PROCESS
Now let’s see how the roles fit into the overall process of a visit.
Before the visit:
- Be prepared. Someone on the visit team must be prepared to perform one or more of each of the roles during the visit (with the exception of apprentice).
- Know their cultural beliefs. You may not have the opportunity to become an expert on the culture, but you should at least be familiar with beliefs and customs that will have a direct effect on a witnessing visit and/or the person’s response to it.
- Pray. You should always spend time in prayer before making the scheduled visits.
- Receive assignments. In many situations you will not be going out “cold-turkey” door-to-door, but rather you will be making visits with people that know you are coming and many times have requested the visit. Through your interpreter, make sure the guide knows where to go.
- Learn about the person being visited. With preset visits, often the person is going through a specific situation (divorce, drugs, infidelity, recent death, illness, incarceration, etc.). Knowing this ahead of time can greatly effect the content of the visit. Oftentimes, one of the team members may be better suited to witness based on a similar background, or ministry experience.
- Decide who is doing what (roles in Part 1). Make sure that everyone knows their assignment for the next visit before you proceed.
During the visit:
- Introduction: Plainly explain who you represent and your reason for the visit. Introduce the different team members. Make sure it is OK to proceed with the visit. Never force yourself on someone. Go in to the home only if your are invited in. Even if it is a preset visit, circumstances may exist that cause the person to not want the team to come in or visit at the set time. For instance, the husband may have gone on a drinking binge, is now passed out on the couch, and the wife is embarrassed.
- Relate. Take time to let the person warm up to you and your group of “strange people from a strange land.” I’ve seen people horrified by a volunteer immediately talking to them about dying that night! – not the way most people like to start a conversation. Use the F.I.R.E. acrostic to get things off in the right direction: F= Family, I= Interest, R= Religion, E= Evangelism. Spend a few minutes asking about their Family, then their Interests, then ask about their present Religious beliefs and practices (find common ground upon which to build), and finally start into the process of Evangelizing.
- Personal Witness. The visit leader introduces the team member doing the personal witness with something like, “My friend, Betty, would like to share with you about an experience that she has had in her life.” Betty follows with her personal testimony and ends with: “So now I have assurance of eternal life. Would you like to hear what the Bible says about how you can have that same assurance?”
- Biblical Witness. If the response to the transitional question is postivie, then the team member responsible for the biblical witness shares with the person and gives them the opportunity to pray to receive Christ.
- Follow-up Discipleship. Immediately after the prayer, the new believer is briefly introduced to the four basic aspects of cultivating their new life in Christ: Prayer, Bible study, Fellowship as a church member, and being a Witness.
- Anyone else? If there have been others listening in on the witnessing process, regardless of the response of the primary person, at this time you want to ask each of them, one at a time, the following: Did you understand the message? (If not, seek to clarify their questions) Would you like to invite Jesus into your heart right now? If there are multiple positive responses, you may lead all through a sinners prayer and subsequent follow-up discipleship at the same time.
- Prayer of Thanksgiving. The visit leader can lead everyone in a prayer of thanks to God for everything that has just transpired and for the perseverance of the new believers.
- Ending the visit. Close out the visit by inviting everyone, regardless of their response, to upcoming church acitivites. Some teams offer each person that made a decision a Bible if they don’t already have one. Others offer the Bible, but request that the new believer come to a church service to receive it.
