When it comes to evangelism, we often start with questions like:

• What evangelism method should I use?
• Does anyone know any good outreach ideas?
• Does our church have an evangelism strategy?

Jesus wants us to live a life of freedom “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1 NIV). When we become Christians, God’s desire is to set us free from anything that stops us from being the people God designed us to be. This life of freedom is not just freedom from sin, but freedom from anything that would hinder us.

The freedom that Jesus bought us includes not being enslaved or imprisoned by bad experiences or untruths about evangelism. Also, it means not being inhibited, feeling self-conscious, or bound by fear of people, what they think of us or how they respond to us. If you are struggling with evangelism, then there are God-provided truths and answers.

Jess’s Story
“At the beginning of the Eastgate School of Spiritual Life (ESSL) evening school year, I put the dates for the all-day Saturday events in my diary except for the evangelism one, because I was determined to be busy that day so I didn’t need to attend!

On Wednesday night before the Saturday, I attended ESSL as usual, even though Fiona was giving a talk about evangelism to help prepare the students for the Saturday outreach. I decided to go anyway because all the other talks had been interesting, even though I thought that evangelism is really not me.

During Fiona Gilpin’s talk, I began to get stirred in my spirit about the Great Commission, God’s dream, his heart for those who don’t know him and how he wants us to partner with him so we can share his love with those who are lost.

I realised that I needed to repent of my attitude because it was based on fear. After the talk, I spoke to Fiona and said I haven’t booked into the Saturday Evangelism event, but I really feel like I want to. Fiona said it was not too late and I was more than welcome to attend and join in with the outreach.

Saturday started to loom, and I began to have second thoughts about attending. I thought I could just turn up and if I felt really uncomfortable, I would just leave. I turned up and enjoyed the worship and teaching but was still not convinced I was going to go out and do the afternoon outreach. I was thinking that I would just sneak off after lunch!

I did decide to stay and got put in a group with one of Mark and Fiona Gilpin’s evangelist friends, Angela. I thought I would go out and just shadow Angela and the others in the group, secretly determined not to speak to anybody.

Angela helped make my group’s evangelism accessible, possible, and fun. Throughout the afternoon outreach, I found that God had gone before me and even though I found myself in evangelistic situations I had previously not chosen to put myself in, I was able to freely speak to people and share the gospel with them.

I still remember the outreach I did on the ESSL Saturday evangelism event. In all my years on earth, it was one of my best days ever and I just loved it! I am now enjoying evangelistic moments as I share the gospel with people around me in my everyday life.”

Watch Jess tell her story on our YouTube Channel:

Getting Free from Fear
You can be evangelistic and do evangelism without fear. We don’t have to do evangelism through gritted teeth and suppressing unhelpful emotions. His presence and his love can abide in us, so there is no room for fear. If fear stops you engaging in evangelism, you can ask God for his perfect love to drive out all fear.

The Biblical truth is that God “ has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV). If we see ourselves as beloved children of the God of love, fear does not need to dominate our lives.

The DASEL Course equips people to get free to enjoy evangelism, discover their evangelistic identity and recognise God’s invitations into evangelistic moments.