If you’ve been following along with my newsletter articles these last few months, you already know what it means to be a witness to Jesus Christ. It’s all about having knowledge of the great mercy of God and sharing that knowledge with others.  We all bear witness to Jesus in one way or another because all that we do and say in our everyday lives (or fail to do and say) proclaims to others where our hope lies. What we need then is to become better witnesses.

To that end, we are going to offer a six-week witness training called Every One His Witness. This training will be held Sundays at 9:15am in the basement fellowship hall on the following dates: September 9, 16, 23, and October 14, 21, and 28. Those six dates are your only commitment. By the end, you’ll feel more comfortable in what witnessing is all about and be able to bear witness to Jesus better in your everyday life.

We’d love for as many of our members as possible to attend this training! Even if you don’t normally come to Bible study, please consider coming for these six weeks. In addition to the video training, you’ll receive a free workbook that discusses what it means to be a witness in much greater detail. If you’d like to attend, please call the church office (996-7530) so we can reserve your workbook, or email us at office@zionmitchell.org

One of the most freeing aspects about witnessing is learning that we are witnesses simply as we go about our everyday lives. The picture most of us having of witnessing is the Mormon missionaries having the door slammed in their faces as they try to tell strangers about their religious convictions. It feels intrusive and unproductive. But rest assured, that’s not what we mean when we talk about witnessing!  [Read more…]

Being a witness of Christ Jesus is simply telling others about the great hope that we have in the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus. All of us are witnesses, because what we say or fail to say always says something about Jesus. The question then is whether we are going to be a good or a bad witness.

There are some common things that get in the way of being good witnesses. Of course, because of our sin, we are not perfect witnesses. But there are some misconceptions we’ve all had that make being a good witness harder. Here are three misunderstandings that get in the way of us being good witnesses, and how the truth of God’s Word addresses each of them.

“It’s my fault if someone goes to hell.” Much of American Christianity is influenced by a false teaching called Arminianism that teaches that every person needs to make a decision to believe in Jesus to be saved. If that is true, everyone who is not given the opportunity to make that decision is lost, not by their own fault, but because some other Christian didn’t present them with the decision to follow Jesus. But this isn’t what the Scriptures teach. The Bible teaches that God has chosen from eternity every single person who will be saved (Ephesians 1:4-10). We cannot increase or decrease the population of heaven by a single person. God will save all of his elect, with or without our witnessing. The pressure is off! God is in the business of giving faith and salvation when and where He wills. We can’t thwart his plans by our mistakes and failures. Knowing that helps us to witness with joy, because it isn’t our job to bring people to faith but simply to plant the seed of God’s Word.

“I might say the wrong thing.” This fear is tied to the idea above. We worry that if we don’t speak the Gospel perfectly, [Read more…]