CHRISTIAN WITNESSING TIPS FOR THE BUSINESS OWNER

  If you own a retail business use these tips to witness for the Lord to save the lost who are entering your business each day.  Do not evict Jesus from your business.  Doing so is denying Him before men. 

  Try employing a few of these tips.  Many Christian businesses do and their business does not suffer lost sales.  Discover what works for you.

  Do not be fooled into thinking you are reach the lost by not advertising (witnessing).  Sure, you may try to "justify" one-on-one witnessing, but most everyone who comes into your store all year long is not being reached by you.  Think how many are getting away not hearing the Gospel  You don't have the time to stop and witness to each customer.  Be honest.  You need to employ other methods too.   

Place a table outside near the sidewalk or at the main entry of your store with a "Free" sign on the table.  In the box or tray are Gospel tracts.  Mix in some inexpensive Christian gift items that have the Word of God on them.  Keychain, Bookmark, books, magazines, whatever.  Many businesses are fixed to a sidewalk.  The fish swim by this sidewalk as in a fast flowing river, but the business is passed on by the fish because the businessman has no fishing pole, hook or bait.  The free gift items are bait to get the fish to stop so they can be caught.  They also now see your store and enter.  Sales increase by doing this.  So, everybody wins.  The lost get saved, you make extra money and God is happy to see you bear much good fruit.   How can you lose?  When you put the Kingdom of God first, the Lord will pay the bills.

Place a Gospel Coin in the penny tray by your cash register. Or just place one on the counter, the floor or in the restroom.  People will become curious and take the gold coin that has the Word of God permanently engraved upon it.  And it lasts a lifetime and beyond.

Keep attractive full-color Gospel tracts by your cash register so people can take one.  If you feel bold, go ahead and drop one into the shopping bag.

Place a large Gospel Sign in the window of your building.  It may even be a Christian bumper sticker.  Make room so there will be some advertising for the Lord's purposes glistening from your storefront.

Consider investing in a small, but beautiful, neon sign from the front of your building that has a Gospel message.  "Jesus Lives" "Jesus Saves"  "Love God"  "God Bless You"  "America, Bless God."  Use your imagination.  "God is Love" is not okay to use.  Why?  Because it tells the sinner they are loved when in reality the wrath of God is upon them and they are headed straight to hell.  Do put up a nice sign on your building and consider having another one inside the shopping area and repair bays.  Advertise for the Lord.   

In your advertising budget, consider running an ad in the newspaper for the Lord.  It can be non-associated to your business if you prefer.  It could be just a small 1"x1" display ad that says:  Danger It Is Hell Without Jesus - Get Saved Today!  Use your favorite Bible verse all by itself.  Example: "Call Upon Me In The Day of Trouble And I Will Deliver Thee - Psalm 50:15"  Just run the ad and let God will do the rest.  Remember, you can deduct from taxes charitable contributions.  Your own ministry qualifies.  More businesspersons should be advertising for the Lord as a part of their own personal ministry.  Do not sponsor any church or try to lead a person reading the ad to attend a specific church.  Let God handle this.  Do not meddle in His affairs.  Just proclaim the Word in your ads.

Do not install any idols inside your business.  No statures, crucifixes, pictures or engravings of anything in heaven above or on earth.  That is God's commandment, so don't do it.  Remove and destroy them if they exist.  Now, replace those idols with a nice cloth banner or other wall covering item that has the Word of God on it. 

Place a desk ornament on your desk and on your customer countertop that has the Word of God Bible verse on it.  Example: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord - Joshua 24:15."  This will remind everyone that honesty will remain the core of your business dealings.  It will keep the foul-mouthed salesperson visiting you to clean up his language and jokes.  Customers will do the same and you never had to scold anyone to get the job done.

On your price list, menu, catalog, flyer, yellow page ad or business card print a Christian fish logo on them.  It lets others know you are a Christian and makes it easy for Christians to do business with each other.  

Consider having a custom shopping bag printed with Bible verses on it.

Buy a Christian gift item and offer it as a prize drawing.  Don't use idols.  It can be a coffee mug, wall banner, new book you can find in a local Christian bookstore.  You can do this each month!  Twelve customers win a prize and obtain the Word of God (which is the best prize of all).

If you have a waiting room area, get rid of all those secular magazines and replace the magazines with Christian magazines, Christian newspapers and Gospel tracts.  Note: The Lord will one day ask you why you never did this.  We enter many Christian-owned businesses and never see any evidence of them being Christians.  They are hiding their light.  They do not even try to reach their own customers who are lost.  This company policy needs to change.

Purchase a display rack and load them full of Gospel tracts.  Click here for Chick Publications Place the rack in your customer waiting area.

If you own a restaurant, turn the music off and put in the Gospel tracts.  People love to read when they eat.  Loud music only distracts and annoys them anyway.  Find steak houses employ zero music to maintain a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere.  You will find it will increase your business.  You can even have the Gospel printed on the front and back cover of your menu.

Christmastime place a nice lighted sign, "Happy Birthday Jesus" or "Jesus The Savior" or "Jesus is Lord."  Use what you feel is appropriate, but do put up some sort of a sign on our business.  Note:  Jesus was born in the springtime not winter, but the pagans celebrate the festivities anyway.  Regardless, we should at least put up a message to remind them what Christmas is really all about.

Grubstake a person to witness on downtown sidewalks.  In the old west the wealthy did this with prospectors.  They employed them to look for gold.  Why not employ a homeless person to pass out Gospel tracts as an individual contractor (not an employee).  Newspapers employ the homeless, you can too.  Now the Gospel is getting out to the people in the "real world" where it is sorely needed.  You can pay 1-cent for each tract or more.  Use different tracts each week.

  Don't forget the power of offering customers a free gift.  Every large successful business does this for good reason, it works!  See our article, "Tour Benefits" for an example of how a free program works.  You will learn a lot and it will not cost you a dime.  When the gift item just so happens to be something with the Word of the Lord on it you are also witnessing at the same time. 

Ask other Christian businesspeople you know to seriously consider doing the above.  Print out this page and send it to them.  Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth workers then get to work to do your part to proclaim the Gospel to your customers who are lost!  If you really care about your customers, show them how to escape from God's wrath and get them saved from hell's fire. 

Don't forget to read our free Christian articles on the James Russell Publishing Website.  We have many that you will find to be of great help to you.

End of article

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