This is something that I wrote for my church a little while back:

In the book of Acts (found around the last 1/8^th of the Bible), Jesus tells his followers, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Basically what Jesus is telling us is that if we are followers of Jesus, we are in the referral business.

This is one of the most natural things in the world to human beings. We make referrals all the time!  We tell people about great books we have read, movies we’ve seen, restaurants we have eaten at, doctors that have helped us, deals that have saved us money, and ideas that have inspired us.

We naturally share with people about the good things we have found.  Christians are people who believe they have found the one thing that is most worth sharing – Jesus. Through Jesus, we have found a God who is healing us, saving us, making us come alive, and making us whole.

Making referrals to people about Jesus doesn’t mean that we try to talk people into agreeing with us.  It means that we just share with people whenever we can about what God has done in our lives – not as salespeople, but as one friend telling another where to find something good.  We share the stories that God has given us.

There are a lot of times that this referral business doesn’t even involve talking.  It often involves a whole lot of listening to people, serving people, and giving for the good of others – simple ways that we live out the stories of what God is doing in our lives and letting others see those stories through us.

More than anything else, being a witness for Jesus, being in Jesus’ referral business, means we pray.  We pray first and always, knowing that we’ll never save anyone, but God does all the time.  God is the one who saves us and makes us whole and God is the only one who can do this for others.

As an old minister once said, “Christianity is one beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread.”