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Overcoming Obstacles to Practicing Evangelism
Believers face a variety of blockages to fulfilling a desire to share their faith with unbelievers. Some are external, such as a things that take most of our time (like job and family). Some are internal, like self-doubt, or shyness.
A lot of believers, like to substitute evangelism with other ways of serving God, like befriending and helping others. These things can lead up to sharing their faith, but are not a substitute. We're going to look at some heavy-duty reasons below to help people who have difficulty evangelizing to regroup and re-motivate.
Hidden Pain
Pain we might have from the past related to evangelism can stifle or derail us.
If we carry too much pain baggage, and try to evangelize, it could turn unbelievers off, and cause painful memories for them as well.
Unbelievers' defensiveness toward us can sting and make it hard to maintain the enthusiasm to evangelize.
Inner pain like this can feel like a valid reason to put evangelism on hold. It is not at all a valid reason when it incapacitates us too long. We follow the greatest healer in the universe. There are ways to get healed of this kind of pain.
Some of the people we share with who have never heard the gospel, have other kinds of pain that we should take seriously and compassionately.
Pain avoidance is a basic human trait. When we evangelize, pain is not usually out of the picture. When we share the gospel, it is good to stay compassionate
In my opinion, hidden pain contributes greatly to the low statistics of Christians wanting to share the gospel.
Why do Christians feel pain of this type? It might be worth considering that believers have spiritual enemies, like satan.
Whatever God wants to happen, the enemy wants the exact opposite. The Bible says God is not willing than any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.'' -2 Peter 3:9.
Scripture also says satan has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. -2 Corinthians 4:4.
We can therefore reason deductively that satan wants people to perish, and prevent them from being saved.
Preventing salvation could be one of the enemy's greatest areas of focus. In which case, his primary weapon to stop effective evangelism is to cause Christians and non-Christians pain related to the gospel.
Fortunately, God is a healer and protector when we call on Him for these things. Therefore, we can learn to recognize the enemy's deceptive attempts at gospel prevention and retaliation on believers as no match to God.
If we ask God for the gift of faith, God will give it to us. We then can ask in that faith for Him to help us recognize spiritual attack, be shielded, be healed, and be trusting in Him to ''have our backs'' going forward.
What Role Does Fear Play?
It may surprise you, but the Bible does not present evangelism and fear as being incompatible with each other.
The apostle Peter said "sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give an anwer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear -1 Peter 3:21
I have nearly always felt meekness and fear in the midst of evangelizing. It is usually fear being overcome by love, and God's anointing. The Apostle John wrote that God's perfect love casts out all fear. -1 John 4:18
According to the context of the above passage, God is Love! The person who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in the person. Love removes fear. It produces boldness. It removes the torment associated with fear.'
Fear and boldness are not mutually exclusive in the Bible. This passage shows how the early Christians, who were experiencing great fear of persecution by Rome prayed:
''Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.'' -
''And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.'' -Acts 4:29-31
We have all heard of an extremely successful public speaker, or performer who gets intense stage fright just before a performance.
Many
of us realize such fear is not necessary, but we can relate to it and have grace on the person. This
is because we have personally known fear and its ability to take over. One
could even call it instinctive.
Sometimes instinct overreacts. The ''fight or flight'' instinct is one that more of us need to manage better. We need to turn the tables on the fight-or-flight promptings, and choose to fight against the fear itself. We can develop this as a new habit, rather than let fear overreact and hinder God's plans to overcome fear in us, especially to reach the lost. That is perfect love in action.
Overcoming
fear doesn't necessarily mean putting ourselves in danger. We can steer clear of circumstances that our fear
tries to guide us away from.
It
is within our ability to lessen fear by choosing situations of safety. In fact, it is a virtue to exercise prudence and caution when appropriate. Jesus exemplified this in -Mark 3:6-9 and John 6:15.
One way to deal with these fears is to approach evangelism
through a path that minimizes fear, but increases the spread of the gospel.
Sometimes, avoiding things that cause fear or pain can be healthy, as long it doesn't sideline us from being effective for Jesus.
Jesus tells us to ''fear not''.
This is not always an easy thing to do all at once. Fear-removal doesn't function like turning off a light switch. A gradually operated dimmer switch may take longer, while having the same results. Reducing fear one step at a time is true progress. It is not something to balk at.
How could Jesus be against evangelizing in ways that move us in the
direction of reduced fear a bit at a time? He knows it is better than the alternative: being frozen in our tracks.
Don't get me wrong, I do admire evangelists who never fear and never give up.
At the same time, I am aware of a sea of good Christians who would lead many to Jesus if only they could do so in a more spiritually and emotionally safe way. This approach could also mitigate over-extension and burnout.
Believers might call their reason for avoiding evangelism
something different, but it usually seems to contain an element of
fear if they're honest with themselves.
I don't remember what comedy I was watching, but two characters were talking. One told the other who was exhibiting a high level of fear, ''The only thing to fear is fear itself''. To which, the other responded, ''That's what I'm the most afraid of.''
The famous saying originated with Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was in the context of promising to help impoverished citizens overcome the ravages of the Great Depression. His point was: now that he was President, he would be able to promise a vigorous action to end the Great Depression. And therefore, any fear among the public doesn't help, it only makes things worse.
If we exercise faith that God will bring a vigorous action to protect us from fear in serving Him, it will lift our spirits as Roosevelt did for America in his inaugural address on March 4, 1933.
That promise of Roosevelt, materialized in the form of a significant uptrend in the employment rate for the following four years. It went a long way toward ending the Depression.
