Skip to main content

Share Jesus Without Fear - A Review

You've got to love an evangelism training book that starts with a chapter titled, "You Can't Fail."

I've been in ministry long enough to know that many don't share the gospel with others because they are afraid to fail. They are afraid of looking stupid. They fear making things worse by not knowing every answer or becoming argumentative.

But William Fay is right. When you share the gospel faithfully and define your goals appropriately, failure isn't an option. Fay's book, Share Jesus Without Fear seeks to help focus the willing follower of Christ's attention on the proper focus of evangelism while providing a method of leading the conversation that eliminates any and all argument.

Greatest Strengths

1. Fay's Method is Easy To Master and Implement Immediately.

Essentially, Fay lays out a strategy of evangelism that allows God's Word and the person you are sharing with to do all the work. In order to make this possible, the Christian needs to do a little preparation with their Bible ahead of time. Once this preparation is complete there is no need to do anything else other than bring it along so you have it when you need it.

2. There's Nothing To Memorize.

Evangelism methods that rely on memorizing steps and scriptures can be beneficial to some. However, many Christians get so nervous when they begin any witnessing conversation that their minds go blank. Even if a perfect method existed it wouldn't do any good if you can't remember it!

With Fay's method there is nothing to remember because everything is written down already.

3. The Person Being Evangelized Does All Their Own Interpretation.

I'm guessing I'm not the only person who has ever heard, "Well, that's just your interpretation... " while talking to someone about the claims of the Bible. Sometimes this statement is just a dismissal. Other times, these words can cause a verbal sparring match.

Neither is good.

Perhaps the strongest element of Fay's method is that it forces the person who is being evangelized to interpret the Scriptures for themselves. When Fay says his method eliminates any possibility for argument, this is why. At no point during the conversation does the Christian using this strategy ever have the need or opportunity to argue because the person they are speaking with is the one doing all the interpretation.

I have personally used this strategy with some people in my life who are particularly argumentative and I can testify to the power of letting them tell me what the Scriptures say, instead of the other way around. For this reason alone, I believe every Christian should be aware of how to use God's Word the way Bill Fay outlines.

Greatest Weaknesses


I like this book and method. Even so, there are some weaknesses that need to be mentioned.

1. The Scripture List

Fay outlines in chapter 5 the seven share verses for his method. I like all of these verses with the exception of the last one. I don't mean I personally dislike the last Scripture on its own ... I mean the Scripture doesn't belong at the end of an evangelistic encounter.

Fay himself acknowledges that some people think this verse is inappropriately used in his audio teaching. I am one of those people.

However, in the audio teaching Fay encourages people like me to make their own list of Scripture references. I took this advice and so have all of the men who I witness with regularly. After we all made our own lists individually we shared our share verses with each other. The whole group was edified as a result.

I'd recommend to anyone interested in using this method to create your own list of share verses using Fay's outline only as a suggestion. Doing so turns this weakness into a strength.

2. Can't Be Used With Everyone.

This method requires a very willing participant. Other methods of evangelism can be employed better in street evangelism when you can't get someone to sit down with you and read a bunch of verses from your Bible.

As such, this method is limited.

Nevertheless, most Christians do have many people in their lives already who they have never evangelized but who would be willing to sit down and chat with an open Bible between them. For those situations, this model works beautifully.

Concluding Thoughts

I love Bill Fay's passion for evangelism, for equipping the saints to share the gospel boldly and faithfully, and for God's Word. I truly believe that this method should be understood by every Christian so that they can learn how to unleash God's Word powerfully without any possibility of argument while evangelizing. Once the principles are understood, they can be adapted and grow with you as you live your life as an ambassador for Christ.


Comments

Popular Posts

Prayer vs. Petition

Q: What's the difference between prayer and petition? Phil 4:6 for example. A: An excellent word study question! When attempting to study words from the text it is necessary to analyze the word being studied in the original language (in this case Greek) as attempting to look up the words in English will often produce erroneous results. For example, in English the word petition has within its range of meanings things that are certainly not within the scope of meanings for the Greek word (i.e. “a sheet that is signed to demonstrate agreement with some principle or desire for some social action to be taken” is part of the range of “petition” but not of the Greek deesis from which “petition” is translated). The word most commonly translated as “prayer” in our English Bibles is proseuche , which appears 36 times in the New Testament (NT) in one form or another (for the purposes of this study, we are only examining the usage of these words as nouns – the verbal forms will not be

Smoking Hookah

Q: This week a young Christian talked with me about the practice of smoking Hookah. They attend a church [which] is reaching out to the many Indian and Muslims in the surrounding areas. Their church also have several ministries that support missions in India and Arab countries. As they spoke with me they said that many of their Christian friends are smoking the Hookah. They said that they have been told that certain types of Hookah smoking involve no tobacco but are simply flavored water, other types of Hookah smoking do include tobacco but in a ‘more pure’ form than that of cigarettes that have additives. The Christians that they know of who partake in smoking Hookah do not feel that there is anything sinful in this practice and believe that it is just a part of certain cultures as a way to relax and socialize. Apparently during certain celebrations some of these culture groups get together as a family and include smoking the Hookah together as part of the festivities. These Chris

The Church Isn't A Business

I used to be a salesman. I sold a lot of different stuff. I worked retail. I did door-to-door. In all my various jobs my function was essentially the same. I was the link between company and customer. Successful companies know their customer demographics. Many sales meetings revolve around numbers. Persons are treated as statistics. The customer becomes a set of numbers, preferences, and habits. Really successful companies cater their goods and services to a target demographic. It's all about the consumer experience. I remember when I began in pastoral ministry. People assured me that my experience as a salesman would be beneficial. They said there was a lot of overlap between pastors and salespeople. That may be true in our experience. But is it true of what we read in Scripture? When I open my Bible and read about Christ's church I see a beautiful design that is very different from a business. Night and day different. When Jesus walked the earth He rebuked those who

The "Jesus Loves You" Problem

Q: I've encountered a lot of teaching and Christians who believe that saying, "Jesus loves you!" is a valid form of evangelism. Do you disagree with this? If so, why? It seems like a loving way to reach out and to encourage those who are not believers. A: What a great question! There are certainly a lot of materials and teachings that encourage Christians to use the phrase, "Jesus loves you" as an outreach and evangelistic tool. Much of this teaching that I've encountered emphasizes following the lead of the Holy Spirit. It claims that the Holy Spirit will often lead Christians to say this to non-believers to encourage them and try and lead them to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Fourth Year Ministries does not teach or endorse this as a valid evangelism strategy. That's not because we don't want it to be valid! Truth be told, we would love for this to be a good practice for Christians. It would certainly open some more doors for us. I

10 Things An Evangelist Is Not

You've probably heard the term Evangelist before. Most people have. The term most likely brings something to mind. Sometimes positive. Often negative. Does your idea match what other people think of when they hear the term evangelist? More importantly, do any of these ideas match what the Bible tells us an evangelist is ? The truth is that most of the popular ideas about what an evangelist is and does are based on the culture, not the Bible. This is a problem. The cultural idea of an evangelist is so popular that it is beginning to be used by companies. If you go to popular job sites and put the term evangelist into the search bar you will find many non-church jobs looking for evangelists. Many of these positions include the duties of spreading knowledge about a particular company, product, service, or idea. The Bible tells us that Jesus gave some Evangelists for His church. And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as