Witnessing to Co-workers

[Jared]

I have been trying to witness to some of my co-workers. It's been really difficult. I work at Papa John's in Clinton, TN. I live in LaFollette, TN.

I worked at Papa John's for about a year when my wife and I got married. Then, I worked at a locally owned pizza shop here in town. Now, I'm back at Papa John's.

Even though Clinton isn't that far from where I live, people there are a lot different. Where I live, nearly everyone, even younger people, claim to be Christians, but the people I work with and had worked with before in Clinton were mostly pagan, atheist, or agnostic unless they were actual Christians, not just nominal Christians. There are very few nominal Christians there. I got used to witnessing to the nominal Christians here when I worked at the pizza shop here in town.

Now, it's hard for me to transition back into witnessing to people that don't even believe what I'm trying to tell them.

I would appreciate any advice on witnessing to atheists and agnostics. I have never encountered as many as I am right now and I really don't know what to say.

Thanks.

 

[Scottish Lass]

No advice here, but praying...

 

[SolaScriptura]

Just live Christianly and invite them to church.

 

[paculina]

I think you probably need to shoot mostly for the "won without a word" approach here. Live your faith in front of them and let your life speak for itself. Engaging in arguments about the existence of God or evolution or forcing conversations about it is not going to help. Live your life as a Christian and answer questions as they ask them or as it fits naturally into the conversation. You may be surprised to find the most hostile people are often the easiest to win. It's easy to move from passionate emotion (hate) to another passionate emotion (love). But if someone is complacent (like a nominal Christian), it's very hard to move them out of that.

Pray pray pray! And think of yourself as planting seeds, even though you may never see the conversion happen.

 

[Theoretical]

I have been trying to witness to some of my co-workers. It's been really difficult. I work at Papa John's in Clinton, TN. I live in LaFollette, TN.

I worked at Papa John's for about a year when my wife and I got married. Then, I worked at a locally owned pizza shop here in town. Now, I'm back at Papa John's.

Even though Clinton isn't that far from where I live, people there are a lot different. Where I live, nearly everyone, even younger people, claim to be Christians, but the people I work with and had worked with before in Clinton were mostly pagan, atheist, or agnostic unless they were actual Christians, not just nominal Christians. There are very few nominal Christians there. I got used to witnessing to the nominal Christians here when I worked at the pizza shop here in town.

Now, it's hard for me to transition back into witnessing to people that don't even believe what I'm trying to tell them.

I would appreciate any advice on witnessing to atheists and agnostics. I have never encountered as many as I am right now and I really don't know what to say.

Thanks.

Honesty, seriousness, and humility are good starts. Be much, much harsher on your own morality and religious practice and how much you need Christ than you are on "those people out there," especially those outside the faith. Another thing related to that is to not be afraid to praise and compliment virtues you find in them, even as we ourselves know these cannot save. The all-sufficiency of Christ and His work is extremely fascinating to a lot of these folks, simply because Christianity is not a worldview where we get to extol how virtuously great and morally superior we are. Because our sole foundation for anything good in us is Christ's work in us, we don't have to place ourselves above these folks.

Never ever forget that they too are made in the image of God, so you should never make them think you wish they'd just "enjoy their little box in hell."

Also, listen to them and why they believe what they do, because you may discover various things. Don't be afraid of the tough doctrines, they'll often bring those issues up to see how strongly you believe what you do. Be discerning to know what are the offensive essentials of the faith and what are the trappings of evangelical or Catholic culture that burned them badly. The former they'll stop listening if you don't believe in (though that's the least of your problems!) and the latter are exactly the things you should agree in criticizing.

Hard truths are indeed difficult to stand up for when you're challenged on them and unsure how to respond, but they'll tend to respect you and listen if you agree with something essential but offensive. Another thing, consistency and transparency really matters to these folks, because they can smell a manipulating rat a mile away when it comes to religion. Do not befriend them simply to make evangelistic conquests, but because they're people you want to be friends with whether or not they ever convert. Finally, never, ever, ever give up hope on any of these folks, even for those you have a conversation that goes sour.

---------- Post added at 03:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:43 PM ----------

Overwhelmingly, I've found that the intellectual objections are not the real reason the person's refusing to believe Christianity, at least if his or she has a Christian background. Getting to actually know the person in-depth is the only way you'll discern these points of contact, and on those points, serious Christianity may even be compelling.