Witnessing Training

Making friends for Christ

Have you ever had a divine appointment?

If you’re watching, you likely have appointments, designed by God himself, every single week. They are opportunities for prayer and openings for sharing your love of Jesus. Some of them require you to initiate. You might have a moment where the Holy Spirit says, “go talk to that person,” or “ask this specific question,” or “turn down this street,” or “go to this store right now.”

There’s a lady who had been taking the concept of listening to God quite seriously recently. One day she needed something from the thrift store and so she went in with one specific item to get, but then found herself wandering around the store, feeling like there was something missing. She couldn’t think of anything, so she got into line. Before long there was another person or two behind her and a voice in her head said, “go to the picture frame isle.” She had learned to heed that voice and so she got out of line and went to the picture frame Isle. She hunted for a frame that would suit a project she was working on and as she did that she heard the checker getting audibly frustrated. Too many people were in line and not enough checkers, and someone had just been demanding… With her frame she got back into line and no one showed up behind her. One after the other the checker rang up the customers until she got to our friend. In that moment, with no one behind her, this special, god-listening lady, looked that checker in the eyes and with all the sympathy she could muster said something like, “it sounds like you’re having a tough day.” Somehow, in that moment the checker opened up and told a brief but heart-wrenching story of abuse and suicidal thoughts, and our friend got to tell her about Jesus. They exchanged numbers and that was just the beginning of a god-ward friendship.

We all probably know the famous quote from Ellen White, “Christ’s method alone will give true success...” Let’s read it in context:

Ministry of Healing (Medical Missionaries and Their Work)

The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago—a revelation of Christ. A great work of reform is demanded, and it is only through the grace of Christ that the work of restoration, physical, mental, and spiritual, can be accomplished.

Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, “Follow Me.”

There is need of coming close to the people by personal effort. If less time were given to sermonizing, and more time were spent in personal ministry, greater results would be seen. The poor are to be relieved, the sick cared for, the sorrowing and the bereaved comforted, the ignorant instructed, the inexperienced counseled. We are to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice. Accompanied by the power of persuasion, the power of prayer, the power of the love of God, this work will not, cannot, be without fruit.

“Will not, cannot, be without fruit.”

That sounds fantastic. Would you like to have success in reaching people for Jesus? This is the formula.

But notice it doesn’t begin with an evangelism series or even Bible studies. It begins with spending time with people with a heart full of compassion.

Russell Burrell has done a lot of study about declining Adventist churches. In his book on the lifecylce of the church, Burrell points out that new churches tend to have a much higher percentage of new believers, who tend to have a much higher percentage of non adventist associations. The friends they had before becoming a Christian are still around in their life. In a new church filled with lots of new believers they will have a new convert for every ten people in the Church. But after 15 years, most of those friendships are over and done with, and so mature churches have one new convert for every 80 or 100 members each year. That’s a growth rate of 10% or better for a new church, but only 1% for a mature church. An older, declining church has even worse statistics.

Notice the key factor—friends. When we have friends that are not part of the church, we have the possibility of reaching them for Christ. There’s a caveat though, our friendships need to be heading in a godward direction.

How do we make and keep friends in such a way that they don’t feel like we have an agenda to get them to church or push them to believe just like us, and at the same time, help the to see the love and truth of Jesus?

It starts with prayer

Steps to Christ (Chapter 8—Growing up into Christ)

Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, “Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee.” This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.

Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is your property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for you. Save me in spite of my weak, un-christlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure an holy atmosphere, where the rich current of your love can flow through my soul. Preserve my soul so that I will not dishonor you. Give me what my soul needs in order that I may be a faithful sentinel for you. Sanctify my heart through the truth. Let your angels keep my soul in strict integrity. Let my mind be impressed with the simple, searching maxims of your Word. Take me, O Lord, as wholly yours. I lay all my plans at your feet. Use me today in your service. Whatever errand I may do, send me. Whatever I may say to honor you, or lead souls to Christ, help me say it. Take my poor heart and let it be wholly and entirely yours, now and forever. I will not let you go unless you bless me. I present my petition to you, I put my trust in you, and I ask for the blessing that you see will be for my present and future usefulness and my eternal good.

~ Amen

Notice this prayer, “use me today in your service.” That’s a prayer that God wants to answer. What if you lived your life for the glory of God? What if you were willing, at a moments notice, to share your love of Jesus when God asked you to? What if your time, your money, your home, your food, and your car were all vessels surrendered to God so He can bless the world?

