Experience in a Different Country

The instructor ask everyone in the group to do the following:

Travel with me on an airline to another country.  Then, after checking-in at the hotel, you have gone down to the train station with the plan of seeing the new city.  At the train station, a non-Christian lady from local city comes to you and says this:

               “I understand that you are a Christian.”

                              “Yes, Mam,” is your answer.

               “This is the first time that I am meeting a real live Christian.  May I ask you a question?”

                              “Yes, Mam,” is your next answer.

But before she could ask the question, you hear the bell at the train station ring, and you look up to see that the light has changed from red to green, which signals that the train will arrive in one minute, and you will have on minute to answer her question.  And here is the question:

               “Who is Jesus?”

You remember the years of sermons that you have heard (or preached), years of Sunday School lessons, Bible Studies and research about Jesus, but you only have one minute to answer her question.  What will you say to her that might make a difference in that person’s life, especially remembering that you are now Jesus’ representative for the moment?

Roleplaying in the Classroom

The instructor now give the following roleplaying instructions to everyone:

Now, without giving any more information, ask each person in the room to choose one partner each.  Set your clock or phone for one minute.  One partner pretends to be the woman from the local culture and the other partner answers the woman’s question from his/her heart without interruption for one full minute: “Who is Jesus?.”  Then, after one minute, the partners switch around roles.  Both of them are to answer the question, one after the other, and neither of them will interrupt each other during each other’s answers. 

 After this first exercise, ask everyone how it went.  Then ask them what they think the lady from from the local culture was really asking.

Practice One Principle – Roleplaying one more time

Then, the instructor gives them the one principle that many Christians have found most helpful in their faith-sharing: “Faith-Sharing is in the first person.”  “Witnessing is most effective when done in the first person.”  The instructor, then, points participants to find this principle in the back of the Faith-Sharing New Testament on page 520, question 4 (j).

After this, the instructor explains that the lady was really asking: “Who is Jesus for you personally?”  The lady wants to hear your first person story of faith in Jesus Christ.  She wants to hear if this Jesus is real today in people’s lives.  And this is the question that many on the street in the USA are also asking.

Now, the instructor asks the same partners to each answer the question again to each other, but this time share their first person story of faith with each other.  Then, after they have both shared again with each other, ask how it went?  Was it different from the first time?  Easier?  Did you need more time?

Then explain that God gives us one-minute moments every day of our lives.  How are we using them?