Fear What?

I remember reading some time ago that only 5% of those in churches are actually gifted as evangelists. (Do you ever wonder who works this stuff out?!)

At first I accepted this information as ‘fact’. Even though I didn’t know the research methodology, the figures seemed to ring true. Very few people claim to have passion and skill in the task of communicating the gospel to others particularly if it involves using a verbal message.

Yet I have been wondering why God would allocate such a measly percentage of the churches resources to such a significant task.

Why does God seem to ‘gift’ many more people with the skills of caring for other Christians, or singing on stage, or playing the drums than he does with evangelism?

Or could it be, as I suspect, that there are actually many out there who could be excellent evangelists if they were able to overcome their fears?

Some of you will know that the most commonly recurring phrase in the entire Bible is ‘fear not’. And for most Christians I would suggest that fear if often one of the greatest de-motivators in any attempts at sharing faith.

Now to put things in persepective, let’s recognise that this is not fear of persecution, fear of martyrdom or even fear of losing employment. Usually its fear that we might look silly… or people might think less of us… or we might feel awkward… or stumble over our sentences.

I can understand the fear of being burnt at the stake for your faith. I think I’d be a little scared too! But our fears just seem a tad insignificant by comparison. I will certainly accept that they are real fears and legitimate, but I hope we can also accept that sometimes we need to suck it up and get over ourselves.

In a world where thousands die for their faith, I genuinely ‘fear’ for a church that is concerned that it might feel embarrassed. Sometimes we need to regain some perspective on this whole issue and appreciate that what we ‘fear’ is really not that so terrifying.

Are we really lite on for evangelists?

I am not so sure…