When we pray this prayer, God will begin to move.

Berries and Fruit Trees

I have a strawberry patch, a raspberry patch, a blueberry patch, and a blackberry patch in my yard. When I planted my strawberries, I saw fruit in about 3 months. They say to not harvest until the second year, but it’s hard not to take a strawberry or two. By the second year it was going gangbusters. I planted raspberries and it took two summers before I got fruit on those vines. When I planted blueberries I knew that I had to wait for 3-5 years before I would see any meaningful harvest. And then there’s the pears and peaches and apples that I planted last year. Even though I got 5 year old trees, I doubt I’ll see a harvest of anything more than a couple pieces of fruit for another 5 years.

Working with people is a lot like growing fruit.

Some people are like Strawberries or tomato plants: you plant them and a few months later they’re busting the doors to your church down.

Other people take a couple years to develop before the fruit of the gospel is ready in their lives.

And some people take 5, 10 or even 50 years to come to the point of bearing fruit.

Let me explain one of the reasons.

The two crisis

Annie Morgan shares a concept of witnessing that I have found extremely helpful. She talks about the two crisis in a person’s life that God uses to draw their heart to Him.

The first is the crisis of getting.

Many of us feel like our life would be better if we only had ______.

A better car

A better house (or an off-grid setup)

More money

A nicer boss

More time at home

A different wife/husband

A little relief from the stresses through pain medication, elicit drugs, or alcohol

“One more” and “a little more” become the motto of life.

At some point you get that one more thing, that toy or tool or job or wife and you find yourself in the same situation of dissatisfaction. Getting doesn’t fill the void in our hearts. Having all that we desire is a hollow victory.

It’s in that moment when you get to the top and you look around at all you possess and all you’ve accomplished and all you’ve consumed and you feel… nothing, or bitterness, or pain, or isolation, or whatever the awful emotion is, and you finally look up to God and say, “is this all there is to life?” When you finally realize that all you can possess or experience is ultimately meaningless that God can finally reach your heart.

The second crisis is the crisis of losing.

Some of us have to lose everything before we realize we need help. We have to try and fail and try and fail and try and fail until we finally realize that nothing we can do, nothing we can try, nothing we can attempt is going to get us out of the hole we’re in.

Some of us need to be flat on our back, lying in a metaphorical ditch before we look up and say, “God, I need your help.”

It is in this crisis of loosing it all that God can finally reach your heart.

Until a person experiences the crisis of getting or the crisis of losing, they are not likely to be in a place where they will receive the beauty and truth of the gospel.

Moments of vulnerability

Many people have a point of vulnerability in their lives. It’s when they have a medical crisis, an overdose, a series of alcohol induced blackouts, a divorce, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a significant piece of property, a move to a new community, a job loss or a new job—these moments of transition and crisis thrust people into a crisis of getting or a crisis of losing.

Until people experience that moment, our job is to make friends with them, show them the compassion and stability and confidence that comes from a trusting walk with Jesus, and pray.

As we wait for them to experience a crisis, we pray. Be a good neighbor, and pray.

But as soon as you see the Holy Spirit begin to draw their heart to Him during a moment of crisis, then that’s the time to show them something delicious.

The cheesecake of Christianity

When you see something that looks delicious, your mouth starts to water and your body says, “I’d like some of that.”

When someone experience the crisis of getting or the crisis of losing, God invites us to show them something attractive.

Matthew 5:16 ESV

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

We show them something attractive by meeting them in the gutter of their need and showing sympathy and ministering to their needs. Its when we do this that their confidence in us will grow and we’ll be able to point them to Jesus.

Or, maybe it’s when they’re in the crisis of getting—they have all they need financially, but they’re still broken emotionally and filled with anxiety and isolated from friendships. In that moment we can show them kindness and provide companionship and help them see how God bring joy even without the comforts of wealth. In our kindness and service they will grow to trust us and we can tell them about Jesus.

Sharing your living testimony

Depending on the circumstances of the crisis moment, you may tell the story of how Jesus brought you through a similar period of crisis in your own life, if you had such a crisis. Some of us grew up in the faith and our conversion story is a slow but steady lean into Jesus. Whatever your story is, the center of it is Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the Life, but more importantly, He’s YOUR way, YOUR truth and YOUR life. When Jesus is real to you, he will be real to those you share Him with.

