People Sharing Jesus

I learned long ago that the Holy Spirit will either bring people to me or bring me to them once I am available for His use.  For almost forty years, I have seen people walk in to my office seeking to know the Lord.  In six different churches in different parts of the state, I have been approached by people who were drawn in by the Holy Spirit.  Not all of them knew what they wanted or needed, but there they were.  Some of them received Christ on the first visit.  Some of them came to trust in him in a few days or weeks.  I agree with the late Oscar Thompson.  When God brings someone to me who needs Jesus, He intends for me to share the good news with them.  This has included custodians, painters, carpenters, and all kinds of trades people who came to work on projects at the churches where I have served.  At least one of those walk ins is now a fellow pastor and soul winner.

When I go about my daily tasks, I try to be sensitive to people I meet and learn names when I can.  I study people.  This was always easier in smaller communities where you would see the same person more often, but it is still possible where I live today.  I often look out into the crowd when I preach and can identify those who have spiritual needs.  Sometimes it is obvious that they need the Lord.  I seek them out and try to share with them personally.  When I go into a business, I pray this simple prayer:  ”God give me eyes that see, ears that hear, and a heart that cares.”  I see the simplest shopping trip as a ministry opportunity.  If my wife and I eat out, it is an unwritten rule that we must drive off our church field in order to have time for one another over a meal.  Otherwise there will inevitably be ministry issues that arise.  I will be sensitive to the possibility of making evangelistic contacts if for no other purpose than to cultivate for a future opportunity.  People whom I have led to Christ will bring lost friends to me in public places and introduce them.  Sometimes I will soon have the privilege of sharing with them.

Random visits to recent guests mixed with cold calls at homes are also times of sensitivity to the Spirit as to how open or closed someone might be.  People send off many signals as to their spiritual condition and their willingness to talk about such things.

Behind all of this there must be fervent prayer.  The Holy Spirit is the real evangelist.  I must make myself available for His use.  I must surrender to Him completely in prayer and yield myself to His use.

Dan Wooldridge

I should thank Pastor Jay for suggesting that I write these blogs because this will be the first time that I put the next bit of information in print.  For years I have tried to journal with limited success.  One of the side benefits of a blog is that it is a journal of sorts.  The difference is that it both records the blogger’s experience and communicates what might be helpful to others.  I digress.

My first real mentor in sharing Jesus was a retired principal from the San Antonio ISD who retired to the small town of Bangs, Texas.  His name was Homer Schultz. He accepted the leadership of our high school bible study department and asked me as a high school student at the age of fifteen to accompany him on visits where we might share Jesus with other young people.  He walked me through the Roman Road before we made a visit.  I was already familiar with it, but there is a vast difference in knowing the verses and preparing to share them with someone who needs Jesus.  I shall be forever grateful for his example and encouragement.

The second mentor was a pastor named J. B. Chick.  When he learned from Mr. Schultz that I was willing to go on such visits he invited me to accompany him.  On our first visit a middle aged man received Jesus.  It happened so quickly I wondered if it could be real.  The man not only made that decision, but went on to be a deacon and leader in the church for the rest of his life.  It had a profound effect on me as a teenager to be allowed to see this.  At the time I had no intention of being a pastor.  Little did I know what God had in mind.

The third mentor was a man named Isaac Torres.  He was a layman until he was a senior adult.  He had led so many churches that they finally insisted on ordaining him.  I worked with Isaac in Mexico.  I had never seen such an effortless, winsome approach to sharing Jesus as he practiced.  It inspired me to a kind and joyful approach to talking to people about Jesus.  Isaac still lives in South Texas and faithfully preaches and shares Jesus.

The fourth mentor was Darrell Robinson.  I met Darrell when I was in my early twenties at a pastor’s retreat.  I had only changed majors from business to bible a few months before the retreat.  I was still very uncertain what God was going to do with me.  When I listened to Darrell and heard his testimony about personal evangelism, I remember thinking that I had found a model pastor at last.  I wanted God to do in my life what he had obviously done in the life of Darrell Robinson.  Later I would have Darrell spend a week at a church that I pastored and that mentoring relationship would be greatly enhanced. 

The fifth mentor was Richard Jackson.  Richard went to Howard Payne a number of years ahead of me.  His soul winning at Phoenix was legendary.  His passion for home visits was amazing.  He proved to me beyond any doubt that God would bless the ministry of any pastor who would take his message out where people live and work.  I would also have Richard as a guest in another church.  His role as mentor would challenge me to see the critical relationship between personal evangelism and pulpit evangelism.  The personal outreach can fuel ones passion in the pulpit and call laity into the ministry of personal evangelism along side their pastor.

There were others along the way, but none were on a level with these.  Everyone needs a mentor.  I pray to the Lord that I can be a mentor to others as an expression of gratitude to God for the encouragement and example of the mentors He gave to me.

