FEAR:
People fear they will be rejected by those to whom they witness. If they are not familiar
with evangelistic methods, they fear the unknown. They are afraid they will be
embarrassed by a situation they cannot handle or a question they cannot answer. Fear of
evangelizing often stems from questions such as these:
-What will I say?
-How shall I say it?
-How shall I deal with difficulties?
-What if I cannot answer a question? If you cannot answer a question,
admit it. Tell the person you will study more about it and get back to him
with an answer.
-What if I offend someone? What usually offends people is not honest talk
about God, but the pretense of having all the answers, anger, or quarreling.
If you are loving and honest in your approach and people are still offended,
then just remember: You are the salt of the earth. In the natural world,
when salt is rubbed into a wound it causes an unpleasant reaction at first,
but it results in healing. The same is true in the spiritual world.
-What if I fail? It is better to try and fail than not to try at all. Success and
failure are not the main concerns of evangelism. You are called to
faithfulness. Three types of failure are recorded in the parable of the sower
(Mark 4:1-20).
Mark tells us that it is the soil itself, prepared by the Holy Spirit, that produces the grain, not the sower.
This should not be used as an excuse to refrain from calling for
commitment, however. We are called to fish for the souls of men and catch
them, not just influence them!