Sharing Jesus Without Freaking Out

Evangelism the Way You Were Born to Do It

D. Scott Hildreth, Steven A. McKinion

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781535982184
• eBook ISBN: 9781535982191
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Ministère chrétien

What if talking about your faith felt as natural as discussing your family, your work, or your hobbies? Evangelism doesn't have to be uncomfortable. You're under no pressure to prove anything. It really just amounts to having a conversation, and almost any context provides the opportunity for evangelism. You can spot these opportunities when you listen, because people talk about what's important to them. So think of evangelism as building a relationship with someone and intentionally planning to share Jesus as a part of everyday living. Sharing Jesus without Freaking Out, Second Edition is not a comprehensive theology of evangelism or the methods by which that theological message is communicated. The goal of the book is simply to show what evangelism looks like when it's part of ordinary, everyday conversations. Sharing Jesus with others isn't a mystery, and it can be as natural as working a job, practicing a favorite hobby, or engaging in any other kind of daily activity. The authorsshow how anyone can make sharing the gospel a commonplace part of their lifestyle. Without all the freaking out part.

{ CHAPTER 1 }

Evangelism Doesn’t Have to Be Uncomfortable

“We are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

—Acts 4:20

Principle #1

You have all you need to begin sharing Jesus with other people right now.

You do things every day that, to many of the rest of us, would be daunting to the point of impossible. Maybe you run your own business, or hang drywall, or fly airplanes, or craft floral arrangements, or care for cancer patients, or teach preschool. It’s something you do routinely, all the time, without freaking out.

Why?

Because you learned how to do it. More accurately, you learned you could do it.

There was a time, of course, when you couldn’t. None of us, when we picked up our first book, for example, knew how to read. When we sat behind the steering wheel of a car for the first time, we didn’t yet know how to drive.

Name some of the many insurmountable challenges you’ve faced in life: figuring out high school algebra, remodeling your kitchen or bathroom, interviewing for your first real job. The challenge seemed overwhelming. You weren’t sure you could do it. And yet you did. You learned a second language. You taught yourself to sew. You graduated from college. You ran a marathon. You did it!

So you have a history of accomplishing things, of becoming adept at things that you once couldn’t do at all, until now you can do them quite naturally, with ease—or, if not with ease, at least proficiently. Those tasks don’t scare you to death anymore. You may even be genuinely looking forward to your next chance at doing them again.

Why should evangelism be any different?

Here’s why: likely, somewhere along the way, you were taught a style of evangelism that made the idea of talking with other people about the best news in the history of humanity(!) feel somehow uncomfortable. You knew you should do it. You even wanted to do it. You loved the thought of an unbeliever being captured by the message of Christ you shared and then putting their faith in him. Of the thousands of Christians we’ve known and taught throughout the years, seldom have we met anyone who refused to share Jesus because they didn’t think it was important.

But stop us if what we’re saying isn’t true. Tell us evangelism hasn’t become equated in your mind with things that you find to be highly unpleasant, unnatural, uncomfortable.

For one thing, it’s been made to feel like public speaking. And almost everybody hates public speaking. According to a Gallup study, the only thing greater than the fear of public speaking for today’s adults is the fear of snakes—more than fear of heights, fear of flying, fear of spiders, fear of tight spaces, fear of anything.¹ Most of us would almost prefer dangling from the ledge of a tall building than to try giving the kind of talk we perceive as being a gospel presentation.

In addition, evangelism training has often been led by aggressive, extroverted instructors who, if they weren’t leading witnessing classes and seminars, would make really good salespeople, motivational speakers, or multilevel-marketing professionals. Each of these careers, of course, is noble work, but let’s face it: they typically require a certain kind of temperament or skill set in order for someone to be successful at them. And if that kind of person is not you—like that person is neither one of us—you’ll likely feel inadequate for the job. Whenever the evangelism method that’s being taught doesn’t work for every personality type, a lot of people are sure to feel a little freaked out.

Finally, many of the most prominent forms of evangelism training through the years have been heavy on techniques, strategies, and scripted questions that may work fine for “professional” Christians, but not for regular believers interacting with regular people. Plans like these are often not natural to implement. They mostly just feel intimidating. And so, rather than being an encouragement to go out there and share Jesus with others, such methods can unintentionally quash enthusiasm for evangelism by causing people to think they must be doing it all wrong, which only makes them more apprehensive and avoidant, more easily tongue-tied in trying to carry it out.

If this describes you, we feel your pain. The two of us have spent three decades in some of the same meetings and training sessions, learning about methods for sharing the gospel. Some have been helpful, but we have come out of a lot of those sessions thinking, That can’t be the ONLY way to do evangelism! Sometimes a method can seem forced or so complicated that normal Christians can’t imagine themselves ever actually sharing Jesus with anyone, much less a close friend or family member.

But evangelism doesn’t need to feel this way, where it’s one of those things you hate being expected to do. The first step toward becoming a Christian who shares Jesus without freaking out is to understand evangelism in a way that removes complications and makes it feel natural.

This book is about that kind of evangelism.

And in this chapter, we want to give you the first part of it. The type of evangelism we’ll be describing for you focuses on what you already possess simply by virtue of being a Christian. Or, as our Principle #1 says it, You have all you need to begin sharing Jesus with other people right now.

Think of it in three broad categories:

1. Evangelism is an overflow of the Christian life.

The most important requirement for learning to share Jesus is not a winsome personality, a tight presentation, or a well-developed plan. The main ingredient for sharing Jesus the way you were born to share him is simply a genuine relationship with him.

