{"id":166,"date":"2015-08-07T12:45:51","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T17:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=166"},"modified":"2015-08-07T12:45:51","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T17:45:51","slug":"conquer-the-fear-of-evangelism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2015\/08\/conquer-the-fear-of-evangelism\/","title":{"rendered":"Conquer the Fear of Evangelism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p>by Donald Whitney from <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/p\/spiritual-disciplines-for-the-christian-life\/9781615216178\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life<\/a><\/em><br \/>\nChrist made it abundantly clear that He is sending us to go forth (John 20:21) and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). While it is clear that as Christians we are to evangelize, why do almost all Christians seem to disobey that command so often? Nothing causes an eye-dropping, foot-shuffling anxiety more quickly among a group of Christians than talking about our responsibility to evangelize. In fact, I\u2019m sure I don\u2019t know a single Christian who would boldly say, \u201cI am as evangelistic as I should be.\u201d<br \/>\nSome of the fear lies in the seriousness of the gospel. We realize that in talking with someone about Christ, heaven and hell are at stake. The eternal destiny of the person looms before us. Many Christians feel unprepared for this challenge. They may believe that they need months of specialized training to one day confidently witness. That confident day, however, may never come.<br \/>\nWhat is success in evangelism? When the person you witness to comes to Christ? Certainly that\u2019s what we want to happen. But if we measure evangelistic success only by conversion, are we failures whenever we share the gospel and people refuse to believe? Was Jesus an \u201cevangelistic failure\u201d when people like the rich young ruler turned away from Him and His message (Mark 10:21-22)? Obviously not.<br \/>\nWe need to learn that sharing the gospel is successful evangelism. We are like the postal service. Success is measured by carefully and accurately delivering the message, not by the response of the recipient. The most powerful ongoing Christian witness has always been the speaking of God\u2019s Word by one who is living God\u2019s Word.<br \/>\nThe main idea I want to communicate is that godliness requires that we discipline ourselves in the practice of evangelism. The reason many of us don\u2019t witness for Christ in ways that would be effective and relatively fear-free is simply because we don\u2019t discipline ourselves to do it. Yes, there will be wonderful, unplanned opportunities for sharing the gospel in our lives. However, most Christians will seldom share the gospel if evangelism is not a Spiritual Discipline.<br \/>\nUnless we discipline ourselves for evangelism, we can easily excuse ourselves from ever sharing the gospel with anyone. You\u2019ll have to discipline yourself to ask your neighbors or co-workers how you can pray form them or when you can share a meal with them. Many opportunities will be missed if you are waiting for them to happen spontaneously. The world, the flesh, and the Devil will do their best to see to that. You, however, backed by the invincible power of the Holy Spirit, can make sure that these enemies of the gospel do not win.<br \/>\nRegardless of how shy or unskilled we may feel about evangelism, we must not convince ourselves that we cannot or will not verbally share the gospel. No matter how well we live the gospel (and we must live it well, else we hinder its reception), sooner or later we must communicate the content of the gospel before a person can become a disciple of Jesus.<br \/>\nTo go deeper in to this topic, read <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/p\/spiritual-disciplines-for-the-christian-life\/9781615216178\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life<\/a><\/em> by Donald Whitney.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Donald Whitney from Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Christ made it abundantly clear that He is sending us to go forth (John 20:21) and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). While it is clear that as Christians &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Conquer the Fear of Evangelism\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2015\/08\/conquer-the-fear-of-evangelism\/#more-166\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Conquer the Fear of Evangelism<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[190],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Conquer the Fear of Evangelism - The Disciplemaker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2015\/08\/conquer-the-fear-of-evangelism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conquer the Fear of Evangelism - The Disciplemaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Donald Whitney from Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Christ made it abundantly clear that He is sending us to go forth (John 20:21) and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). 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