Share Jesus Without Fear - A Review

You Can’t Fail - Guaranteed

You’ve got to love an evangelism training book that starts with a chapter titled, “You Can't Fail.”

I’ve been in ministry long enough to know that many don’t share the gospel with others simply because they are afraid to fail. They are afraid of looking stupid. They fear making things worse by not knowing every answer or becoming argumentative.

William Fay knows this, too. And he is right. When you share the gospel faithfully and define your goals appropriately, failure isn’t really an option.

Fay's book, Share Jesus Without Fear, seeks to help people focus on the right thing. Followers of Christ must understand the biblical perspective on evangelism. Fay helps his readers to do that. What’s more, Fay also provides a method of leading and navigating the entire witnessing conversation — beginning to end — that eliminates any and all real opportunity for argument.

Greatest Strengths

1. Fay's Method is Easy to Master and Implement Immediately.

Fay lays out a strategy of evangelism that allows God’s Word and the person you are speaking with to do all the work. In order to make this possible, the Christian needs to do a little preparation with their Bible ahead of time. Once this preparation is complete there is no need to do anything else other than bring it along, so you have it when you need it.

It really is that simple. If you follow the method exactly as Fay outlines it, you can complete your prep time in under an hour. After this one-time initial set-up, you’ll have a faithful witnessing tool that will work for the rest of your life (as long as you remember to bring it with you!).

2. There's Nothing to Memorize.

Evangelism methods that rely on memorizing steps and scriptures can be beneficial to some. However, many Christians get so nervous when they begin any witnessing conversation that their minds go blank. Even if a perfect method existed, it wouldn’t do any good if you can’t remember it!

With Fay’s method there is nothing to remember because everything is written down already. For anyone who has ever been discouraged because they have a difficult time remembering methods they’ve studied in the past or because they tend to forget them in the heat of the moment, Fay’s method will be a breath of fresh air.

Even though it’s all written down in advance, it’s not like reading through a script. The method is inherently conversational.

3. The Person Being Evangelized Does All Their Own Interpretation.

I'm guessing I'm not the only person who has ever heard, "Well, that's just your interpretation...” while talking to someone about Jesus and the teachings of the Bible. Sometimes this statement is just a dismissal. Other times, these words can cause a tense verbal sparring match.

Neither is good.

Perhaps the strongest element of Fay’s method is that it forces the person who is being evangelized to interpret the Scriptures for themselves. When Fay says his method eliminates any possibility for argument, this is why. For the Christian using this strategy faithfully, there will never be a need or even an opportunity to argue because the person you are witnessing to is the one doing all the interpretation.

I have used this strategy with some people in my life who are particularly argumentative. In the past, witnessing to them had been a tense experience. I can testify to the power of letting them tell me what the Scriptures say, instead of the other way around. For this reason alone, I believe every Christian should be aware of how to use God's Word the way Bill Fay outlines.

Greatest Weaknesses

I like this book and method. Even so, there are some weaknesses that need to be mentioned.

1. The Scripture List.

Fay outlines the seven share verses for his method in chapter 5. I like all of his selected verses with the exception of the last one. I don’t mean that I dislike the last Scripture in its context. What I mean is: the Scripture he suggests doesn’t belong at the end of an evangelistic encounter.

In his free audio teaching, Fay acknowledges that some people think this verse is inappropriately used. I am one of those people who think the last verse is being inappropriately used. You can listen to his audio teaching for free by clicking here. While I agree with most of what brother Fay says, I disagree with his pragmatic approach to using a Scripture out of context simply because “it works.” I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to keep his list as-is or modify it like I did.

In the audio teaching, Fay encourages people like me to make their own list of Scripture references. I took this advice. So have all of the men who I witness with regularly. After we all made our own individual lists, we shared our share verses with each other. The whole group was edified as a result.

I’d recommend to anyone interested in using this method to create your own list of share verses using Fay’s outline only as a suggestion and a starting point. Making your own list of verses to share turns this weakness into a strength.

2. Can't Be Used with Everyone.

This criticism is probably true for every method or approach to evangelism. Nothing will work with everyone or in every circumstance. However, it seems that this particular method is more limited than most, from my perspective. The reason for that is simple: this method requires a very willing participant.

If someone isn’t very open to a conversation about spiritual things, this method is unlikely to get off the ground. If you do a lot of street evangelism or witness to strangers on a regular basis, this method may prove a little more difficult for you than using a tool like gospel tracts or The Way of the Master, for example. If you like tracts, check out our friends at One Million Tracts. You can also see our review of The Way of the Master here.

In situations where you don’t know someone very well, it may be difficult to get them to sit down with you and read passages of Scripture together. As such, this method is limited.

Nevertheless, most Christians have many people in their lives already who they have never evangelized and who would be willing to sit down and chat with an open Bible between them. For those situations, this model works beautifully. If you have people that you’ve tried to evangelize in the past, and you are skeptical that they will be willing to open a Bible with you, you may want to check out Tactics (reviewed here) as it may provide the tools you need to navigate conversations back to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While I doubt I’d ever use this (or any other method) exclusively, there are some situations where Fay’s approach works great. There are other situations where it seems to me it would be impossible to get started if this was my only approach to witnessing for Christ.

Concluding Thoughts

I love Bill Fay’s passion for evangelism, for equipping the saints to share the gospel boldly and faithfully, and for God’s Word.

I truly believe that his Share Jesus Without Fear method should be understood by every Christian so that they can learn how to unleash God’s Word powerfully without any possibility of argument while evangelizing. Once the principles are understood, they can be adapted and grow with you as you live your life as an ambassador for Christ.

I keep my witnessing Bible with me most of the time. I don’t always use it but it’s always ready when I need it. I am thankful for a method that produces so much fruit with such a small initial investment.