How to be an Evangelist Even if it isn’t Your Gift

Last year, as an experiment, I shared the gospel with as many people as possible. I believed that if I shared enough times then I would no longer be afraid to share my faith.  At first I started by listening to peoples stories. Of course people thought I was such a nice Christian. However, I didn’t see anyone come to Christ so I tried the “give people the answers” approach. Now I know that many times people are afraid to share because they feel they don’t have all the answers. I can hold my own in an apologetical debate. However, from experience I found that not many people come to Christ just because I have all the answers. Finally, I was really fed up with my approaches so I decided to pray about the type of people I talked to. An amazing thing happened - in two weeks I saw four people come to Christ. I didn’t just listen and I didn’t give them all the answers. I simply shared the Gospel and they accepted Christ. However, I still have heart palpitations when I share.

People have so many excuses when it comes to evangelism. Such as - “You have to earn the right to be heard,” and, “I am not gifted in evangelism.” I want to ask - how do you know you’re not gifted? Why don’t you share your faith and find out if you really aren't  Excuses are another way of saying, “I am really freaked out about sharing my faith.” Let’s face it, evangelism is really scary. Doing evangelism is entering spiritual warfare. For me, all sorts of excuses will enter my head, people will be offended, and I will always be petrified. After I share my faith I find that the battle continues to rage in my head. These are lies that generally go something like this: “Erin, you really messed that one up, that person will never come to Christ now.” Sharing our faith is a step of faith. We don’t know what will happen but we must trust God with the results. For too long now the church has tried the “Earn the right to be heard” approach with terrible results. The church in the U.S. is in decline and it seems that people hate the church more, even with our “Let’s be friends first” approach. Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to his martyrdom, writes, “Christianity’s true power is discovered only when it is hated by the world.”

Recently, I was really encouraged by my grandmother. She unapologetically loves the Lord. She told me, “I told the Lord either use me or take me home.” She is 85, yet she wants to serve God more and more each year. My grandmother was a housewife most of her life. She hasn’t received evangelism training, yet she sees every encounter as an opportunity to share the Gospel. Recently she was feeling bored and lonely so she prayed that God would bring someone to the door or have someone call on the phone that she could share with. Shortly after that someone called on the phone so she shared with them. She is truly unashamed of the Gospel; in fact, she is so unashamed that she sees it as a form of entertainment. She shares on the train, with atheists on a plane, with the man taking care of her gopher problem, with tattooed, former drug addicts, and her neighbors. I told her that she is quite the evangelist and she said, “Well, I ask the Lord to give me opportunities.” Here I am a missionary, trained in evangelism, and her simple phrase taught me more about evangelism in one second than anything else I have learned. I really want to be like her with boldness and faithfulness to ask the Lord to give me opportunities to share the Gospel. Evangelism isn't about being gifted or having all the answers, it's about being faithful with our opportunities.{Tweet this}

About Erin

Erin Herbst gave her life to Jesus Christ around the age of eight and has been joyfully serving the Lord since that time.  Erin is happily married and has two young children with another on the way. She has been ministering to college students since 2004, with Master Plan Ministries. As well as being a wife, mother, and minister to college students she is also working toward a Master’s degree at Liberty University. 

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