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 Witness 

“Seed Sower”


A Witness is a believer who not only attends Christian gatherings, but they share the gospel verbally and lead people to Christ. They love their fellow believers but are driven to reach people who are far from God. Even though they may have some initial fears in sharing their faith, they receive great joy in seeing others come to faith in Christ.

But Witnesses stop there. They don't train the disciples, but are more likely to invite them to church and hand off the disciple-making responsibility to someone else.

A prime example of a Witness is Philip. He was faithful to bring the Ethiopian eunuch to faith, but he didn't take any responsibility to disciple him (and that was only because the Holy Spirit took him away. Acts 8.39-40). We should make disciples whenever we are able!

Reaching Down: Help the  Attender  to Become a  Witness 

A Witness obeys Jesus' command to share the gospel with others. But the vast majority of Christians do not witness. One of the best things they can do is to invest in a few Attenders and help them learn how to share their faith. If you are discipling a Witness, encourage that person to find some Attenders and begin training them and modeling for them.

Reaching Up: Moving from  Witness  to  Starter 

When we find someone who is a Witnesses, we can help that person to become a Starter. The core practice of a Starter is starting new group to train disciples—especially those they've led to Christ. To advance from this stage, we need to help them transcend the  Permission Barrier  affirming that they are only allowed, but commanded to make disciples.

Skills and activities that will help you move Witnesses to become Starters:

Accountability to One Another
Intimacy with God
  • Participate in a prayer retreat
  • Develop a prayer team (a listing of people committed to pray for you) to give support to your work
  • Read through books of the Bible: Genesis, Luke, Acts, James
Multiplication of the Kingdom

Key:
  one-on-one activity
  best done as a group exercise
  something disciples can do on their own

A disciple becomes a  Starter  if they have started at least one new group and are training other disciples consistently.

 

“It’s not that I’m so smart, I just stay with problems longer.” - Albert Einstein