Leadership Thought: The Two Greatest Obstacles to Sharing Our Faith

Dear Friends.

Two of the greatest obstacles to evangelism are fear and the absence of love.

Too often we are afraid to share the gospel because we fear we might offend the person. We are afraid of impacting our relationship. What if our friend not only rejects the gospel, but rejects us as well, and so out of fear we avoid the risk of speaking about Jesus.

The other reason is love. If our motive for sharing our faith is not based on a genuine love, the person will know it and may not be interested in hearing anything we have to say. This is the great danger of cold calling and street witnessing. If you don't have any prior relationship with the person to whom you are sharing your faith, the person will feel used, just an object who is simply another scalp for your spiritual belt.

Friendship evangelism provides a healthy context for your witnessing. If the person is your friend, and knows you care, he/she will be more willing to listen to what you have to share.

While fear is a great detriment to evangelism, I believe that lack of love is an even greater barrier to evangelism.

World famous magician  Penn Jillette possesses a unique perspective on evangelism.

Gillette, who proclaims to be a proud atheist, says he doesn't respect Christians who don't witness to their faith.

"If you believe that there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell and not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward...How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?  I mean, If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you, and you didn't believe it-but that truck was bearing down on you- there's a certain point where I tackle you, and this is more important than that.” Before You Share Your Faith, 5 Ways to be Evangelism, Matt Smethurst, pp. 53-54.

Whether as believers we refuse to share our faith for fear of impacting a relationship, or because we really don’t love people enough to tell them how they can possess eternal life, we stand guilty before the One who commanded His disciples “to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.”

May God forgive us when our lips are sealed, and our hearts remain frozen.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom