctrine is more dangerous than this to
the prosperity of the Church. Suppose a
man were to go and preach this doctrine among farmers, about their sowing
grain. Let him tell them that God is
sovereign and will give them a crop only when it pleases Him, and that for them
to plow, and plant, and labor as if they expected to raise a crop, is very
wrong, taking the work out of the hands of God.
And suppose the farmers should believe that doctrine. Why, they would starve the world to
death. Just such results would follow
the Churches' being persuaded that promoting religion is somehow so mysterious
a subject of Divine sovereignty, that there is a natural connection between the
means and the end. I fully believe, that
could the facts be known, it would be found that when the appointed means have
been rightly used, spiritual blessings have been obtained with greater
uniformity than temporal ones."
Once we understand that reaching others involves
skill and not only a miracle, we may rush headlong into another error and
multiply efforts to gain knowledge about witnessing. Knowledge of evangelistic techniques is not
enough. We must possess the skills of an
evangelist.
Part of our present day impotence in winning others
may be due to the fact that we have made witnessing an intellectual exercise,
something to be studied and written about.
But we allow very few opportunities for workers to receive hands-on
training. The results of this vacuum are
predictable. We talk, but do we do it? And where this is training, are we following
up with people and holding them accountable?
Imagine
a coach trying to develop a world class football/soccer team. Where would he invest most of his time - in
the classroom or on the playing field?
Would he have his team studying books about the soccer techniques of
Pele? No! He would have them out on the field dribbling
the ball, passing the ball, shooting at the goal, running plays, making lots of
mistakes but receiving his expert correction.
Under this mentoring, this team would make far more progress than if
they had studied and received Ph.D.s in Footballology.
Sharing your
faith is a skill. If we are to see large
numbers of people coming to Christ, we must believe that witnessing is our
personal responsibility and that we can learn the skill if we want to. Once we understand that winning others is a
skill we can impart to others; we simultaneously accomplish two things. First, it is possible for all members of the
body of Christ to be mobilized for outreach.
Second, it is possible for believers to be free from the frustration of
failure that has characterized their previous attempts at EV by training them
in how to effectively fish for men and keeping one another accountable in being
fishers of men.
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