A short while ago, I found myself on a question panel being asked about how to share the gospel with our neighbours. Given it got floated in my direction, I gave the only answer I had on me: just get on with it. When I pressed to be “more helpful” and asked “how specifically” – maybe I was tired or maybe I didn’t have much more to add – I essentially said, ‘go up to them, start talking and tell them about Jesus’.

Clearly, whoever was asking the question (it was anonymous) wanted something more. But I stand by my answer. I know I am prone to it, but I really wasn’t being facetious. I did say that we really need to get over this idea that we must ‘earn the right’ to share the gospel. We don’t. We can just share the gospel. All we have to do is speak to people.

Here’s the thing, I think the damage of not doing that is far greater than any damage we might do attempting it cack-handedly. I would be far more concerned that a person who continues to think I am very nice and unassuming is heading to Hell than I am about making our relationship slightly awkward. Of course, I’m not aiming to make it awkward. I don’t want it to be awkward. But at the end of that day, I’d rather take the risk that it will become awkward because I shared the gospel than shied away from it and didn’t bother.

So I am being deadly serious when I say we just need to get on with it. We share the gospel by going up to people and telling them the gospel. Open your mouth and tell them about Jesus. There really isn’t much more to it than that. Our biggest problem is not that we don’t know how; it’s that we don’t really want to do it at all!