What exactly does it men to witness??

If its my job to go out and save people??Make them see the error of their ways and show them God?

I don't see it as my responsibility to save people. I think everyone needs to find their way in life and let God into there lives. I believe he is already there just we need to be willing to give our lives over to him to guide.

This is where im confused,because I've been asked to witness to people but is what I'm doing witnessing. I try and be a good Christian and stand up for others who i believe are being persecuted but I don't think I'll ever be comfortable in forcing (perhaps this is the wrong term??) on others,because I think that this would push them further away from Gods love instead of helping them find it.

If you ask me about my beliefs I'll tell you but I wont go out and try and convert people because I've never seen that approach work,so I try and lead by example and credit everything to God. If that makes someone want to let God in their lives then thats great but if it doesn't thats okay too.

I'm just posing the question am I suppose to be actively going out and converting people?is that what "witnessing" means?No one has ever been able to give me a real answer so I thought I'd ask EB :)thank you in advance xx

This is a big question, with lots of issues behind it. So I'll say a little bit and see if the conversation can develop from there.

To my mind, to "witness" means to live your life in a way which shows ("witnesses" to) the God you have encountered. People form their ideas about God from the behaviour of the people who teach them about God, a lot of the time. If we talk about sin and evil...people will think God is obsessed with sin and evil, rather than reaching out to them in love and mercy. Far better to live in a way which shows the love and grace and freedom which we have found in God.

It is not your job to save people. God saves people. The Father has planned salvation from eternity, the Son has obediently opened the way, and the Spirit stirs people's hearts in response to that. We cannot do that work which is God's.

I do think Christians are called to be involved with the world, that this is where our witness is effective. But I don't think any human being can force another to change (which is what an attempt to convert someone else would be). When we try we only end up being manipulative and damaging.

HTH?

I always wonder who created God?

Who created God?perhaps you should start your own thread on that one

Ange Vert - See thats what i think of witnessing,why must people find it necessary to say their way is the only right way?it just annoys me because no one know the real answer accept God and your relationship with him is completely different to mine so how am I suppose to save you?I don't have any magical powers and your salvation,in my opinion,is their you just need to be willing to accept it.

It's just frustrating,I don't have a problem with people knocking on my door or any of that because thats their way of honouring God,to each their own. I just try and do what i think his message means and you know what maybe I'm wrong but at least I'm trying to do something instead of nothing.

Thanks for sharing,I hope someone who actual goes out into the community and preach's see's this because I'd really just like to know the why behind it.Not to have a go at them but its always good to see how God speaks to people and how they go about doing his will.

Jehovah's Witnesses go out knocking from door to door because Jesus sent his apostles out doing the same thing. They view active preaching as 'witnessing'.

btw it does occasionally work, and I believe that the Pope recently said that Catholics should do more active preaching like the Witnesses!

"Knocking from door to door" is a creative gloss of Matthew 10 (or its parallels in other gospels).

Don't get me wrong, what I posted is not an excuse to keep one's faith hidden. I think what this discussion is about is method rather than principle.

Does door knocking really work? I have never encountered a single person who has been positively affected by door knocking. Everyone I have spoken to about it, hates it. Me included... I know what I believe and dont need to be told I am wrong when I express that to these people.

I agree with Ange and you OP. If my faith comes up I will share it but I am not into force feeding people a God they have no interest in.
By their fruits you will know them...

I don't deny that it works,there are people out there who have a desire to know God or find some meaning in their lives and when a JW knocks on their door its exactly what they needed to get them on the road to knowing and serving God.

From my person experience,my FIL use to "preach" at me all the time and I was never able to take what he said on board because it seemed so forced thus why now that I am trying to be a "better christian" I've chosen not to take that approach. I also don't know the Bible off by heart so my argument if i chose this route would be pretty weak at best.

With Catholic's,being raised one, I think the Pope is correct that Catholics should be more active with their faith. Catholic's are very traditional people and due to this they keep a lot of their practices and reasoning to themselves instead of explaining the "why" behind a lot of thing. They have also copped a lot of negative media lately so his message to go out and let people know what it actually means to be a Catholic is a step in the right direction i think.

Again this is just my personal experience.And as this thread has progressed I see that the route I've chosen is the right one for me.

It works sometimes with vulnerable people (my parents, for instance), but rarely.

I go to a very evangelical church. To be honest the focus on evangelising doesn't sit well with me. Because if someone had approached me when I wasn't ready and told me the gospel then it could have made me more resistant to God. I think a better approach is to live your life as a good witness to Christ. That I will speak about Jesus because he is significant to me but not in a preachy way. I think a lot of that comes down to good people skills which some people have and some don't no matter what the subject is. So I think being mindful of where people are spiritually and that God may use you is important but the way he may use us is not necessarily with us being over the top and agressive.

I actually agree with everything AV said

What I wanted to add was that I like how my church 'gets the Word out'. They have created a presence in a part of our city that really needed 'something'. They took over an old cinema and now the whole section of that plaza bit and they maintain a presence IYKWIM. They aren't on the corner, waving a bible and yelling at people, but the mere act of being in that part of town and holding services there meant that they were 'noticed'.

I feel that it is better to have a presence that encourages people to COME to you, rather than forcing something in their faces that they are not ready for.