The testimony we are taught to give is the BC, conversion experience, and then AC. You describe your Before Christ experience, doing your best to connect your experience with the person you are telling your story to. Then you share how Jesus met you, and redeemed you. And then you tell how Jesus has continued to journey through life with you. Be careful that in telling your BC story, you don’t glorify the sin you were involved with.

More often than not the testimony you will be sharing isn’t your conversion experience, but your living testimony. It’s not a long story that you need to rehears, but rather a short snippet of your walk with God.

Let me illustrate.

A couple months ago my wife and I went to a marriage retreat called Weekend to Remember. It wasn’t new information—we’ve attended several times before—but it was a focused time to spend discussing our relationship and how we can love each other better. When we got to the retreat the parking lot was full and so I started driving around to find a place to park and Joelle checked into the hotel. The clerk said, “we don’t have a reservation for you.” When Joelle told me that we didn’t have a room I wasn’t shocked, I was confident, no, certain, that we had a room. I called the hotel from the car and tried to work out the details, only to find that not only did I not have a room but the hotel rooms that were available were north of $500 a night. I didn’t stress about it, I figured I’d made a mistake and it wasn’t their fault I failed in some way. I stopped and prayed with Joelle and then decided to figure out how to solve the problem. I called around and found that there was another hotel across the street that had a 1 bedroom, 1,100 sq ft apartment available for closer to $200 a night. That was a bit more than I expected to pay for the event, but it was a whole lot better than $500, so I took it. Then, on Saturday night, when all the other couples were trying to find space to hang out together in their tiny rooms or around the crowded hotel, Joelle and I had a hot tub all to ourselves for several hours. It was some of the most productive and beneficial conversation that we’ve had in our nearly 18 years of marriage. I am confident that God inserted himself into my plans, mixed things up for me, and led me to a different hotel so that Joelle and I could have that talk.

There are two things I want you to get from that illustration. First, that conversation with my wife was a moment in our marriage. I don’t have to tell you my whole marriage story to have told you about a valuable moment. Even though its just a moment in our relationship you’ll learn a lot about us. First, we’re the kind of couple that works on our marriage. Second, we trust in God and ask Him to help us when we’re in a difficult moment. And third, we take copious amounts of time to talk with each other to help our relationship thrive.

That’s a testimony. Now, apply that to your testimony about God.

You might notice that this relationship testimony also includes a god moment—a testimony of God. We had a crisis, we prayed, God stepped in and provided exactly what we needed from the start.

Your living testimony is a story of what God has done for you, or shown you, or taught you recently. It’s not your whole story, but even though its brief it gives a picture of the glory and love of God.

There are several key opportunities to tell your living testimony:

Right after you experience it — tell the story to your spouse, your children, your neighbor, or whoever you’re around shortly after it happened. Repeating what God has done will solidify the story in your heart.

When God opens the door in a godward conversation—let the Holy spirit be your guide and share a story of how God has loved on you with that person that’s in a crisis moment in their life.

You might notice that so far we haven’t talked about sharing your belief about the Sabbath or your conviction about the state of the dead or the antichrist. The focus in witnessing must always be Jesus. Doctrines about Jesus are only helpful as we tell the story of Jesus. If we start and stop with doctrines we will stop short of the Savior.

The Mini Max Principle

There’s a principle in witnessing that is vital to making friends for God; it’s called the mini max principle.

Minimize your differences, Maximize what you hold in common.

Our tendency is to argue. We have all the best arguments in favor of the doctrines we hold dear. We can’t be refuted by a thus says the Lord because we are right. Unequivocally, we are right. And yet, our rightness has done very little to draw people to Jesus. In fact, sometimes we are successful at converting someone to Adventism only to find out that they don’t really know Jesus.

God doesn’t call us to argue. He calls us to testify of him.

Matthew 10:32 NCV

“All those who stand before others and say they believe in me, I will say before my Father in heaven that they belong to me.

