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The Great Commission is all about making friends. Now I know Jesus said, “Therefore, go and make disciples …” (Matthew 28:19 NLT), but Jesus himself showed that you can’t make a disciple until you first make a friend. “I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.” (John 15:15 NLT)

So what Christians have called “witnessing” for some time really should be more like building relationships. It’s what you do over the long haul of a relationship that counts so much more than door-to-door canvassing of the neighborhood.

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“The minute you lay hold of a conversation in order to steer it in a certain direction, it ceases to be a conversation, it’s a sales pitch; and you aren’t a human being anymore, you’re a marketing rep. If you really care about the man, ask him about his kids … his wife … his dreams ...”

It’s the difference between pushing an agenda and truly caring for somebody. If you care about somebody, you want to know what he or she is thinking, what is the person’s hopes and dreams, joys and disappointments – in other words, what are the things that make that person human. Friendship is all about finding common ground, and it is out of this common ground that what is shared will have credibility.