Imagine starting a conversation about Jesus with a non-Christian relative, friend, colleague, or classmate. Do you feel eager, or hesitant?

While we may not like to admit it, most of us feel some hesitance. We are afraid of looking foolish or facing rejection. Rico Tice shares the following recollection:

In the week before my grandmother died, I did not speak to her about Jesus. I loved her, but I didn’t say anything to her. . . . Why didn’t I tell her about Christ? . . . I was afraid of what she’d say, and I was afraid of what my family would say . . . I loved myself more than I loved her and more than I loved my Lord. . . . When it came down to it, the hard truth was that I wanted my family to respect me more than I wanted to bring Jesus glory or see my grandmother saved. . . . I kept my mouth shut. (Honest Evangelism, 47–48)

Has this ever been true for us? The first step toward overcoming such sinful fear is to confess it, not just to ourselves but to our Lord (1 John 1:9). What is the next step?

The key toward overcoming our specific fear of personal evangelism is to remember the goodness of Jesus. If you are a Christian today, it is because his goodness invaded your life. Whether or not you remember the moment it all began, the wonder is the same: At some point God gave you the faith to put your heart in the hands of Jesus (Ps. 31:5). Then God put his Spirit in your heart (Eph. 1:13–14). You are not going to the hell you deserve, but to the heaven you don’t deserve—because God changed your destiny! How good is that?

Whether you are naturally extroverted or naturally introverted, more outgoing or reserved, all of us feel most comfortable talking about things we love and enjoy—things that we believe are good. Have we forgotten the goodness of the good news?

Cultivating a “Today Testimony”

How can we refresh our sense of the goodness of Jesus? We see the answer in one of the most vivid episodes in all the Gospel accounts: the time when Jesus was met by a man possessed by a legion of demons (Mark 5:1–20). Undaunted, Jesus casts this army of darkness into a nearby herd of pigs, who then rush down a hillside into the sea and drown. In the aftermath, the terrified locals “beg Jesus to depart from their region” (v. 17). Then:

The man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. (vv. 18–20)

Note the personal emphasis in Jesus’s command to the man: “Tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (v. 19, emphasis added). Jesus transforms the man’s painful, recent history into the basis for a powerful, personal testimony. “And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled” (v. 20). Everyone marveled, including the man himself.

Let’s ask ourselves these same questions: How has the Lord had mercy on you; how much has Jesus done for me?

Christians usually think of our testimony in terms of the question, “How did I become a Christian?” But this episode indicates that our testimony should also be a matter for today: Why am I still a Christian? What does believing in Jesus mean for me today? How has the Lord had mercy on me recently? Cultivating such “today testimonies” will cause our hearts to marvel afresh at the goodness of Jesus.

These testimonies also encourage and equip us for personal witness. As we think more about what Jesus is doing in our lives, we will think more about what he could be doing in the lives of others—and we will look and pray for opportunities to speak. And when God opens a door, we will have words to share that are warm, personal, and authentic.

Knowing the Times

As he sent out his apostles, Jesus commanded them to be “wise as serpents” (Matt. 10:16). Biblical wisdom includes understanding the times in which we live (1 Chron. 12:32; Esther 1:13). As we seek to bring good news to a lost world, it is therefore wise for us to understand the challenges presented by our age.

Within the past century, the background assumptions of our society have undergone a profound shift: the shift from a “fixed” to a “fluid” view of reality. (See Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, 39. He uses the terms “mimetic” and “poetic” rather than “fixed” and “fluid.”) Instead of assuming that the universe was created by God with a “fixed” order and a definite purpose, the acting assumption of our society now is that there is no God. If there is no God, the universe is simply raw material. Human beings, harnessing all the power that advancing technology puts at their disposal, are therefore free to shape this raw material to craft their own order and purpose. The meaning of life becomes a matter of individual self-expression.

The influence of this fluid view has not been limited to philosophical circles. As its influence has spread, our culture has shown an increasing willingness to erase distinctions (such as “male” and “female”) that have stood for millennia. A growing number of once-faithful churches have surrendered clear biblical teaching on gender and sexuality.

A particular challenge for evangelism is the way this fluid view has reduced the space for disagreement when it comes to moral or spiritual choices. If reality is just raw material, and if all people have the right to create their own meaning, then any failure to affirm another person’s chosen identity becomes a crime against their humanity. Why? Because it denies the fluid view’s most fundamental human right: the right of individual self-expression.

This emphasis on individual self-expression fosters an à la carte approach to spiritual life:

More and more Americans . . . envision themselves as creators of their own bespoke religions, mixing and matching spiritual and aesthetic and experiential and philosophical traditions. The Remixed hunger for the same things human beings have always longed for: a sense of meaning in the world and personal purpose within that meaning, a community to share that experience with, and rituals to bring the power of that experience into achievable, everyday life. But they’re doing it differently. . . .

