The King Asked Me An Important Question!

Ok so maybe it wasn’t “the” King, but it was a King, it was Wayne King to be exact. Wayne was the first Pastor that I worked under in the C&MA, and while I was still a lay person (not a pastor) he asked me this important question. “What would hinder your witness with other people?” This question was a little odd for me in the beginning, but ultimately I came to understand that he was asking me what things that I could control would make me lose credibility with some people if I did not change them. For me that was when I decided to quit drinking, smoking, and chewing tobacco. It was not that I believed then or believe now that these are sins that would separate me from God, which I know people are tempted to debate, but I quit because these things would turn some people off towards me. If people are who I am trying to reach, then I think I need to try not to offend them unintentionally.

You see nobody is going to be offended if I don’t drink or smoke, but some people might be offended if I do. Another example of this is that a good friend of mine went to a job interview. He wore earrings to the interview, and the boss that interviewed him was bothered by the earrings. Had this been a witnessing encounter he may have completely lost all credibility to share the gospel with this man. While on the same note nobody would be offended if he didn’t have earrings. Is this what it means to die to ourselves and put our wants and desires to the side so that we might win more into the Kingdom of God? Our missionaries cross cultural lines all of the time where outward actions have to change because people might take them wrong. But even in America we have cross cultural experiences. My friend, who is a city boy, found that out when he went to interview for this country job. What would hinder your witness? We said at church the other Sunday night that how we present ourselves is crucial in church planting, so what would hinder your witness?