Why Don't We Evangelize?

Many people are fearful of evangelizing. 

Why don't we evangelize? Here are 5 of our basic excuses according to Mark Dever:

Basic Excuse #1: "I don't know their language."
Now, a language barrier is an impressive excuse. And it's got to be about the best on. If you're sitting next to people who only speak Chinese or French, you don't have much of an opportunity to share any news with them, let alone news about Christ and their own soul. Of course, you can work to learn another language and so be able to share with many other people. You can keep around Bibles or evangelistic literature in other languages to give away as you have opportunity. But ever since the Tower of Babel, the "I don't know" has been one of the most legitimate excuses we could imagine. Paul warns the Corinthians of the uselessness of speaking words that are unintelligible to someone (1 Cor. 14:10-11, 16, 23). After all, the whole point of our using words is to be understood!

Basic Excuse #2: "Evangelism is illegal."
In some places, evangelism is illegal. There are countries around the world in which tyrannies of darkness reign. They might be atheistic or Muslim, secular or even "Christian" (in name). But in many countries, sharing the evangelical gospel is forbidden. And it certainly is not to be believed by people who are not already confessing Christians! In such countries, you can usually go out and evangelize--once. It's the second or third time that might be prevented by social pressure, or laws, or jails, or guns. Not many of us reading this are probably in that position though.

Basic Excuse #3: "Evangelism could cause problems at work."
Even in countries where evangelism is legally allowed, many have jobs for which employers are paying you to get a certain amount of work done, and they have a legitimate expectation. During those work hours, it may be that our evangelism distracts people, or reduces our productivity, or does other things that can cause our employers valid concern.  We certainly don't want sharing of the gospel to bring us or the gospel into disrepute for any reason other than a disagreement with the message itself. We understand that everyone is, by nature, at enmity with God; but we simply don't want to give people other reasons to oppose our evangel. We dont want our evangelism to stand in the way of the evangel--the good news.

Basic Excuse #4: "Other things seem more urgent"
There is so much else to do in any given day. We've got to care for our families and plan for our weekend. The job has to be done, and the bills have to be paid. Studies, cooking, cleaning, shopping, returning calls, writing e-mails, reading, praying--I could go on and on about all the good things we need to do. And many of these things are time-sensitive. If I have a misunderstanding with my wife, I need to take care of that immediately. If the baby is crying, I need to get her home now. If the paper is due tomorrow, I've got to get the writing done right away. If we've got no food for tonight, I've got to do some shopping and cooking now. It is legitimate for me to make and fulfill many commitments in life other than evangelism. But do our other commitments sometimes become so numerous--or do we interpret them so--as to leave no time for evangelism? If we are too busy for that, what things are we managing to make time for?

Basic Excuse #5: "I don't know non-Christians."
Isolation from unbelievers may be the most common excuse for a lack of evangelism. This is the excuse of choice for mature Christians. When I'm honestly reflecting on my own life, I see that I have fairly few significant relationships with non-Christians. I'm a pastor. I'm not around non-Christians much as part of my job. I am busy writing sermons, counseling, planning, training other Christians, returning phone calls--even writing a book on evangelism! I'm generally unavailable to people except for my church members during the day or my family in the evening. I'm really absorbed with Christian relationships, and I think that I'm called to be.
But in cases like mine, how does evangelism fit in? If you're a young mother at home with her children, or an older Christian, retired and not easily able to build new relationships, then you, too, know something of this challenge. If you're a new Christian, you've probably been advised ( wisely ) to build new, significant friendships with Christians. And if you've been a Christian for a while, then you're probably busy with service in the church and spending your time discipling younger Christians. One of the best decision we can make is to pray and talk with a Christian friend about how we can legitimately fulfill our roles in the church, in our family, and in our job while also getting to know and speak with non-Christians.

So, which one do you see yourself using alot? Let us all strive to be more effective in evangelism. If you want to know how to battle these five excuses at their core, buy The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever on Amazon. The $10 spent for this book will be $10 you wont regret!