What's Holding You Back?

The following is an excerpt from Sharing Christ When You Feel You Can't.

What's Holding You Back?

I remember one of the first times I shared my faith with someone. I was a fairly new Christian attending Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia. As a member of the football team, I was required to go door to door witnessing (a prerequisite for anyone who wanted to play sports).

One Saturday I went door to door with Randy, a pastor's son and a junior in college who had done this sort of thing many times before. By the time we reached the fourth house Randy turned to me and said, "Okay Dan, the next one is yours."

I was so scared, I tried to refuse; but Randy insisted. We walked to the house and knocked on the door. When an elderly woman opened the door, I began my speech, telling her that we were going from house to house to talk to people about the Lord. When she heard that, to my surprise and fright, she invited us in, sat us down, and brought her husband to us.

To this day I don't know what I said. All I know is, when I finished I asked, "Would you like to open your heart to Christ?" To my shock, the elderly man said yes, so we prayed together.

As we were leaving, the woman pulled me aside, put her arm around me and said, "I've been praying for years for my husband to come to Jesus, but he's had no interest whatsoever. Today you came by and my husband to Christ. Thank you!"

I'll never forget that experience. Of course, Randy was a bit shocked and even impressed that the Lord used me, but no more than I was. If it hadn't been for Randy's persistence, I would have missed out on leading someone to the Lord-solely because of fear.

Afraid to Evangelize

Why is sharing our faith so difficult? What makes it so hard to give our testimony to somebody, to quote a few Bible verses to him or her?

What scares many people is the idea that we have to go down on the street corner, confront someone with the Gospel presentation, and keep prompting her until he or she prays the sinner's prayer.

Confrontation evangelism works for some people, but most of us are relational. That's why I like to do what I call conversational evangelism-establishing friendships, developing relationships with others, building bridges into other people's lives.

Still, we're all generally cowards when it comes to sharing our faith, even with those we know. I consider myself the Number One Chicken. Why are we afraid? Five reasons come to mind . . .

1. Fear of Failure
2. Fear of Rejection
3. Fear of Contamination
4. Lack of Skill
5. Not Seeing the Need

. . . Possibilities for building bridges exist all around us if we are willing to conquer our fears and allow a love for God and a love for people to flow through us . . .

* * * * *

Order your copy of Sharing Christ When You Feel You Can't and learn how to develop your own personal evangelism style.

Consider having Dan Owens come to your church or event for his seminar Building Bridges For Eternity. Call Eternity Minded Ministries at 805-460-0561 for more information or go to http://www.eternityminded.org/seminar.htm.

Copyright 2009 Eternity Minded Ministries