I love to talk about doctrines. They show off God’s glory in beautiful ways. I just stood in the kitchen and told the story about Jesus’ robe of righteousness to an orthodox lady and she was astounded to hear that IN CHRIST she is already holy. Holiness isn’t something she must work hard at only to inevitably fail as she was told in her study book, it’s a gift from Jesus. I told her that story and then helped her understand that Jesus asks us to obey him as a loving response to his all-sufficient salvation, not as a means to make us fit for heaven. As we talked back and forth she asked me, “what church are you the pastor of?” It wasn’t a defensive thing—we weren’t having an argument. Instead, we were having a conversation about a very real experience she was having and some questions that puzzled her. We were able to talk about it because I’ve had a large number of friendly, non-threatening conversations with her over the last three years. And we were able to talk about it because I used the mini max principle. Here’s how the conversation went.

“could you tell me about the orthodox church? What are the different kinds of orthodox churches?”

She shared some details about the orthodox structure of churches and then I asked her if about the orthodox church in Bonners Ferry. We went back and forth—me being genuinely curious, and she being very interested in sharing the details of her experience. I found out that she grew up orthodox and raised her daughters orthodox but they both married protestants and rejected orthodoxy. I found out that she attends an evangelical church with her daughter because they refuse to drive to CDA or Bonners to attend an orthodox church. She said she often wants to say, “that’s not right!” when she hears something wrong, but she learned a while back not to criticize other Christian faiths. But then looked sad and said that her daughter is often critical of other faiths.

I kept asking questions and she kept telling her story and then she told me about this book she’s been reading about holiness. She talked about it with a glowing report and then talked about her experience and how she was trying to stop telling white lies, and how the book said that she’d never be holy like God is holy, and yet how it said that the Bible tells us to be holy like God is holy. And that was where her face got all puzzled, like she wasn’t quite sure how to relate to that.

All along during her story I was nodding and encouraging and repeating back what she said. When she talked about criticizing other churches I admitted that many people think arguing about doctrines is helpful, and that our focus should be Jesus. That seemed to be an area she resonated with since she’s been attending a church that does not match her beliefs.

I had built report with her, both through our history of genial relating, and now during our conversation. So, now that she had a puzzled look on her face I was able to ask a question, “would you like to know something amazing about holiness in the Bible?” “Yes!” she said. That’s all it took to open the door to a conversation about the Bible and Jesus’ righteousness. She stayed engaged and was very interested in the idea of Christ’s righteousness. She asked questions that made me think she was paying close attention so she could understand. And we parted ways, without a convicting decision to change her religion.

I minimized our differences by ignoring all the stuff we disagree on. I maximized our similarities by talking about things we could agree on. Then I was able to share a new idea from the Bible with her that made her see Jesus in a new and wonderful way.

That elderly lady will likely never become a Seventh-day Adventist, but if I can help her find the real Jesus, then I’ve done my work as an evangelist. Other people may join our movement of prophecy at some point, but one conversation does not a convert make. It’s a patter of friendship, sympathy, service, and god-ward conversations where you tell the living testimonies of God working in your life.

Worldviews

It’s sometimes more difficult to talk about Jesus with someone simply because tey don’t have the Judeo-Christian cultural background that would make Jesus automatically attractive.

What if you’re talking to a Hindu or a Muslim or a mystic? How do you maximize your similarities without agreeing with a pagan religion? What about an atheist who shrugs off the idea of an invisible God without considering your case? How do you reach the various mindsets that you’ll run into?

Everyone in has a particular “worldview”, even if they haven’t identified it, or recognized it’s impact. A worldview is a philosopher’s way of saying that you have a system in your mind with which you evaluate the various bits of knowledge that you process every day. Some like to refer to it as the “glasses” through which you see the world.

Philosophers identify six main worldviews in North America that most of us fit into in some way:

Monotheism (Christianity, secondarily judaism)

Sources: Bible

God: believe in one creator God

Humanity: were created perfect, but have fallen and now have a bent towards sin. God has a purpose and destiny for each person.

Family: traditional family values

Politics: Justice, Freedom, Order

Islam

Sources: Qur’an, Hadith, Sunnah

God: Believes in one creator God

Humanity: is basically good, but forgetful of what God requires. They only need guidance and they will be able to live a utopic life. Humans determine the course of history through jihad.

