Witnessing to Family Members
Sharing the Gospel with strangers can be scary enough, but for some reason it seems even more difficult to share with family members and relatives. Maybe it's because we have so much more to lose if it doesn't go well? I personally find it very hard, and the attempts I have made have not always gone so well.
Evagelist Ray Comfort has an encouraging article on his website, well worth a read.
posted by Cedricstudio at 12:36 PM
3 Comments:
I agree. Witnessing to family is a lot tougher that witnessing to strangers. We sometimes put imaginary pressure on ourselves and imagine the worst possible scenarios if we dare to speak for Christ. Well, at least that's how my mind works!
About a year and a 1/2 ago my brother asked me to perform his wedding. I told him that I'd only do it if he allowed me to preach the law and gospel and all that comes with it. He agreed and so I got 1 shot to witness to my whole family and they were in a position where they "had" to listen. That was the most nervous I had ever been while doing a wedding (being that I went through the law and dared to mention hell...in a wedding). But since marriage is designed to give us an idea of what Christ did for His bride, it was most appropriate to have the service center on Him.
Anyway, it was and probably always will be tough for me to witness to family. I'll be praying for your family as well. God bless.
You know you can look at this a different way. Witness isn't just words, it is how we live our lives. Often our families have seen how we live our lives, and even if they don't think it is so bad we do escalata that in our minds. I think that is where some of the fear comes from. But your family can be the most natural place to share Christ both through your life and through your words. I grew up in a church going family who never really lived what they heard preached. I saw this discrepancy and became very anti-Christian. I was like that until I was almost 20 when I ran into Christians who actually lived what they preached. I made a lot of mistakes in the early days of my Christian walk - and you know some of it God convicted me to apologize for. But I've been walking with Jesus for over 18 years now and they've seen me at my best and at my worst - but all through it I've kept on coming back to Jesus and they can see how much my character has grown. So now it isn't unnatural at all to share my faith with them. I don't go out of my way (I'm not convinced that is effective evangelism) but I do jump on the opportunities when they come up. My folks were just up for an overnight stay a few weeks back and me and my dad went to get pizza, last time we made that trip I had to apologize for devaluing his spiritual journey, this time we just talked about how God gives me direction. I've prayed and God brought a really cool Jesus loving minister to their church, and this guy has taking a real liking to my dad. I would say my dad is of the hardest to reach variety - he goes to church semi-regularily, serves on elders boards, but he doesn't know Christ. But that is just a matter of time. I think that is where those "worse scenarios" come from Joshua. But family is long haul stuff, dig in with them. Live Christ to them. Forget trying to present some gospel formula - they deserve better than that. Love em into the kingdom and where necessary use words.
In my family, I have always been the "good boy". So hopefully when they see me they don't see a hypocrite. My fears tend to come from the reality of family persecution. When I was 17 I decided to go to school to be in ministry and my family literally turned on me and persecuted me. I was booted out of my home and cornered by uncles and aunts while they asked, "What is wrong with you?" Well, they said a lot worse, mind you. They are the ever-comitted non-practicing catholic sort of family. So my fears are based on the reality of what very well might happen again even though I followed what 1 Peter teaches us to do when persecuted.
I would agree that evangelism is more than words (must be accomanpanied by godly living), but it is never less than words.
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