Dan Wooldridge

Once we prepare our hearts through prayer we must plan exactly how we will talk to others about Jesus.  Personally, I have done Evangelism Explosion, Witness Involvement Now, FAITH, Single Verse Evangelism, Roman Road, and many other presentations.  My favorite is the one that can be found on the Crestview website at peoplesharingjesus.com    It is known as the Good News Presentation.  I have used it as my primary way of sharing Jesus for twenty-five years.  A plan involves knowing how to move toward a moment when you can share Jesus, how to know what to share at that moment, and a well thought out set of transitional statements.  I agree with Darrell Robinson that all evangelism should be person centered and not message centered.  We move toward a sharing time by genuine interest in people and by carefully listening to what they say to you.  Darrell loves to say, “You can listen people into the Kingdom of God.”  I agree.  Ask open ended questions.  Instead of “Do you have a family?”, say “Tell me about your family.”  Instead of “Where do you work?”, say “Tell me about your work?”  You may gain helpful information or insights that will be useful in sharing Jesus.  Once I have learned more about a person, I usually ask, “When you go to church, where do you go?”  It is simply a transitional statement moving toward sharing Jesus.  Notice I do not ask, “Do you go to church?”  They will tell me if they are not at all interested in church, but I want to assume that they might be.  The key question in the FAITH method used to open a sharing opportunity is “In your personal opinion what do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven?”  Another good one to ask is “Have you come to the place where you know you will go to heaven when your life is over, or would you say your still in the process?”  Many will say, “I am still in the process.”  A good reply to that is “Then you have thought about it.”  Many will say, “Yes I have.”  Then you simply need to ask, May I share with you briefly what the bible says about this. If they give permission then you can share Jesus.  All of this is an oversimplification of a semester course which we teach at Crestview, but my point is that you need a plan.  If you are uncertain what to say, the hearer will know it and will assume that you really are not confident about your message.  It is much easier to listen to someone who is kind and gracious and seems to know what they are talking about.  You need a plan.

Dan Wooldridge

As per my previous post, I had a crash course in the vital role of prayer in sharing Jesus.  Upon meditation and reflection, that vision expanded.  While still in my early twenties, I was praying one of those generic prayers we pray;  one of those prayers like, “Draw people to yourself oh Lord!”  As I paused it was as if the Lord said to me, “Who exactly do you want me to draw?”  I took out a card and wrote down the names of ten people.  I began to pray for them regularly.  I would review the list and hold myself accountable as how to seek to be used of the Lord to answer my prayers.  I would ask others to be sensitive with me and partner with me in prayer or ministry to them.  In one year, seven of the ten had received Jesus as savior.  I made a new list of ten.  I did not just take the three non-responsive onto the new list.  I kept the old list and looked at it from time to time.  The names of those who had responded encouraged me.  The other three reminded me that not everyone responds, but we need to be faithful to touch their lives in meaningful ways.  God brought me into contact with more experienced soul winners who verified the process I was following.  They helped reinforce my awareness of the importance of specific praying followed by specific action.  At times that action may be as simple as trying to develop my relationship with a lost person.  This could be done with a congratulatory note, a friendly conversation, an act of kindness, a word of witness, and the expression of genuine interest in an individual or a member of their family.  Each of these can be a part of witnessing.  These actions coupled with prayer and words about Jesus at opportune moments can be powerful and effective.

Most people, when they think of sharing Jesus, envision a “cold call” where they share with someone with whom they have had no previous contact.  God has allowed me to have some success with such visits, but the vast majority of those that I have seen come to the Lord were people that I prayed for in advance and developed a plan for sharing with them.  The best strategy that I know is to pray for them and be available to do more than pray.

Before I close this post, it is very important to make one thing clear.  We share Jesus for the benefit of those we reach out to and not for our own.  As a pastor, I must never reduce sharing Jesus to simply building up the organization of the church that I serve.  Sharing Jesus is a Kingdom event.  I have often seen people receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and then connect with another church.  I can and do rejoice in this.  People sometimes have a network or a natural inclination toward churches other than the one I pastor.  So long as those churches are doctrinally sound and true to Jesus as He is revealed in the word, I rejoice that they have found their place.  It has always been my experience that if I will faithfully share, God will call many to serve along side me and send me mature believers to partner with me in the ministry to which He has called me.  Sharing Jesus is not about me.  It is about Him and about the ones who need to know Him and be at peace with Him.