Likewise, if we develop lifted spirits about evangelism, we could see a significant uptrend in the world's ''salvation rate''. It could last for many years to come!
I said earlier that we can approach evangelism through a path that minimizes fear.
The place to start is prayer. An example is to ask God to give specific unbelievers a soft heart to hearing or reading the good news of Jesus.
We can also pray for protection by God in our endeavors to win people to Jesus. This dismantles fear. I have a saying, ''Take action. Pray."
This website and our gospel-sharing sites provide tools and ideas that can reduce fear in you when you use them prudently. My hope is that many people will overcome the fear and pain they experience, by means of using our tools.
If online messaging meant for non-Christians to hear the gospel catches on and grows, the percentage of believers who share the gospel can increase. We can take part in that dream.
Professionals have a term, "risk management." It served
me well over the decades of professional work. I tried to balance a healthy combination of risk and risk-avoidance.
Sometimes, God pushes us further into risk than we would have planned for. One time, I was in meeting containing high level corporate managers, and were discussing overcoming bias and bigotry in our management practices. Most of it was focused on minorities who had not been given a fair shake. I spoke up for two minorities that I represented: born-again Christians and racial Jews.
I shared the gospel with the whole group and encouraged them to see they needed to expand their view. That was a big risk, but one I felt God wanted me to take.
Unrelated to the above story, the Bible speaks about some people being ''enemies of the cross of
Christ.''
Hopefully, this site will reduce the ability of these enemies to target people who proclaim the cross of Christ in all sincerity. It can do so by increasing the voice of believers in the one medium remaining where we can each potentially say what we want about how to be saved to millions of people.
On the internet, it
is permissable for any Christian to be shielded from unsafe
and unscrupulous tactics that might be perpetrated against them.
The apostle Paul said: ''For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.'' -Romans 1:16
Without being ashamed of the gospel of Christ, it is possible to evangelize boldly at low risk. Doing so gives us the ability to use our freedoms and rights to speech and privacy. It also helps us avoid unnecessary reprisal in the process.
Over the years I have put in lots of time evangelizing in person-to-person scenarios or in public gatherings. I am always ready to do more of it, even if it leads to undergoing torture, betrayal, and imprisonment for the name of Jesus if it comes to that. What is the worst case scenario? I go to heaven! But I ''don't go around asking for trouble'', as the old saying goes.
I realize most believers do not consider it to be in their best interest to act like spiritual swashbucklers when sharing the good news, knowing it could set people off and paint a target on us.
If we notice we have fears about evangelizing, the first thing to do is examine them. Doing so is something like the process of problem solving.
Identify the fear. Determine if it is based on truth and probability.
Most people in the free world don't understand that in other places, a person is likely to be imprisoned or killed for evangelizing. That evangelist's kind of fear is based on truth and probability.
Conversely, many strong fears in our society are based on low-probability fear. If we determine specific fears are unlikely to materialize, we can determine they do not deserve the higher fear levels we attach to them.
Truth enters in when determining the validity of a specific fear. Is the fear based on something we know to be true?
Many people have fear that the world coming to an imminent end in some way. That fear is not based on any truth, or proof, only conjecture.
Just as in the story of Chicken Little, events triggered by fear and panic result in more pain than if the sky were actually to fall.
Beyond Fear and Pain to Other Issues
Once we've ruled out all reasons that contain lurking pain or fears, consider examining our hearts for hidden bad habits or inclinations. Some people disallow their cooperation with God's desire for us to evangelize, basing it on self-centered grounds. For example: ego, pride, anger, apathy, unforgiveness, sloth, rebellion, crustiness, negativity, or an unhealthy need to prove something about themselves.
Many of us fall into traps of prioritizing things higher than Jesus. This is not helpful to anyone. When we stop prioritizing God first in our lives, it deserves to be noticed and addressed. This is not a matter of letting ourselves be guilt-tripped. It is just common sense.
It is in our best interest to turn away from ungodly promptings that tempt us to avoid evangelism.
The Bible promises we will be cleansed of these things if we simply confess our sins to the Lord. -1 John 1:9.
Let us lay aside every weight and sin that so easily hinders us from running the race with endurance. -Heb. 12:1.
If a person has gone through the steps above with no avail, the next obstacle to consider is the possiblity that they could be subject to false teachings, misguidance, or impulses from thoughts planted by someone they looked up to.
It might help overcome these things if we make the principles prevalent in the New Testament our ultimate benchmarks for wise living.
Give well-intepreted scripture passages a higher mark of truth than the influences of others or even the whole society. Societal wisdom pales when compared to God's wisdom.
The world's non-Christian values, can blind us to the values espoused by God. We can even be so blind that we think we think we are doing the best thing by avoiding the act of lovingly leading people to Jesus.
It is good to turn away from any inclination that keeps a person from fulfilling one of the most basic desires of their Creator, to help Him populate Heaven.
This means we do well by maintaining a heart to grow the worldwide number of believers. Taking part in this is the job of every believer, according to Jesus and the other Bible writers.
It is good to turn away from any inclination that keeps a person from fulfilling one of the most basic desires of their Creator: to help Him populate Heaven. This means we do well by maintaining a heart to grow the worldwide number of believers. Taking part in this is the job of every believer, according to Jesus and the other Bible writers.
We fulfill our assignments. But technically He is the one who builds His kingdom. We plant seeds and water. We even encourage people to believe in Jesus, but then God does all the real work to enact salvation in the listeners.
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