If I had a nickel for every time I wanted to share the gospel with someone but didn’t, I probably would have $5,643.
Seriously though, I’ve shared with you before what a chicken I am when it comes to sharing my faith with both strangers and family members.
But nevertheless, I’m committed to becoming a better evangelist every day.
So if you’re anything like me, you haven’t always obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit to share Christ with someone and you probably gave yourself some excuse.
These excuses will hold you back from achieving your true potential.
That’s why I’ve come up with seven pieces of advice to help you overcome all your excuses to evangelism.
Tips to Help You Overcome Your Excuses
Tip #1 – Don’t give in to your fear of rejection
We’re all wired to want to be liked and we absolutely hate it when we get rejected.
Whether you are passing out a gospel tract or whether someone politely tells you that they’re not interested, you have to just shake it off and move on to the next person.
They aren’t rejecting you, they are rejecting Christ.
Plus, don’t forget that there are tens of thousands of people everyday who walk the streets and malls and try to sell you stuff.
And Guess what? They get rejected sometimes too.
The only difference between us and them is that we aren’t selling anything, we are giving people a gift – a gift of eternal life.
Tip #2 – Find out which type of evangelism you feel most comfortable with
There’s all sorts of techniques when it comes to sharing the gospel.
My favorite is to take people down The Ten Commandments so the Holy Spirit can show them that they are sinners.
So what’s the best way to find out what method of evangelism works for you?
The answer is that you need to practice, practice, practice!
There’s no better way, trust me. You can read about the methods to evangelism all that you want, but you are only going to get better when you open your mouth and share the gospel.
Tip #3 – Stick to an outline or script
When you are starting out, you can easily get overwhelmed with not knowing how to steer a conversation.
That’s why I’ve shared before on how to get anyone to talk about eternity and I’ve even given specific questions that you can ask any person to bring up the subject of everlasting life.
If you can follow a specific outline of where you want to take the conversation, then you will be less anxious about witnessing to others.
Tip #4 – Learn the answers to the most common objections
“Always be ready to give an answer for the reason for the hope that is within you,” says the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:15.
Questions like these come up often:
- If God exists, then why is there evil and suffering?
- How could Adam and Eve have free will if God knew what they were going to choose?
- What about all the other religions out there, they can’t all be wrong, can they?
I’m going to be answering these questions and many more in future posts so if you haven’t subscribed to my blog, now is a good time to do that.
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Tip #5 – Learn to spot fake Christians
Not everyone that sits in a pew is a Christian and neither is everyone that tells you that they know God.
When someone tells you that they are a Christian, dig a little deeper to find out if they really know how to get saved.
You can check out the seven question that help you spot fake Christians. This blog post was one of last year’s most popular posts.
Tip #6 – Stay on target
When you are talking with someone about the gospel, its easy to go down a rabbit trail that leads you to nowhere.
Answering people’s questions can sometimes lead to arguments in which both you and the other person walk away frustrated.
That’s why you have to be able to answer other people’s questions but then ultimately bring it back to sharing the gospel.
After all, heated arguments leave you frustrated but the gospel is what gets people saved.
Tip #7 – Trust that God has gone before you
Jesus said in Mathew 28:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Without God, we can’t do anything but with God, there’s nothing that we can’t do. Tweet
When you trust that God has gone before you and has ordained for you to have divine appointments, then you’ll worry less about the results and you’ll enjoy your time.
The Bottom Line
There are so many excuses that we give ourselves as to why we don’t evangelize.
I’m an expert in excuses because I give in to them more than I like.
But if we are to be obedient to God and love our unsaved neighbors, then we must overcome our excuses.
What advice would you give the Not Ashamed of the Gospel community on how to overcome our excuses?
[image credit to Aaron Smith]
Comments 4
Nice Job Pete. Sharing the Gospel is what it is about.
Thanks so much Mirv! And I LOVE how you are sharing the love of God using social media, you are doing a great job on Facebook, twitter, and Google Plus 🙂
I’d just like to pass on another way to help spread the gospel and it’s simply this:-
Include a link to an online gospel tract (e.g. http://www.freecartoontract.com/animation) as part of your email signature.
An email signature is a piece of customizable HTML or text that most email applications will allow you to add to all your outgoing emails. For example, it commonly contains name and contact details – but it could also (of course) contain a link to a gospel tract.
For example, it might say something like, “p.s. you might like this gospel cartoon …” or “p.s. have you seen this?”.
Great post. Thank you for sharing this because Jesus did not make it a choice but a command