Dan Wooldridge

So let’s look more deeply into the role of prayer in sharing Jesus.  My very first day as pastor of my first church I went out into the field to talk to people about the Lord.  God had privileged me even in high school to see the power of personal witnessing in evangelistic visits.  I was mainly a prayer partner in those days, but I saw lives changed and lasting fruitfulness from visits as brief as thirty minutes.  This had given me a vision for what God could do through faithful outreach.  My first visit as a pastor was to an extremely inactive deacon and his wife.  They practically shouted at me in their disdain for the church and their desire to be left alone.  They informed me that they would never darken the doors of the church again.  I gathered myself and drove back to the church.  I walked to the altar and fell on my knees and wept and prayed for nearly an hour.  I cried out to God and told him that my sensitive heart could not bear such things.  I told him that I could not do the work of personal evangelism.  I was broken.  I cried out to God that unless he helped me, I was done.  Somehow I managed to get up and go try again.  I went to a gas station that was run by an inactive member of the church.  Since I had grown up around a gas station that my father owned and operated, I was very comfortable there.  I waited for a moment to speak to the owner.  He gave me many excuses for why he did not attend, but assured me that his wife and children would attend some.  Then I suddenly remembered how my father had always known where everyone lived it seemed.  In those days gas stations were the place to go for directions.  They were the GPS system of the day.  I asked the owner if he knew of any families that I might visit.  I particularly wanted to visit some unchurched families so far as he knew.  He shared the name and location of a family with four sons.  Three of the boys were teens.  It was a rural location and I found it easily with his directions.  The man of the house was outside when I arrived.  He welcomed me into his home and thanked me for coming.  He asked me to share the plan of salvation with his sons.  They all four prayed to receive Jesus.  I was hooked.  I often think about that day.  What if I had given up after the first visit and played it safe?  Over the years I clearly identify my desperate prayer with God’s gracious answer.  Just to tie up a loose end, in a matter of months the deacon and wife of the first visit were in the worship services.  I believe it was their awareness of how rudely they had treated me that softened their heart.  Even our rejection can be a tool God can use.  “He was despised and rejected by men.”  (Isaiah 53:3)

Dan Wooldridge

Perhaps the first thing I should say about personal evangelism is that I have never fully arrived in my journey toward sharing the good news with people who need the Lord.  I have shared with thousands both here and abroad, but I am keenly aware that there is so much more that I could still learn about talking to others about Jesus.  One of the most profound discoveries I ever made about personal evangelism is the incredible role of prayer in the adventure of witnessing.  There is an old saying which states, “You will not talk to people about Jesus until you talk to Jesus about people.”  Those who want to be used of the Lord in evangelism need to learn to pray through the process.  Ask the Lord to help you devise a plan.  Ask him to put mentors in your life who will help you learn and grow.  Ask him to place specific people upon your heart for whom you will faithfully pray.  Develop a sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading toward people around you.  Be interested in people.  Learn names and call those names when you see people.  Look for creative approaches.  Develop a winsome approach.  Celebrate success by knowing that you always succeed when you share Jesus because the results are ultimately in His hands.  Allow people to catch glimpses of who you are in Christ.  When they know you are a real Christian they are watching you closely.  Pray that Christ will reveal himself through your life.  Memorize Scripture.  Quoted Scripture is more powerful in its effect than Scripture that is read.  It is also easier to listen to someone who looks directly at you as they share Scripture.  Master a presentation of the gospel that flows well for you and touches on all the essential truths.  Share this presentation with a number of Christians in order to master it.  When you are sharing with a lost person if you have a command of what you are sharing it can help put them at ease.  They sense your confidence and marvel at your courage.  Rarely have I had someone who allowed me to begin sharing with them to cut me off.  They are drawn in to the message and really think about what I am saying.  I believe it stems from the importance I place on prayer before I share and my clear and straightforward message shared from memory with confidence.  Even military officers and wealthy and powerful people have been numbered among those I have been privileged to lead in a prayer to receive Christ.  There have also been coarse and rugged people who have listened and responded.  All kinds of men and women of many different races have responded over the years.  If you really knew me, you would know beyond any doubt that only the Holy Spirit could explain the way God has used me.  There is simply nothing in my personality that in and of itself could have made this possible.

A fellow pastor named Jason asked me to write on this subject.  It just so happens that on September 13th we will start another semester of training in our church in a program we call “Monday Night Live.”  We will be seeking to train people how to share their faith.  These blogs will be useful to our congregation as well as to whoever else may choose to read.  In the coming days I will enlarge on various elements listed in this opening installment.  Feel free to ask questions.

