Witnessing as a Way of Life

By Dr. DAVID HELLWIG PH.D.
​BMA Theological Seminary Vice President and Dean

On June 1-5, 2026, the BMA Seminary offered a class on discipleship which covered the spiritual disciplines of giving, witnessing and serving. BMA Seminary teaches DiscipleWay as part of the curriculum required for most degree programs. Produced by BMA leaders over ten years ago, DiscipleWay has become a significant part of the seminary’s curriculum. It teaches that “it is better to train a disciple maker than make a disciple,” and focuses on seven key spiritual disciplines: Bible Study, Prayer, Worship, Giving, Witnessing, Serving and Leadership.
 
For the witnessing component of the course, the seminary teaches Evangelism Explosion (EE) and has taught this method of evangelism for several years. EE teaches that evangelism should be something any Christian should do simply as a “way of life.” As Christians go about their daily lives, they should be open to God’s leading to share the gospel with the people around them. Evangelism is not just for preachers, evangelists, and missionaries. All Christians should be encouraged to share their faith with others.
 
One seminary student took the course for credit on June 1-5, while several others signed up for the free witnessing component of the class. Of those were young people from churches of the Cherokee Baptist Association in Jacksonville. For the most part, these were not preachers, but laypeople who accepted the challenge to learn how to share the gospel. 

Putting EE into practice

Dr. Hellwig leading the EE training

​This course not only provided classroom instruction and discussion, but also real-world experience in witnessing to people in the communities surrounding the seminary. Four groups of three, led by student trainers and professors, went out witnessing on three different occasions through the week. A total of 63 contacts were made, 30 full presentations of the gospel were given and one person made a profession of faith. Everyone in the class participated in the presentations, even those with timid and shy personalities.
 
These young people learned that they can indeed share their faith with courage and confidence. Listen to what they had to say about the course:

• “Since taking the Evangelism Explosion Workshop, I now have the utmost confidence to share the gospel with others.”
• “As a Christian, I’ve always known we need to evangelize, and I’ve always been wanting to evangelize more, but never really knowing what to do. When I learned how effective it was during on-the-site training, it grew the flame even bigger, and that desire for evangelizing is still burning after the class.”
• “EE really opened my eyes to how sharing the Gospel is actually simple and easy, and now I have confidence that I didn’t have before in sharing the Gospel with others.”

 
The seminary teaches Evangelism Explosion three times in the year during the regular fall and spring semesters, and a one-week intensive course in the summer. If you or anyone from your church would like to learn how to share the gospel more effectively and with confidence, contact the seminary to learn more. You can email the seminary at [email protected] or call 903-586-2501, and ask for the dean’s office. 

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