John 4:39–42

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word.

Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

The Samaritans get it. Jesus isn’t just the Jewish messiah; He’s the Savior of the world. How did they figure that out?

It was a two-step process. First, many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”

Second, they ask Him to stay a while, which He does, and many more believed because of His own word.

There’s a great lesson in this. While the woman had already figured out that Jesus was the messiah, she left that unsaid. Instead, she focused on giving eyewitness testimony for what she saw. That lets everyone draw their own conclusions. This is a modern briefing trick used by technical analysts. I’ve used it when briefing generals.

The idea is to brief all the information without stating the obvious conclusion. Then the general states the obvious, I say, “Great idea, sir.” and hit the next slide, which says the same thing. Everyone is happy to play along with my little ruse, and the right actions get taken.

This Samaritan outcast is two-thousand years ahead of her time.

We do well to emulate her technique. People like to reach their own conclusions. That gives them a kind of “pride of ownership” over the idea.

The way this plays out in sharing the gospel is to just tell stories about what has happened to you. That’s a subject you’re guaranteed to be an expert on. Don’t call something a miracle, even if that’s obvious (especially if it’s obvious); leave that conclusion to the audience. This avoids the natural human tendency to push back against other people’s ideas.

This too is similar to something common in the world of technical briefings—NIH syndrome. NIH stands for Not Invented Here. People tend to like their own ideas (or their company’s ideas) and dislike everybody else’s. So, even when someone knows you’re a believer and knows you would like them to believe too, it helps to soft-peddle everything and let them reach their own conclusions.

We don’t play smart with evangelism because we forget that we’re part of a team.

We’re not supposed to be in a hurry.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.