Dan Wooldridge

There is a rising storm in my soul that I can only describe as a holy desperation.  I am desperate for God to have complete access to me and use me for his glory.  I long to teach, preach, write, mentor, lead, and share with a passion that I cannot recall feeling in all my years in ministry.  All of the above have played an important role in my life, but this feeling is something more.  It is an urgency that consumes my soul.  I awaken in the middle of the night in fervent prayer.  I rise in the morning hungry for the annointing of God on my life.  I hate the very thought of any action, word, or attitude that is contrary to the purpose of God.  I cry out to God in prayer all through the day for his help.  I am not sure what is happening to me.  It is amazing how one could be preaching for almost forty years and suddenly feel so inadequate in my own ability and so desperate for God’s power to rest on me.  Please know that I do not desire His power for my own sake.  I desire power for fighting the good fight of faith.  I am ready to sprint to the end of my leg of the race and hand the baton to the next generation of leaders.  I am also determined to make as deep and profound of an impression on as many of that generation as I possibly can.  I feel like I should get a tee shirt that says “Danger, Highly Explosive!”   God is up to something in my soul.  He is doing a new thing.

Dan Wooldridge

It is time to push back.  I am so weary of the encroachment of a type of thinking that is shaped by people devoid of a moral compass.  I am speaking of the so called “Politically correct” mindset.  Just today I was approached by someone who works as a volunteer in a place where she is told not to offer to pray for someone, not to speak of Jesus, not to ask questions about faith, and yet to be there for people spiritually.  Are we insane?  How did it happen that a country that has resonated with prayer for over 200 years is allowing a vocal minority to rule?  I will speak of Jesus anywhere and everywhere I please.  It is a freedom of speech issue.  If I were promoting a particular local church in public arenas where I am serving either as a professional or volunteer, I can see a need for restraint and prudence.  However, the answer of Peter and John applies to this situation, “We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.”  (Acts 4:20)  I am afraid that an anemic church who is fearful of giving a spoken testimony or witness is all too eager to hide behind rules and regulations written by the PC police rather than obey the commands of Jesus.  Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38)   So who are you going to obey;  the PC police or the Prince of Peace?

Dan Wooldridge

       We always live in anticipation that Jesus could return at any time, but we must plan for the future as if His coming is still many years away.  Think of all the work that would never have been done had those who served before us ascribed to the philosophy of sitting and waiting rather than being up and doing. 

       I have been doing a lot of thinking about the next generation of leaders whom God is raising up among His people.  I spent some time this morning sitting in my pickup and gazing across the landscape of our church facilities.  I looked at all the construction and renovation and visualized how the campus will look next April.  While I was doing this, I was moved of the Spirit to pray for the future pastor(s), staff, and lay leaders who would use these resources in the coming years.  There is something refreshing about realizing that God is sovereign over His churches and that He opened the door for me to be pastor at Crestview and that He will show me when those years have come to their conclusion.  God also is even now preparing the servant who will take up the leadership role of pastor when my work here is done.  It gives me great joy to lift up that person in prayer knowing that we will be partners in God’s great enterprise here in this place even as I have been a partner with those who led before my arrival.  When you think about it, a church is miraculous.  People come and go, live and die, move in and out, and yet the church lives on.  In the fifteen years we have been at this church, the change is positively breathtaking.  What I believe strongly is that the culture of this church is firmly set.  This church is committed to the authority of Scripture, the primacy of worship, the necessity of discipleship, the priority of evangelism and missions, the centrality of Christ crucified and risen, the importance of ministry to those Jesus called “the least of these,”  and the  priority of the advancement of the Kingdom of God above the advancement of this local church.  It is hard to imagine anyone rising to leadership here as a pastor, layman, or staff member who did not hold to these values.  God is even now calling out people in our midst who are ready to step forward in faith and serve God with a new faithfulness and fervor.  “Be strong and courageous.”  (Joshua 1:9)

The words of this title were written on the wall of a concentration camp in Germany during World War II.  So much of the news in our country today is very discouraging.  The greed of the past has left us on the brink of a precipice from which some predict our eminent plunge.  Our church is building its biggest expansion in its nearly fifty years of history in the face of these realities.  Some believe we are unwise to do so.  Yet we see roads being built, schools being built, new schools being planned, businesses being built, homes being built, and much evidence that there are resources still in the hands of a good segment of the population.  It has always been a burden of mine that it is the work of the Lord in America that is so often the first to struggle in days of economic difficulty.  This week we learned of yet another round of layoffs at our denominational offices.  This has come about because churches are strapped for money and cannot afford to forward as many dollars.  Some point to mistakes they perceive that the denomination has made and use that as a reason to make cuts.  Whatever happened to grace?  Some of this loss is the result of having two Texas conventions instead of one.  I never have and never will believe that division was necessary.  I say that because I have friends in both conventions and am invited to be a guest speaker in churches that are related to both conventions.  Sometimes I wonder if greed and ambition are not at the root of most of those things that hinder the work of God.  As I hear the rumble of earth moving equipment from my office, I ponder the message that this construction may send to our city.  A line from an old movie favorite of mine comes to mind.  Jimmy Stewart ponders the death of half his family at the family graveyard.  He hears the church bells ringing and half shouts, “You never give up do you!”  Until I am taken up, I never will.

Dan Wooldridge