Family: polygamy

Politics: Islamic theocracy (Islamic State)

Secular Humanism

Sources: Humanist Manifestos 1, 2, 3

God: No God

Humanity: moral relativism, humans center of the universe

Family: non-traditional family

Politics: Liberalism (secular world government)

Marxism/Leninism

Sources: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao

God: No God

Humanity: materialism

Family: classless society

Politics: Statism (Cuban communism for example)

Cosmic Humanism

(also known as New Age, sources such as Hinduism, Gnosticism, Astrology, Taoism, Wicca and neo-pagan traditions)

Sources: MacLaine, Spangler, Chopra, Walsch

God: Pantheism — the earth is our “mother”, we are all interconnected in our spirits to one divine source, fundamentally I am god, or at least part of the totality of god

Humanity: moral relativism

Family: Non-traditional family

Politics: Self-government

Postmodernism

Sources: Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty

God: No God

Humanity: cultural relativism

Family: sexual egalitarianism (polyamory)

Politics: Leftism (liberal social ideals)

There are a few other worldviews that are less prevalent in the world and many that diverge slightly from these. For example, Buddhism is kind of like Cosmic Humanism, but not exactly. Understanding these worldviews helps to understand how to talk to the person you’re engaging with. It doesn’t help a Buddhist to talk about redemption and salvation or refer to Jesus as the Messiah. All of those words are completely useless to a Buddhist that doesn’t understand the concept of sin or rebellion from God or falling short of God’s glory or being bought with the blood of Christ. In a Buddhist worldview the problem in humanity is suffering and the source of suffering is desire. So, if you want to talk to a Buddhist you need to translate the gospel into their language. They see the pursuit of pleasure as wrong. We can agree with that. But the solution for them is a disciplined rejection of the pursuit of pleasure—which is pure legalism. Buddhism has an Eightfold Path:

Right understanding (Samma ditthi)

Right thought (Samma sankappa)

Right speech (Samma vaca)

Right action (Samma kammanta)

Right livelihood (Samma ajiva)

Right effort (Samma vayama)

Right mindfulness (Samma sati)

Right concentration (Samma samadhi)

Can we agree with these basic values? Yes, and agreeing with these values is a way to maximize our similarities. It is fascinating to talk to a buddhist with the goal of understanding how they live the eightfold path. I know you’d find out a lot about their life and values... and their struggles.

Do you have struggles with sin? When they talk about the difficulty of their journey, we can share the difficulty of ours as well.

From a position of trust and confidence and friendship, we can share how our journey has gone and how we have found a better way than our failed attempts at becoming good. We can talk about the only person who was truly good and who is not only a person but the creator of all.

These principles apply for postmodernism and the socially/politically liberal agenda—or wokeism. We don’t maximize our differences to reach the heart, we minimize the differences, pray, befriend, minister to, and then when the opportunity presents itself—when the crisis of belief happens—we are ready to tell our testimony of Jesus.

Bible Study

At what point should you start a Bible study?

When the person says, “tell me more.”

Show them from the Bible what you’ve told them about in your conversations, and ask if they’d like to know more. If they say, yes, then invite them into a systematic study of the Bible where you’ll explore the themes and stories and teachings of the Bible—with the focal point being Jesus from start to finish.

If they’re not saying, “tell me more,” then they might not be ready for more. Stay friends, and let God bring them to a crisis that will draw them to search for Him. Then show them the word of God.

What method or study should you do with a person depends on their history and their interests. If they’re super interested in prophecy, then a study that focuses on prophecy would be ideal. There’s a 31 part Daniel and Revelation study that walks you through those books in a systematic and engaging way. VOP has a prophecy course called Focus on Prophecy, and Amazing Facts has a prophecy rich Storacles series that is engaging and helps you get a bigger picture into the stories of the Bible.

If the person has very little experience in the Bible, or has a skeptical view of the Bible, sometimes the best thing to do is just start reading together. Take the book of Matthew or John and read the story of Jesus together. Once you’re done with that go on to Acts or to one of the letters like the book of Ephesians. In a read-it-together model a person who doesn’t know the Bible might start having a lot of questions about doctrines that are eluded to in the text but not fully developed. When they have that “show me more” attitude and are asking relevant questions, that could be an opportunity to pivot to a more systematic study of the themes of the Bible. A study series like Truth Link by Ty Gibson is a great way to show them the grand themes of the great controversy.

Let’s talk about some do’s and don’ts when it comes to leading a Bible study.

Do:

Engage with their life and ask them about the things that matter to them—their family, their work, their hobbies. Don’t spend the whole time with them chewing the flab, though. They want to know about the Bible, but make sure you are there to know them better too.

