As someone who has been in missionary work in the UK for over 35 years, I have noticed that the church and Christians have grown less confident in sharing Jesus with those around them.
Many fear being ridiculed by identifying themselves as Christians. This is nothing new; Christians have often suffered a fear of rejection because of their faith, thus the Apostle Peter’s exhortation in 1 Peter 3:15 to always be ready to give an answer to anyone who enquires about the hope you have within you.
But alas, the fear of seeming irrelevant seems to have grown to the point where gospel proclamation has all but disappeared. If it is that bad when thinking about reaching a neighbour who may be a nominal Christian, how much harder to preach the gospel to someone from a different faith or who may be strongly opposed to following Jesus – like a Jewish person?
