Evangelism is a key component of Christianity. So why do so few Christians talk to others about their faith?
Chuck Lawless, a professor of evangelism, has come up with nine reasons why Christians don’t evangelize…
- Many don’t know what “evangelism” is. Many think its support of missions rather than a personal undertaking.
- There are few evangelistic role models. Lawless says when he asks his students about their models – many have none.
- Some church members aren’t convinced about lostness. He says an anonymous theological survey of your church might be a good place to start.
- Some churches provide no evangelism training — even passionate people sometimes need direction and equipping.
- Fear of the unknown halts our efforts.
- We’ve “gotten over” our salvation – that is, our passion for Him has settled into mediocrity – when that happens we won’t readily tell others about Him.
- Pastors aren’t taking the lead in evangelism. Lawless says you won’t find a strongly evangelistic church led by a non-evangelistic pastor.
- We don’t really know many lost people — meaning too many Christians are living in cocoons.
- We don’t care about non-believers. Lawless says, “If we truly believe that people need a personal relationship with Jesus, but we still keep that message to ourselves, how can we conclude otherwise?”