Book Review of Share Jesus without Fear

About the Author William Fay graduated in 1987 from Denver Seminary. He has shared his faith with more than twenty-five thousand people face to face, one on one. He travels around the world teaching them his approach to evangelism. Before following Christ he was CEO of a multimillion dollar organization that he claims was involved in a plethora of illegal activities.
Content
In Share Jesus Without Fear, William Fay presents us with seemingly a very simple, easy way to share the Gospel with non-believers, making it possible for anyone to be an evangelist, regardless of how intimidating a task it may seem. He spends the first few chapters addressing the reader’s fears and the successes of his methods. Then he goes into detail about the method itself. Sharing Jesus with no fear requires a three step process. The first step is to ask five questions that are designed to get a foot in the door. The presumption is that with these five questions anyone can turn any conversation into an opportunity to spread the word about Jesus Christ and what He has done. The Questions are; “Do you have any kind of spiritual belief?” “To you, who is Jesus?” “Do you think there is a heaven or a hell?” “If you die tonight, where would you go? If heaven, why?” “By the way, if what you were believing is not true, would you want to know?” (pg. 146) The idea of these questions is to turn the conversation and the mind of the person who is being asked to things eternal, so that the conversation can go into the realm of the spiritual. After the topic is brought up in conversation and the asker begins to field the five questions they are supposed to ask, “May I share some Scripture with you?” at which point they go into the seven scriptures that can change a person’s life. One of the keys to this method is silence. The person asking questions is not supposed to argue with the non-believer. In order to accomplish that it is a lot of listening and silence, and asking questions. The asker is supposed to have the non-believer read the verses out loud, and then the asker asks a follow up question. If the person reading gives any answer other than what the Christian desires, they are told to read it again. The Scriptures are Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, John 3:3, John 14:6, Romans 10:9-11, 2 Corinthians 5:15, and Revelation 3:20. Upon reading and asking the right questions the Christian is to read the five commitment questions with the ultimate goal of having the non-believer say a prayer that should seal their place in heaven forever. The five questions of commitment are; “Are you a sinner?” “Do you want forgiveness of sins?” “Do you believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and rose again?” “Are you willing to surrender your life to Jesus Christ?” “Are you ready to invite Jesus Christ into your life and into your heart?”(pg. 148) These questions are designed to lead into the non-believer committing their life to Christ. The author then proceeds to answer many of the questions that one may have regarding Christianity, challenging the believer to tackle them head on.
Evaluation
This book, this method, and methods like it are why there is currently a generation of “Christians” that believe because they prayed some prayer years ago they are saved and nothing can take that away. They do not know what this means, but faithfully go to church every Sunday morning. They have no idea the cost of being a follower. They do not know what it means to be a disciple. They see this as a way out of hell. Jesus said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord…then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers.’”(Matthew 7:22-23 NIV) Jesus was talking about believers who came to faith haphazardly or through a scare tactic like this and never understood what it meant to be a Follower of Christ. Fay starts this method off with a series of questions. The questions he presents quickly turn to a matter of heaven or hell. One can see the main idea is to point the conversation towards the eternal and therefore into the spiritual. In that context this may be acceptable. Unfortunately, it becomes abundantly clear that the main intention for these questions regarding the afterlife are to scare the non-believer about hell, therefore urging them to say the “sinner’s prayer.” This method does not create genuine fruit. Oftentimes it will turn people away and turn them off to the Bible and Christians. Fay gives no such example of this in his book, which is another major issue. Throughout this entire book Fay only gives examples of people who either came to Christ or eventually came to Christ. This is misleading to the reader, and gives a false hope. Undoubtedly if Fay has shared this way face to face to 25,000 people, he has turned thousands of people off to Christianity for good. The reader hears nothing of this only of the victories. Fay correctly points the non-believer towards Scripture. This is a commendable portion of this book, because surely God’s word has the power to change lives, and should be carefully considered as an effective method for sharing its message. Unfortunately Fay takes it out of context, seems to fail to read or take notice of important aspects, and then practices outright bad apologetics. To begin with the apologetics, Fay suggests that if the non-believer has any questions about the passage, the Christian simply has them read the passage again. This does nothing for the non-believer. The questions they have should be addressed to help them deal with doubt they will face later in life. Fay takes the final verse in this section out of context. He uses Revelation 3:20. This verse is written to the Church in Laodecia. The passage is Jesus talking to a church, to believers in Laodecia, not to unchurched Americans. This interpretation is not only wrong contextually, but also theologically. A person cannot come to Christ without the Holy Spirit already moving through that person’s heart and calling them to Himself. He does not have to “knock”. His presence in their heart is a necessity to the Salvation Process. On the subject of Scripture, nowhere in it is there any mention of a “Sinner’s Prayer” (pg. 148). That is not the salvation process described in scripture. Anytime someone approaches Jesus and asks how to become his disciple, he usually answers something like “Follow me” along with a command to leave everything we have or want or think we need, and to repent, meaning change directions in life. He never says “repeat this prayer after me.” The call to follow is a much more serious process. While Romans does say we must confess with our mouths, this is not the only step. If a person believes in their heart then they will show it in their life. Fay spends entirely too much time focusing on hell. It is an important subject and one that should be considered, but people should make the decision to follow Christ based off their understanding of His love for them and a desire to be in relationship with God, not based off their fear of dying in a car accident and going to hell.
This method does have a few positives. The follow up questions for new believers are legitimate and will result in some of the holes from this process being filled in, along with good follow up. However the main issue is that this process falls short of outlining the true nature of being a follower of Christ. Not only that but in today’s culture it more effectively pushes people away rather than draws them in. In today’s culture relational evangelism is the most effective method of spreading the Gospel. Fay does do a chapter on relational evangelism, so he is on the right track there. By doing life with people the believer is able to more closely emulate the life of Christ. There is a time for public evangelism, and that is seen in scripture. Throughout scripture when the Gospel is being spread one on one, it is not through a method like Fay’s, but through people doing life together, and naturally leading into the conversation of Jesus. This requires lots of conversations, lots of listening, and a lot of explanation. It also requires living a life loving and serving others. This is how you effectively share and show people what it really means to follow Christ.