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Tentmaking Introduction Workplace Evangelism: II. Answering questions attitudes, readiness, kinds of questions. How to Fish Out Seekers III. Drawing seekers to Christ –focusing their Evangelism gives me joy! But I recall how I attention on God, tuning them in to God, using used to struggle to start a conversation. By the information and people resources. time I had planned my approach, my little sermon and my plea for a decision, I was so IV. Encouraging commitment and caring for uptight that my surprised victim became new believers. embarrassed, too. But in a couple of weeks I would try again because a few of my victims V. Noting kinds of seekers. did find God. Very few. VI. Getting started. My problem–I was a hunter. A hunter with a reaping mentality. But I became free to enjoy I. Fishing out seekers evangelism when I shifted from hunting to fishing. Most Christians dislike hunting, so they I stumbled onto this 2000-year-old fishing rarely evangelize. I rewrote these pages after concept during my tentmaking years in Brazil, reading in two publications that even most and then found that some other Christians had Christian workers do not evangelize! They do discovered it, too–from the Bible! This is how other ministries. It confirmed my own Paul and Peter teach us to evangelize! observation. Most do not share their faith– because they do not know how! I was earning my living as head of a secular international school in Sao Paulo. A teacher A major hurdle is initiating conversations. We came into my office and said, "Weren’t you feel uncomfortable invading the privacy of lucky to find that money you lost?" I almost unsuspecting targets and surprising them with agreed. But instead, without interrupting my unwanted religious information. So if hunting is work, I turned my head toward her, and said, the only approach we know, we will not do it "Oh, it wasn’t luck–I prayed like mad and God often. helped me to find it!" Then I changed the subject. She left, surprised at my answer. But But fishing evangelism is different. It is because I did not push the matter she returned selective. It draws out the seekers from a and asked, "You don’t really think God cares mixed group of people and focuses on them about a little problem like this, do you?" I told instead of giving the gospel to non-believers her about a prayer God answered the previous indiscriminately. Seekers are people who have week–and I changed the subject, leaving her become hungry for God through their own free. deep need and through observing the character and conduct of Christians and I wanted to explain the gospel to her from the hearing their casual references to God. start, but she might then have avoided me, Seekers nibble at this bait. They ask questions. fearing I was trying to convert her. She asked So you begin your evangelistic conversations more questions on successive days–because by answering the questions of people who she felt she had the initiative. I let her set the want to know about God! pace for our conversations as she was ready– and to set the agenda. Her questions showed Fishing is ideal for Christians who see the same me what answers she was ready for. It struck non-believers daily–in the workplace or on me that I should always act and speak in a campus. It is ideal for tentmakers who witness way that would cause people to ask the discreetly as they support themselves in hostile questions I longed to answer! I should fish out countries, and for all of us who try to win our seekers from among the indifferent or resistant own compatriots and the internationals around people around me. us. Fishing can help Christians share the good I will consider six subjects: news more often, more joyfully and more fruitfully. But let us examine both approaches. I. Fishing out seekers –explanation, examples, benefits, contexts, components of bait, and work and witness issues. 1. Explanation and examples ministry. Only the Jews had had enough chance to see Jesus. Christians who fish focus on a godly lifestyle where they work or study–a place where non- As Paul evangelized the Roman Empire, he had believers can scrutinize their lives. They learn to begin near zero in each Gentile city, sowing to insert fitting comments about God casually and watering. He was doing pioneer church and naturally into secular conversations. This planting. He had to present God’s Word and verbal and non-verbal bait causes spiritually demonstrate it before he could reap converts hungry people to ask questions. The Christians and form house fellowships. He always started then answer the seekers’ initial questions, win by fishing out seekers in the synagogues–Jews, their friendship and gradually lead them to put and Gentile God-fearers–people who knew their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. something about God from the Old Testament. Christians who hunt are more aggressive than For us today to indiscriminately accost those who fish, but they proceed in the dark. strangers with the gospel may be harmful to Their hit-or-miss approach may lead them to a them, but in hostile countries it can be seeker, but more likely to a non-believer who dangerous also for us. It can lead to job loss, is indifferent or antagonistic. So hunters often arrest or expulsion, sometimes on twenty-four recite a one-size-fits-all sermonette to hours notice. everyone because they know little about these strangers. If their small speech is memorized it Although most Christians feel uncomfortable also lacks the authenticity of spontaneity. and even afraid to intrude into people’s lives Many hunters also use a model of evangelism and to impose religious conversations on adapted from selling. Their message is one- reluctant listeners, most books on evangelism sided, psychologically packaged to elicit a only tell us about better ways to hunt. positive response. They present their sales pitch without relating to the person. They are Yet even Jesus fished. He did and said things intent on finishing the little sermon so they can to incite questions. In Jn. 4 he surprised an ask for a decision. They call for the deepest immoral Samaritan woman by asking for a and most profound realignment of people’s drink of water–something no other Jewish man lives while ignoring the reality of their would have done! He saw past her promiscuity personalities and circumstances. to her deep spiritual need and led her to ask the right questions. But in John 3 Jesus’ Hunters do get people to make decisions. But miracles were bait. They brought Nicodemus many who sign cards do not understand on a night visit. Then Jesus’ puzzling enough to be born again. The slant of some statements about birth elicited the right stereotyped presentations leads listeners to questions from this Jewish theologian. Jesus think, "What can I lose? It probably can’t fished! hurt." But it leaves many people mistaken or confused about their spiritual state. Several Jesus referred to evangelism in general as victims told me they just signed to get rid of fishing for people (Mt. 4:19), so the term the Christian. Others responded with anger. fishing evangelism is redundant. But it is a Some were disillusioned–the decision had helpful reminder that we should fish out the changed nothing–Christianity was a hoax. seekers from the ponds of people around us – our family circle, neighborhood, workplace, The hunting Christian tries to reap a harvest campus, club, etc. We can call it workplace without first planting and watering! A few evangelism, or neighborhood or campus people in the U.S. may be ready for a decision evangelism, because it is ideal for those because others have sowed and watered, but portions of this planet’s great sea of people this is rarely true here or in other cultures. which God has assigned to each of us–those people with whom we associate most often. When Jesus sent out the Twelve he instructed Above all, it is tentmaker evangelism–ideal for them to speak only to the Jews, because he professional people employed in hostile saw that they were like fields white for environments where hunting can have harvest. (Mt. 9:37, 38, Jn. 4:35-38.) He sent disastrous consequences. It is ideal for all the Twelve to reap. Although the Gentile towns intercultural sharing of the gospel. scattered throughout Galilee were needier, they were not ready for reaping and the So switching from a hunting to a fishing model Twelve were not at all ready for cross-cultural is one secret of effective evangelism anywhere. It frees messenger and seeker. Your bait international elementary school. The principal induces outsiders to ask the crucial questions. of the adjacent secondary school came to say that one of his teachers had drowned in a But bait varies in each situation. On a layover storm at sea during the weekend. The high in a Texas airport I could have talked to 100 school teachers were preparing a memorial travelers in the boarding area. But which one service for the student body and parents. (I should I choose? What should I say to people I agreed that the elementary school should did not know? I broke the ice with a friendly participate.) The Glee Club was learning a "hello" to everyone nearby as I sat down. This hymn. But no high school teacher was willing freed one woman to ask me what work I do.
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