Sharing Your Faith Is Not Rocket Science

In a Sunday School class I used to attend the teacher one day asked a question: “Why don’t we share our faith?”

In one of George Barna’s surveys, he discovered that less than 5 percent of Christians ever share their faith. That’s a really low number and it begs the question, “Why don’t Christians share their fiath?”

Now the teacher asked the question to our class and got several responses. Then someone said, “Because we don’t know how,” and he lit up. It was evidently the answer he was looking for and he went on to discuss it at length.

We don’t know how.

That’s the leading reason we don’t share our faith.

So let’s dig into that fact a bit. Why don’t we know how to share our faith? Well, the leading answer might be that we have never been taught. Perhaps our church has never offered a class on “How to share your faith,” or if they have, most people have never attended such a class.

That would be the most obvious reason, but there may be many more. I think one of the leading reasons might be that we are just plain scared to. When I was a new Christian, the thought of sharing my faith literally made me freeze up with fear. I was afraid that I might be rejected or made fun of for my faith. Further, I was afraid that I would be asked questions I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know my Bible that well, and I thought if you were going to your faith, you should be able to quote all the verses on salvation. I didn’t know them and couldn’t say where they were found.

When I was doing Reach For More events, usually it was hard to get people to commit to mentoring a new believer.

There were two reasons: 1) They were too busy, and 2) they didn’t feel they knew their Bible well enough to mentor a new believer; they were afraid they would be asked a question they couldn’t answer.

I have told this story before, but for the sake of what might embolden you to share your faith, I will tell the story once more.

I was in Army boot camp in Fort Lewis, Washington. We had just arrived and were put into a large bay area for a couple days before being assigned to a unit. I was terribly shy and I was also a new Christian, just two years old in the Lord.

Successful Witness

Nearly all of the new recruits in the room were typical unchurched guys who seemed obsessed with telling dirty stories and cursing a lot in their gatherings. I was very uncomfortable with that, so I stayed to myself by my bunk, and took frequent naps to block out the foul conversations around me.

Word got around that I was a Christian, and on the first day, a 20-year-old atheist ambled over to my bunk and wanted to debate Christianity with me. I hated it. I wished he would just go away, but he wouldn’t. He just kept coming back to talk more.

Dale kept challenging me about my faith. I felt thoroughly ill-equipped to defend my faith on an intellectual level. I just kept defensively referring to my story, how I was very popular in highschool, but terrible unhappy and unfulfilled, having no real peace inside. Then God got hold of me, I surrendered to Him and my life totally changed.

On the whole, I was always back on my heels, trying to defend myself, but feeling I was failing to do so.

After just three days, we were assigned to our units and I never saw Dale again . . . not until many years later. Eight weeks passed, we graduated and were awaiting our next assignments. On the last day of boot camp, I received a letter from Dale. He was now at another location and he related his story. Because of my life, he wanted to tell me that He had given His life to Christ; he had become a Christian.

I was dumbfounded, surprised, amazed, and extremely elated. He had become a Christian because of my life? How could that be?

Well, the fact is that if you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit is present with you. He goes with you wherever you go. His presence is a shining light to unbelievers. They can’t explain that presence, that divine peace that is around you like a cloud. Because it is the very presence and nature of God, they are either extremely convicted of their sin, or they are attracted to the presence, and they want it . . . or both.

So, even if you are terrible at debating Christianity on an intellectual level, the presence speaks loud and clear, and God’s presence attract sinners. If they are open to knowing God, they many come all the way to surrendering their life to Him.

Dale and I never lost touch through the years. His children also became Christians, one of them served as a missionary for Youth With A Mission. Many years later, Dale and his wife, Marge, began supporting my ministry, and they still do to this day.

Witnessing is not that hard.

You just need to be yourself.

If the opportunity presents itself, just tell your story of how you came to Christ.

It will have power . . . much more than you might think.

At one time in my life, I took a job with an advertising agency. I was not watching my p’s and q’s. I was not always behaving like a Christian should and I didn’t try to hide it.

I was tired of being a “goody two shoes,” feeling like I was living in a glass bowl, everyone watching me to see if I was being a “good Christian.” I was tired of it and I began living carelessly.

In spite of my inconsistencies as a child of God, after a couple years the owner asked me about my Christian faith, about how important it was to me. He was sincere. He asked out of a searching heart. Shortly after that, he became a Christian.

If you are a real child of God, you can’t hide it, even if you try. The presence of the Holy Spirit has its effect on non-believers. Even if their are inconsistencies and weaknesses in your life, God’s presence in your life will prevail.

Many years later, my son was attending BMW Step School in Phoenix in preparation to work for BMW as a tecnician. When I arrived at his graduation, I learned that one of his classmates became a Christian as a result of Peter’s life.

Peter told me that he felt He had been failing to live entirely like a Christian should live. In spite of that, the presence of the Holy Spirit made a deep impression on his class, much to Peter’s surprise. One day, one of his classmates asked if he could go to church with him. Peter said that, “Yes, he could, ” and the two went to church. The following Sunday this boy went with Peter again and this time, he went forward at the altar call and gave his life to Christ.

Peter didn’t talk about his faith.

He just lived it and the Holy Spirit did the rest.

Don’t underestimate your influence to unbelievers as you live your life in the world. Just be yourself and the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

You see, it’s not so hard to witness for Jesus. You are a witness and a light wherever you go. Just be yourself and enjoy your walk with Jesus each day. You will never know how much impact you are making to those around you.

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In His Service

George and Lorraine Halama

Photograph taken by Lorraine – This photo was taken at the Space Suit Lab funded by NASA at the University of North Dakota. This suit is called the NDX-4 (North Dakota Experimental Planetary Space Suit)