International (MNN) — Is it wrong to evangelistically share your Christian faith with someone? According to a 2019 Barna study, nearly half of Christian Millennials said yes.
However, Ron Hutchcraft with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says representing Jesus Christ is not optional for His followers.
“We are Christ’s ambassadors. Jesus reinforced that in Acts 1:8. He said, ‘For you shall be my witnesses.’ Notice He didn’t say you should go witnessing. Witnessing isn’t an activity. He says you’ll be. That’s who you are.”
(Photo courtesy of Tim Wildsmith/Unsplash)
As followers of Jesus, how one lives and talks is already preaching something. Do we talk about Christ with others who don’t know Him?
Hutchcraft acknowledges the practice of sharing your faith can be scary.
“I call it the riskiest obedience in the Christian life…. If I’m going to tell someone else about Jesus who may or may not want to hear what I have to say, that’s scary. There may be a price involved in that.
“So there’s a lot of fear in this. There’s a lot of a sense of inadequacy, that I don’t think I can do this. But I believe we’ve overcomplicated this [and] made it scarier than it needs to be because you are the very best messenger, God’s handpicked messenger for the people that you are involved with.”
Hutchcraft has a simple starting point for Gospel conversations. “The one thing every believer has is their story. It’s the one thing you’re an expert on because you’ve lived it and in what I call your hope story. Your story of how your life is different because Jesus is in it from what it would be if He wasn’t, the difference Jesus is making [and] has made in your life — that’s your hope story.
“One person is living proof that Jesus can change an angry person. Somebody else is living proof that Jesus can change a control freak. Somebody else is living proof that Jesus can take someone through cancer recovery and facing death. Someone else is living proof that Jesus can change a mom, a dad, a husband, a wife, [or] a lonely single person.”
(Photo courtesy of Jack Sharp/Unsplash)
You can find Gospel-sharing resources from Ron Hutchcraft Ministries here!
Then pray for the clarity and courage to be a faithful witness for Christ.
Header photo courtesy of Priscilla du Preez/Unsplash.
