Facing down our evangelism fears

Christians have a wonderful message to tell the world. As the angel said at the birth of Jesus, it is “good news that will cause great joy, for all the people” (Luke 2 v 10). But at times we have been slow to take that message of forgiveness and new life to others.

Sometimes it’s because we have become distracted. There are so many things that can push the need to tell others from its central place in our calling as individuals and churches. We get wrapped up in our own church issues, problems and politics. Or we get sidetracked by the very real needs of our broken and hurting world, and expend our energies on dealing with the symptoms rather than the cause.

Sometimes it’s because we have lacked conviction. We look at people who seem relatively happy or settled in their own beliefs, and don’t think Jesus is for them. Or perhaps we have simply forgotten just how good the good news is, and how serious the consequences are for those who enter eternity unforgiven.

But sometimes it has been fear that has held us back from sharing the good news about Jesus. When we meet people whose culture, background or beliefs are so different from ours, we can draw back from speaking about our own faith because we are afraid of saying the wrong thing, unintentionally offending them, or getting into an unhelpful argument that leads nowhere.

Today, we're announcing the launch of a new series that is aimed at helping us think more clearly about how we explain the good news to others - and to help us overcome our fears in starting outreach to others from a very different background and worldview than ours.

We want to encourage Christian believers and whole churches to focus on our primary task of sharing the good news with the whole world. Each title aims to equip you with the understanding you need, so that you can build meaningful friendships with others from different backgrounds, and share the good news in a relevant and clear way.

The first two titles are to help us reach Hindus and atheists. We'll be sharing an extract of both on the blog over the next few days. Each book contains simple and clear help to understand their worldview, and to see where the gospel may have particular traction with them. In addition, there's practical help and guidance on particular scriptures to share with them, and testimonies of people who have come to faith in Christ from that background. The focus is on both personal witness, but also on how a church as a whole can reach this people group - because evangelism is a corporate activity for a local church, not just for specialist lone rangers.

It is our prayer that these books will help you share the story of Jesus with a Hindu or atheist neighbour, friend or work colleague and that the result would be “great joy” as they understand that Jesus is good news for them.