Creative Witnessing

Does knocking on doors make your hands shake? Does street witnessing turn your knees to mush? Then let your imagination run wild for spreading the Gospel of Christ as illustrated by the following vignettes.

The Gospel Taxi moves across the country

Claude Frazier, a doctor in Asheville, NC, is trying to share the Gospel with the whole world via taxi. He's made it about halfway to the West Coast, and has his sights set on the rest of the world. No, he's not driving the taxi, rather he's putting Gospel tracts into as many of them as possible. "Many people don't go to church, but they ride in a lot of taxi cabs." Frazier started Scripture Taxi Ministry, an organization which helps churches and other Christian groups place evangelical materials in the backseats of taxis. It's not pushy or aggressive — just available. And Frazier says it works. One man in Atlanta has placed in taxis more than 60,000 tracts with titles such as "Winning Over Worry" and "The Art of Staying in Love." The ministry, which started in Charlotte, NC, now reaches from Illinois to New York to Louisiana. Frazier's next stop? London.

Ancient manuscript research leads to sharing Christ with strangers

When Baptist preacher Dean Mattern travels, he's always happy to tell people what he does for a living. "I tell them the truth — I'm an ancient manuscript researcher," says the pastor of New Haven Church in Cary, NC. "A group of people pay me to research these texts and give an oral report of my findings once a week." In hotel lobbies and airports, Mattern then tells those listening how these texts — all 66 of them — are "thousands of years old and full of incredibly wild adventure stories, not to mention timeless principles about how to relate to the visible and invisible realms. People are shocked when I say these texts have been translated into English and anyone can read them. By this time, I usually have a dozen people mesmerized by what I'm saying. When I tell them these manuscripts make up the Bible, many say, 'I've never thought of it that way before.' My goal is to witness in a way that will make people seek more."

I'm talking about good relations

"As Christians, we often think we can't have close friendships with a non-believer," says Kent Sparks, formerly with IBM and now a minister. "But that relationship, coupled with the right attitude and a little creativity, is the basis for evangelism. Look at Jesus. He spent His whole life hanging around lost people." So, next time a co-worker shares with you about his marital problems — Listen. Then talk about principles you've learned that have helped your marriage — communication, caring love — then move into the source of those principles: God's Word. Sparks used this creative witnessing concept at IBM in Atlanta, GA. He asked several Christians and non-Christians to join him for an information/discussion session once a week before work. Topics ranged from marriage to leadership to building a team, and he used the Bible as a source for these life principles. Because he was already respected as a friend and co-worker, non-believers came to his group.

Nothing like a captive audience

Mel Blinson, leader of a prison ministry team in Raleigh, NC, felt he wasn't making much impact when he knocked on doors in his neighborhood trying to share Christ. So he got creative. "Now I go to the prisons," says Blinson. "It's easy to share Jesus there."

Out of the Saltshaker: Platforms for Witness