Witnessing

[ogilvy]

the first thing i thought of when i was making the decision to be a christian was 'now i'll have to witness to people' and the second was 'now i'll have to serve on cake stalls'. i was told that the holy spirit would enable me to 'witness', but somehow it never got to come naturally to me. i didnt know if it was because i was quiet and reserved by nature, or if i didnt really believe in what i claimed to believe, but it was always more of a duty than a genuine sharing of 'good news'. i could do it by going doorknocking with tracts with a partner, and i could do it by taking bible classes in schools once a week, but to bring it up naturally in everyday conversation with friends or strangers didnt often happen. we were told to pray for opportunities, and that did seem to work. someonw would say something which gave an opening to 'share the gospel'. somehow though, it seemed a bit 'sneaky', to be looking for opeinings to 'bring up the gospel'. we were told that people were hostile to Jesus, and there would always be spiritual opposition to sharing the gospel, because those who weren't 'for' Jesus, hated him.

i had the uncomfortable feeling though that why it was difficult to witness was because my heart wasnt in it, because i had nothing real to share. i hadnt actually had a powerful experience of the holy spirit making a difference in my life, to share. i dont know if it was embarassing to witness because i knew people didnt like being witnessed to, or because i wasnt passionate about it, because i was a fraud. i cringe to remember my attempts to witness. if i see people doing it now i feel embarassed. its awful that all the christians feel duty bound to do this embarassing thing. did anyone have a good experience of it?

[PeaceOfMind]

Of the ten years I had spent as a Christian, only once do I recall having witnessed to anyone, embarrassing as it was. Never again.

[Trev]

In a word, no. Something about it always made me cringe. It always struck me as the Christian equivalent of a really, really dodgy pick up line. I think that something was that, deep down, I never felt like I had any authority to tell a stranger how they 'should' be living.

[xrayman7040]

I was never a Christian, but besides the door knockers I have been witnessed only about three times in my life by complete strangers out of the blue. Talk about an awkward moment. How the fuck could anyone do this?

 

 

Why is it that Christianity is the only religion that does witness. I met a Jewish atheist a while back and he stated that simply put the Jews don't want or desire any new recruits. He went on to say to convert to Judisim is like getting a college degree when you are not born into it. You don't just simply show up at Temple and you're in. Tons and Tons of bookwork. And of course we will never see a billboard praising Allah and inviting us to the local mosque.

[Ouroboros]

I witnessed many times. Even took Saturday morning classes in evangelizing. Everywhere I went I carried a pocked Bible. Once I went on a mission trip to Germany and I barely spoke German and tried to witness there too. I hated it pretty much every time I did it, and it was very frustrating because I never (even though I prayed for it) manage to convert anyone. Which actually is a good thing... I would hate myself now if I had succeeded...

[SWIM]

I was, I suppose you would say, never a "true" christian. Was forced to church as a child, half-heartly believed for a while, and gave it up a long, long time ago. I don't think I "ever" witnessed to anyone, in fact I would say I have "witnessed" (lol) the exact opposite MORE then I ever had "for" it.

 

I think when they tell you the holy spook will move you, basically translates to "if you wish the HG to move you hard enough, you will just make it up in the back of your mind, and feel like the spook was really there." It's all one big mind screw imho.

[gradstu09]

One of the few perks of Catholicism is that you don't witness. In 5th grade, the school theme (K-12 parochial school) was evangelization, but true to the doctrine of faith + works, we weren't supposed to witness, just live 'such that others could see our faith'.

[Japedo]

 

 

I hated door to door witnessing. We were forced to do it every Halloween with the youth group; Handing out tracks instead of receiving goodies. I was also part of the sign language ministry, and I liked doing that for the most part.

[Vendredie]

Ugh. witnessing. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. And in case anyone hasn't gotten the point:

 

I HATED "witnessing". I never did it, actually. I was very painfully shy and self-conscious up until 15, and witnessing just sounded like selling my faith. Occasionally my church would have little stands in the mall where they "evangelized" and kids would often be at those stands.... little children always sell. My youth group often talked about witnessing and the teachers always said that witnessing was the key to being a good Christian. Then they encouraged us to "live in the Christian spirit so that others could see our faith" and bring our Bibles to school so that people would ask why and so then we could witness.

 

I lived in the Christian spirit all right, but never brought my Bible to school nor tried to witness. I was never asked about it or rewarded for it, but at least I kept out of trouble and only got one detention ever. In a way, I was glad nobody asked me about it, and I dreaded witnessing.

[Amethyst]

I only had to witness as a kid because my youth group would go out and do it. I don't remember liking it or not liking it, I just did it because I had to.

[hereticzero]

I hated door to door witnessing as much as I hate door to door salesmen. This is pretty much what witnessing is, it's selling the religion with false miracles and false wonders. I have heard more lies from witnessing than from court testimonies. I could not witness the closer I got to deconversion, as the story of Jesus and creation and all left a foul taste in my mouth of deceit. I had to quit.

[Mike D]

"Witnessing". What the eff does this even mean?? Is this like seeing a bad car wreck and then telling people about it?

