Want to learn more about Witnessing? Use these Bible Studies for personal devotion, group Bible studies, or teaching a church class. Below are links to the lessons in this 14-part series.

This week we begin our study about witnessing. Although
this quarter is not a systematic study of the book of Acts (I wish it
were!), our study of witnessing centers on Acts.

Have you ever wished you knew how to be a better witness? Do you fee
shy? Embarrassed? Uncertain about what you should do or say? Let’s
launch into our study that should, by the time we finish the quarter,
give us a clearer idea on how we can effectively witness.

With the high price of gasoline these days you probably
want to hear about an alternative source of power! How about a free
source of energy? This week we turn our attention to the ingredient
in our lives that will give us power in our witnessing. Let’s take the
power plunge into our study!

Assume I called and told you I had a task for you. In doing this task you could
choose to be paid for it or do it for nothing. Which would you choose? Is there moral superiority
in volunteering to share the gospel? Are you better at your task if you get paid for it? Is there a
reason why we have paid professionals lead our churches? Should the paid professionals
shoulder a heavier burden in the work of the church? Let’s dive into our lesson and see if we
can discover the Biblical answers to these questions!

Last week we learned you are ambassadors for
Jesus to declare His praises and share the message of your
reconciliation with God. Now that you have your message,
where do you go? Who do you tell? Does it matter? Let’s
jump into our lesson and find out!

My wife teaches children to read. Simple
reading, however is not her goal. She wants them to read
with “expression!” Have you ever thought about witnessing to
others with “expression!” Our lesson this week presents the
“action” words of witnessing: Testify! Teach! Prove!
Proclaim! Persuade! Let’s get into the action by jumping
into our study!

So far this quarter we have discussed who
should witness, how we should witness, and what we should
witness. This week we turn our attention to real, live,
Bible witnesses. Let’s dive in and see what we can learn
from their examples!

Many years ago I bought an old Mercedes as an
experiment. It was a beautiful car. The “experiment” was
whether I could drive it at a reasonable cost!

Just after I bought the Mercedes I was asked to help at a
church “work bee.” I needed to work on the Mercedes,
including changing the oil. But I went to the work bee
first.

When I returned and tried to change the oil, I found it
required an odd wrench of a size I had never seen, much less
owned. Discouraged and frustrated, I noticed in the tool
belt I brought back from the work bee an old “nail puller.”
It turned out the hexagonal end of the nail puller fit
perfectly as a substitute wrench! An ordinary tool, that I
rarely used, turned out to be a critical part in maintaining
my car. If I had not helped in the work bee first, I doubt I
would ever have noticed the potential of the nail puller.

This week our lesson is about the “tools for witnessing.” Do
we have critical tools for witnessing that we have never
noticed? Do we have in our possession ordinary tools that
can be used for extraordinary purposes? Let’s jump in and
find out.

Have you ever wondered exactly how you should
approach converting unbelievers? Should you hope to catch
their interest in the future by talking about Revelation?
Should you point of the important differences between your
church and others? Should you start out with the benefits
of being a Christian? Should you start out with important
doctrines? Let’s see what the Bible teaches us on this
topic!

Have you asked yourself, “What should we do as
a church to grow?” “What church activities will strengthen
the members and increase our outreach?” This week we study
some of the activities of the early church during a time of
great growth. Let’s jump into what their experience has to
teach us!

I am reading a book about early church leaders. One
significant area of dispute was the issue of church organization.
That controversy is reflected in the Christian church today. Some
churches are heavily organized while others have little, if any,
formal organization. The idea behind little, formal organization is
that Christ is the head of the church, therefore the Holy Spirit is
all the organization you need. Those in favor of more organization
would respond that the Holy Spirit guides leaders to create the
proper organizational structure. How about witnessing? Should that
be organized? Our studies so far suggest organization, so let’s jump
into our lesson and learn more!

Last week, as part of our study of the “structures” for
witnessing, we looked at where the disciples witnessed – in the
temple, the synagogues and in homes. This week we continue to
explore the “where” and “when” of witnessing. Let’s jump into our
study!

How many times when you are trying to do something good
you find you have made a mistake? The good thing about making a
mistake is that you learn something – you hope! A better thing is to
learn from the mistakes of others. This week our study turns to
witnessing errors in the early church. Let’s jump into our study to
see if we can learn something from the mistakes of the early church
leaders!

All this quarter we have been discussing how to BRING
people into the church. This week we look at how we turn them from
believers into those who BELONG to the church. Rick Warren, in his
excellent book “The Purpose Driven Church,” devotes an entire section
to the issue of how we integrate new members into a functioning
church. He refers (page 309) to the transition from referring to
“that church” to “this church” to “our church.” Let’s see what the
Bible has to say about getting believers to the “our church”
mentality.

This entire quarter we have studied witnessing. What
should we expect as the outcome of our witnessing? What are the
rewards for witnessing? Let’s plunge into our lesson and find out!