Evangelism happens within the regular rhythm of living with Christ yourself, of being an active participant in the gospel. The more you know him and enjoy him, the more you’ll enjoy sharing his story. When Jesus is the central figure of your life—when he determines what you value most, what brings you joy, what stirs your sense of justice, and what you’d fight to the death to protect—he will be what you talk about. If you’ll focus on just being a Christian, the ease of casually communicating Christ will start to come naturally.

Your identity in Christ is the basic starting point for evangelism—and yet it’s so easy to forget.

There are three reasons many of us forget the importance of our relationship with Jesus: distractions, difficulties, and disobedience. We live in a fast-paced society, and the circumstances of life can distract us from the gracious work of God in our hearts. We live in a broken world filled with suffering; it’s easy to allow difficulties to draw us away from his goodness. Finally, we all know the reality of our own sin. Our lives can be summarized as the apostle Paul summarized his:

I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. . . . For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. (Rom 7:15, 18–19)

Our own shortcomings and failures can cause doubts about who we really are. In the face of these facts, it is important to always remember this:

You are [part of] a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Pet 2:9)

As a Christian, you enjoy a relationship with God that he has designed for you. You are a chosen part of his kingdom. You’ve been “rescued” from the kingdom of darkness and delivered “into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Col 1:13). You belong to God and are known by him as his beloved son or daughter.

But there’s more. Having been delivered from your sins, you’ve become part of a royal priesthood, a job description that dates back to the rescue of the Hebrews from Egypt (Exod 19:6). God’s purpose for delivering Israel wasn’t simply to take them out of slavery, any more than his saving of you was solely to forgive you of your sins. He wanted his ancient people to enjoy and experience the kind of relationship with him that would give them the opportunity of helping others enjoy him as well. And so he declared them not just a kingdom with priests but a kingdom of priests.

Priests connect people to God. Priests share messages of hope and help with others. And you, as one of his modern-day priests, are in an ideal position to tell people how truly wonderful your God is.

You’re someone who knows from firsthand experience that the God of the Bible is not a terrifying God who’s out to hurt people, even incredibly sinful people. You know that the real enemy of humankind is sin, not God, and that God’s desire is to save people from their sins, giving them a new heart, a new hope, a new home.

It is this saving work, which God has done in your own heart, that equips you “so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9).

Now this discovery alone, we realize, is probably not enough to put you at total ease in sharing Jesus. You may be thinking you need a lot more than that. But God hasn’t left you all alone down here to figure out how to share him without any help. God himself indwells you through his Holy Spirit, who guides you, informs you, and empowers you to be his faithful witness in the world (Acts 1:8).

As if the knowledge of God’s presence with you is not enough, remember that God has given you even more: the gift of prayer, which provides you opportunity to communicate (and even commune) with God as he empowers you to become his unlikely vehicle for spreading the gospel.

Prayer, first of all, is able to shape your attitude about God’s mission. The praying Christian is one whose mindset stays anchored on spiritual matters and who increasingly thinks rightly about God. When you practice a lifestyle of prayer, you naturally become more sensitive to gospel concerns, which opens your spiritual eyes to witnessing opportunities you might otherwise miss.

Next, prayer shapes your attitude about people. Through prayer, you begin to see people as God sees them. Suddenly your neighbor is no longer just the person who lives on your street or in your apartment complex; he or she is someone for whom Jesus died and was raised from the dead. Praying for specific people grows your love for them enough that you want to share your Savior with them.

And so, because of who you are, you’re already enlisted and empowered to do this. The Holy Spirit within you will guide you into conversations, open doors for gospel interaction, and use those encounters to bring people to new life in salvation.

Like the priests of old, you—as a member of this royal priesthood—have been tasked with and equipped for delivering a message of God’s love, mercy, and grace to others. Not everyone will want to hear what you have to say, of course, nor will they all believe that the message applies to them. But your responsibility is simply the sharing. And everything you need for doing it is right there inside of you.

2. Evangelism is storytelling, and every Christian has a story.

You may have been a Christian for many years, or perhaps you’re relatively new to the Christian faith. You may also have tried any number of different methods or strategies to help you be better at evangelism. But establishing a lifestyle of sharing Jesus does not require new tools or techniques or even new skills. Think of it as simply retelling a story—something you already do all the time.

The reason you can tell a story, whether it’s the story of your first kiss or the story of your child’s first steps, is because you know those stories. That’s all it really takes to be able to share them. Being personally familiar with a story that you want to tell is why you can so vividly describe scenes from your childhood to your kids, or recount the events of your workday to your spouse, or jump into nearly any conversation on any topic by interjecting a story that connects with whatever’s being talked about.

Storytelling. That’s what evangelism really is. The gospel at its heart is the story of God reaching out to the people he made and enabling them to live in right relationship with him because of what Jesus Christ has done on their behalf. Every Christian knows this story. You know this story. Or if you don’t feel that you know it well enough to articulate it fluently, we’ll be talking about it so much throughout this book that by the time you reach the end, we trust you’ll believe that you can.

You also know your own story, your personal pilgrimage ...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Evangelism Doesn’t Have to Be Uncomfortable
• Chapter 2. Evangelism Is Storytelling
• Chapter 3. Evangelism Is Better When It’s a Conversation
• Chapter 4. Evangelism Is Contextual
• Chapter 5. Evangelism Listens to the Needs of Others
• Chapter 6. Evangelism Is an Announcement of Good News
• Chapter 7. Evangelism Is Best in Relationships
• Chapter 8. Evangelism Happens on Purpose
• Appendix I: An Evangelism Catechism
• Appendix II: Sharing the Story of the Gospel
• The Eight-Week Challenge
• Study Questions for Small Groups