If you find they have a need, step out of bible mode and offer your help. I recommend keeping the Bible study time, but staying longer to help, or coming back another day to help. When you invest in their needs and show yourself as a good neighbor, what you say about the Bible and Jesus becomes a real, living truth, not just a dead theology.

Let them ask questions that are unrelated to the study. Don’t be so rigid in your study that you can’t ever be thrown off of it by a side question. They will feel that you are just performing an act and not sharing your love of Jesus.

Come to the Bible as a learner, and be willing to be taught by them. Your students will often be your best teachers.

Don’t:

Act like you know everything. If they ask a question you don’t know the answer to or your read a text that confuses you both, don’t let it fluster you. Let them know that’s new to you, or you don’t know the answer, or you don’t know why they included that verse in the study… Your vulnerability will make you human and friendly. Being a know-it-all is a sure-fire way to push people away.

Don’t act like their teacher. You may know something more than they do, but at best your a peer tutor. Back in school there were teachers, and there were peers who had taken the class before you and knew what to expect. Act like their peer‚ a co-learner, not their superior teacher.

Overstay your welcome. A typical bible study is about an hour. If you go for much longer than that the Bible study will become a drudgery and difficult to schedule into their life. If they’re eager to learn and want to study longer, its better to meet twice a week than to meet for 2 or 3 hours once a week. That doesn’t mean an occasional long study is bad, but don’t make it a habit. Around 10 minutes of friendly chatting, a prayer, and then 45 minutes of Bible study is about right for most situations and subjects.

Expect them to make a decision after you present a doctrine. Your job is not to secure decisions, but to engage with the life of your friend. Say you’ve just studied the subject of death and they’re astounded by it. Don’t be so eager to get a “yes, I believe that!” from them. Instead, ask, “does this make sense?” and “do you have more questions?” If they have more questions reassure them that there will be time to come back to it again on another occasion. All the doctrines in the Bible connect with each other so you’re bound to come back to that doctrine from a different angle another time.

Condemn them when they say they don’t agree with you. If they don’t accept an idea you share, back away from it. It’s better to have a friend you disagree with than to lose the friendship, and your spiritual influence, entirely. Let’s say you study the Sabbath and they reject it. You’re not done. It’s just not something they’re ready to accept. Let them know that you still want to keep exploring other Bible themes with them. Move on from the Sabbath to whatever is next in the lesson series. When the subject is broached again, you might find them more interested the 2nd or 3rd time than they were the first. Your job is not to convict them, but to be their friend as they navigate a new way of thinking about life and god and judgment and love and family and really everything they know. Show deep compassion for that journey and respect them as they struggle with different ideas and decisions.

Making decisions

Let’s talk about decisions. I mentioned that it’s not your job to get them to decide something. You job is to show the attractiveness of Jesus and the truth about the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings conviction and builds desire in their hearts.

I like to tell people that when we interact with something from the Bible its unhealthy to just go “huh. That’s interesting.” We need to make a decision about it. One decision might be, “that’s wrong, I don’t agree.” Another might be, “That’s right, I can see it’s true!” and a third relevant decision is to say, “I don’t really understand that yet, I think I need to look into it more.” God would rather us incorrectly reject something that is true in our search for Him rather than to have a “who cares” attitude about the things we read in the Bible.

So, when we get to the end of a Bible study I ask things like, “what do you think about that?” And “what’s going on in your mind right now?” or “what questions come to mind as we read this?” These questions help me understand them. If I can answer a questions, great, but that’s not the point of these questions. The point is to understand and know them. If it’s clear they have a lot of questions and uncertainty, I don’t press for a decision, but if they’re like, “wow, this is awesome, I never saw this in the Bible before!” then I’ll probably ask them to make a decision. If they are familiar with prayer you might ask, “would you like to thank God for telling us about himself/the future?” Or you could simply ask, “do you understand and agree with what we just studied?” If the subject was one that you need to take action on like keeping the Sabbath or tithing or attending church, then ask something like, “would you like to make a commitment to following Jesus in this area?”

These questions are intended to get them to move from knowledge to commitment. It helps them take a step in faith. But your job isn’t to make them take that step, only to invite them into it—like Jesus telling the lame man to “get up, take up your bed and go home,” we are to invite, “come to church with me next week, _____ is speaking and I think you’ll really enjoy it.” or whatever.