Fear is sometimes called the mind killer by my father. It can take hold of us and stop us from achieving our most cherished goals. Many people deal with fear in different ways. Some people seem to never be scared while others suffer from chronic anxiety. When asked what it is that they are so worried about, sometimes it is claimed that they can’t put their finger on it, they just feel anxious.

Being in a social situation where we must interact with new people makes most of us a little uncomfortable. And this is normal. However, add to that the need to talk to these new people about something as personal and important as religion, and the fear level immediately goes up. Add to this the possibility of having to confront someone who may have been taught wrongly about religion, and letting them know in as loving a way as possible that they need to change their whole life, and the anxiety level can go through the roof. 

In order to avoid this fear we usually, much to our shame and eternal regret, choose simply not to evangelize. We would rather play it safe and just avoid the uncomfortable social situation that evangelism brings to us and opt instead to either talk about more neutral topics or not talk to the person altogether.

But this is not going to get the church to grow. We have a God-given duty to go into all the world and preach the gospel. This is not just the preacher’s job, a task to be farmed out to the local minister so we can sit back and rest easy. It is a task that all Christians are charged with, and it should be the focus of our lives. 

Realizing this, how do we overcome fear of evangelism? How do we get past our discomfort and become a soul-winner for Jesus?

We can start by realizing that fear can be used as an acronym. FEAR.

“F” stands for “Focus of God.” Heb. 13:5 says “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We must know first of all that God is always with us. This focus on God lets us know we are not small and powerless. We have the most powerful being in the Universe to help us in our times of need, so we need not fear.

“E” stands for “Eliminate the negative.” Phillipians 4:6-8 tells us to think on good things. It is very hard to be afraid when we are focused on good things instead of evil things. When we are focused on what is going right in our life it increases our sense of well-being and our confidence to be able to reach out to others. 

“A” stands for “Act in faith.” Military commanders know that action is required in life or death situations in the blink of a eye. Sometimes an opportunity must be seized and a decision must be made before the moment passes. In evangelism, there are moments when religion is brought up in conversation and we have an opening to tell someone something about the gospel. Are we using those moments? We must act in faith relying on our study of God’s word to help furnish us with the things to say in the situation, and know that God wants us to succeed in our evangelistic outreach.

“R” stands for “Remember Jesus.” He is our great example. He is the master Teacher. It is from His lips that we get the most wisdom and can find the right things to say for any occasion. He felt fear but went to the cross anyway. We too must feel the fear of talking to others about Jesus but push through the discomfort anyway. Souls are on the line. We must take every opportunity to evangelize so that we can help others get to heaven and go there ourselves. 

Finally, please do not let the fear of social situations or confrontations with others about their faith dissuade you from speaking the truth. If we speak the truth in love, people will respect us for it. The church of Christ is the Lord’s body and therefore let us all be busy members of that body bringing in the souls for the kingdom of God. 

– Kenny Barcroft