Shaped by the twin forces of a creative-communicative Internet and consumer capitalism, today’s Remixed don’t want to receive doctrine, to assent automatically to a creed. They want to choose . . . the spiritual path that feels more authentic, more meaningful, to them. . . . And they want, when available institutional options fail to suit their needs, the freedom to mix and match, to create their own daily rituals and practices and belief systems. (Tara Isabella Burton, Strange Rites, 10)

It is also worth noting that such quests for personal authenticity are no longer limited by geography: “With the growth of the internet and globalization, it is possible for people to identify with incredibly exotic communities and lifestyles” (Alan Noble, Disruptive Witness, 78).

Yet for all its dark power, the fluid view has not eradicated humanity’s religious craving. The hunger for meaning, purpose, community, and ritual that even our non-religious neighbors experience is a hook for gospel conversation: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 115). Christians should therefore be aware of the fluid view as we share the good news today, but we need not fear it.

Maximizing Accessibility without Sacrificing Orthodoxy

The Apostle Paul asked the Colossians to pray “that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak” (Col. 4:3–4).

Paul knew that the content of the gospel would always be offensive to unconverted hearts (1 Cor. 1:18). In asking prayer for clarity, he was not seeking acceptability but accessibility. He would never water down the truth or sacrifice orthodoxy, but Paul wanted even those who rejected his message to understand what it was they refused.

Paul did not take this accessibility for granted. Even after years of experience, he knew it was possible that he might not make it clear—which is why he asked for prayer! As we seek to share the good news of Jesus, do we share Paul’s prayer and concern for clarity?

It is very easy for us to fall into using “Christianese” toward outsiders—words or expressions that are familiar to us but foreign to them. Do we even realize it? In light of today’s à la carte spirituality, we cannot automatically assume that our unbelieving neighbors share our definitions of even such basic ideas as “God,” “sin,” or “salvation.”

This does not mean we should discard important biblical or theological terms. It simply means we must be careful to define them. The catechisms of the Reformation did this (see, for example, Westminster Shorter Catechism questions 14, 33, and 35). For terms that we retain, we should develop and use simple, accessible definitions.

Our “today testimonies” should be expressed in language that is as free from Christianese as possible. This will not just make our witness clear to others; it will also make it clearer to ourselves: “If you cannot translate your thoughts into uneducated language, then your thoughts were confused. Power to translate is the test of having really understood one’s own meaning” (C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock, 98).

Making the Gospel Beautiful

The gospel of Jesus is not just news. It is good news. Our evangelism must show how the gospel is beautiful. Our witness cannot rest content with simply denouncing sin; we must go on to show why Jesus is better. The Apostle Paul noted that it was the “surpassing worth” of Jesus that enabled him to let go of lesser things: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

Imagine you want a dog to drop a stick. Do you grab the end of the stick and pull, or do you show the dog something that is more desirable—such as a Frisbee? What is most effective?

The same thing is true of every human soul:

The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness. . . . The heart is not so constituted; and the only way to dispossess it of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one. (Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, 46, 49)

This adds a third question for our “today testimonies”: Can we explain what’s so good about believing the good news? Why is living for Jesus better than living for anything else? “Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol. . . . If you uproot the idol and fail to ‘plant’ the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back” (Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 172).

Giving Others A Taste of Heaven

How do we put all this together in daily life? In a culture with so little space for exclusive claims, how do we meet and engage new people in spiritually significant ways? Or with people we already know, how do we move past “good morning” to sharing good news?

We must begin with prayer: prayer against our fear, prayer for the lost, prayer for open doors, and prayer for clarity and beauty in our witness. Do our churches pray for these things regularly and specifically? As individuals, we can pray something like this each morning: “Lord, help me to give others a taste of heaven in every interaction today.”

As OPC pastor Eric Hausler taught me years ago, most of us don’t need new contacts; we simply need to embrace the many contacts that already exist in our lives. The cashier at the grocery store, the clerk at the bank, the many individuals we encounter during our daily activities—rather than see them as landscape or machines, we should see them as souls with everlasting destinies. And rather than worry about what they will think, we should ask what God might do if we reached out to them.

How do we do this? Read name tags and greet clerks by their names. Seek to get on a first-name basis with people you see regularly, then look and pray for openings. For example, asking people about their tattoos is a proven way to start a conversation—even if you dislike tattoos.

The key to doing this well is to treat others as we would want to be treated (Matt. 7:12). When in doubt whether it is appropriate to press further or to introduce a spiritual element, ask permission: “Do you mind if I ask you a spiritual question?” “Would it be OK with you if I shared with you how my faith in Jesus connects to how I see this?” “Would you be offended if I offered you a tract?” Before saying something controversial, give permission: “You may think this is crazy or offensive, but I want to be open with you about what I believe. . . .” Following this Golden Rule in evangelism communicates “gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15), without compromising our integrity or the integrity of our message.

In times of cultural hostility, the most fruitful venues for evangelism are informal and personal. This is good news, because informal and personal evangelism is accessible to every Christian. What if, simply by being “friendly to people, liking people, and talking to people” about Jesus (as OPC pastor Eric Watkins puts it), you could be used by Jesus to bring new souls to heaven? 

The author is general secretary of the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension. New Horizons, March 2025.