 

Seriously, when I was a Christian teen I had no idea what I was claiming to be a witness to, therefore I had nothing to say. Then later I pretty much figured out "witnessing" was just the Christian buzzword for "multi-level marketing".

 

<sigh> Christians and their stupid buzzwords

[Deva]

I never did it. I guess because my parents never insisted I do it.

 

I was very shy when younger and could never imagine talking to a complete stranger like that, presenting the "plan of salvation". But I always felt a bit guilty. The pastor would always throw a big guilt trip on people for not soul winning. Maybe this was one of the first things about the Christianity that I was raised with that led me away from it. I just always hated the idea of selling this idea to someone else. I could tell that even my mother was reluctant to do it. I could see she was just doing it out of a sense of duty because it was expected of her. I only saw her "witness" to one person that I can remember and I felt extremely awkward watching her do it.

[Astos]

I hated witnessing. I felt like a used cars salesman, very sleazy. I rarely did it and when I did I felt like a jackass afterwards.

 

I got witnessed to a couple times when I was a christian, God sucks at guiding people to be witnessed to it seems. I also was annoyed every time it happened because I was usually busy at the time.

[Guest Clodomir]

I did it... hated it every time. Always felt awkward talking to a stranger so I could "help" them fix their life with Jesus. If they were interested in religion they would probably already be in a church. 9 times out of 10 I'd usually talk myself out of approaching someone... then I'd be left with horrible guilt of "Oh maybe I was the person that was suppose to lead them to god, now they may never know and die in hell".

 

Also was terrified of meeting an "Atheist" --better not talk the the beardy professor types, might fill my head with lies. I wish I would have, probably would have had rational conversation.

[ShackledNoMore]

Ugh. It was AWFUL!

 

I remember one time, I must have been about 13 and I was out "street witnessing" with my youth group.

 

I walked up to this guy--he must have been maybe somewhere between 19 and 23, I asked if I could ask him a question or some such thing and he politely gave me audience, and I asked something like "Do you know Jesus?" He gets this horrific look of disbelief in what is happening, something between "I can't believe the audacity of this little twerp kid" and "They sure are getting their clutches on 'em and brainwashing 'em young" sort of look and he hightails it away from we with all due haste.

 

He was absolutely right of course. I felt like a jackass then, I certainly feel that way now looking back, and I almost wish that I could apologize to the guy, rant with him about such behavior, and indicate that I ultimately turned out all right. I actually got that sort of reaction a couple of times.

 

The only silver lining is that I was really, really bad at it, sort of like a chick tract on legs. I was awkward and uncomfortable, in was NOT natural and witnessing did not fit my introverted style. I am really glad that I never successfully converted anyone--I would have felt all the worse if my efforts spewing such poison had ever sucked anybody in.

[Ouroboros]

I remember I used the "it takes more belief to believe in evolution" argument once, but only that once...

[I Broke Free]

Nothing made me want to run from my new found Mormon faith more than the suggestion that I need to witness to the rest of my family, friends, or anyone else. During those two years I spent any time I was alone in my room crying; not exactly something I wanted to share those I loved.

[gabby]

"Witnessing" is pretty much how I lost all my non-xtian friends when I joined the church. All the sudden, I began to hijack every conversation and turn it into something about god. I still have a bunch of old e-mails in my archive were I started e-mailing everyone I knew about how they weren't properly following god and how they needed to repent. Ouch!

 

What really sucks about this, is that I now realize that I did it out of resentment...I mean I was angry that I had to follow all these rules and fear hell and I felt angry that they somehow didn't have to deal with not being able to do certain things or having to repent all the time. I think that alot of witnessing comes about this way in that the ppl doing the witnessing are stuck in this awful guilt cycle and they resent the fact that the ppl they are "witnessing" to are not. Just a thought.

[I Broke Free]

I could not agree more Gabby. How often is the ‘warning’ we hear from Christians regarding hell actually just a nicely disguised message to go there instead.

[elana]

I'm ashamed to say that I did this 'witnessing' thing. Mostly out of fear & guilt. My grandmother was a big 'witness -woman'. She even took me with her when I was a child, so I could experience the 'joy' of it. I can remember feeling horribly embarassed. The thing I'm most ashamed of is the 'witnessing' I did in my children's class that I taught at in the last church we attended. The very worst thing about this is that at the time I was already having real doubts about my beliefs. I wonder how many so-called xtians have done the same thing with the same doubts in their heads?

 

 

elana

[Evelyn]

The summer when I was 10, I lived with my brother and his wife for a month. They were members of a charismatic church. One of the regular Sunday activities after church was passing out tracts downtown, so that's what I did, too.

 

Later on, I remember studying the "Four Spiritual Laws" tracts and being urged to use them to witness to people. I don't recall actually "leading someone to the Lord". I invited one of my friends to a church service when I was in second grade. Both of us were having tough times, my dad was sick and her mom was dying of cancer, so we did a lot of crying and praying together but I don't remember her saying later that she was an xtian.

 

I was very shy until my 20s but even then, I didn't witness to anyone.