Liberty Theological Seminary

Book Critique 1

A Paper

Submitted to Dr. Gregory Faulls

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Course

Personal Evangelism

EVAN 565

By

Kristin Galloway

11 July 2010
Bibliographical Entry

Fay, William with Linda Evans Shepherd. Sharing Jesus Without Fear. Nashville, Tennessee:
Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1999.

Author Information

The authors of the book are William Fay and Linda Evans Shepherd. Linda Evans

Shepherd is an accomplished author on her own, as she has written several award-winning

books. William Fay is a graduate of Denver Seminary who has experienced a lot of real-life

lessons during his earlier years. A quick biographical sketch of William Fay showed that he

lived a fast life of sin, and that he was eventually busted for being involved with a prostitution

scheme. William Fay eventually hit rock bottom and from that point found his way to a true

relationship with Jesus Christ. William Fay now shares his series Share Jesus without Fear in a

variety of forms to include lectures, study materials, and even radio broadcasts. (pg. 195)

Content Summary

William Fay’s book is an encouragement written to help equip and empower people to

share Jesus with others. Fay's book uses the word of God to help the reader understand what his

mission should be and also gives resources that the reader can use to help take action and share

Jesus with those he comes in contact with.

In the first chapter, Fay gives a personal example of how he was living in sin and how he

was approached with the gospel. Fay explains that many presented the gospel to him, however

he did not actually convert upon hearing each and every message. Fay concludes that ultimately

these people did not fail, in that he did eventually made it to the place where he was able to

accept Christ. The message of this chapter is that success has to do with sharing your faith, not

bringing someone to the point to where they make an actual decision. (pg. 3) The second chapter
explains the importance of evangelizing and gives shocking statistics as to how many people are

truly witnessing. This chapter serves to get the reader onboard and excited about learning how to

witness. The third chapter serves to address the many fears and reasons that people use to avoid

witnessing. The fears listed are: I’m afraid of being rejected, I’m afraid of what my friends will

think, I don’t think I can share with my coworkers, I don’t know enough, I’m afraid of losing my

friends and relatives, and I don’t know how. (pgs. 17-26) Fay addresses each concern and

concludes by telling the reader to drop the excuses and to share your faith in order to experience

the ultimate level of joy that only God can give through being obedient. (pg. 27)

Chapter 4 shows the reader how to get started with witnessing and gives conversation

joggers and the Five Questions to use to help gauge the spiritual readiness of the person being

witnessed to. Chapter 5 shows the power of using scripture with someone that is ready to hear

the gospel. In this chapter, Fay shows which scriptures to use and shows how to use the

scriptures by following a basic script. Chapter 6 focuses on leading the person to God through

the decision process. There are 5 questions presented to use in the process and the process ends

with the person responding to the important question of inviting Jesus into the person’s life and

heart. (pg. 69)

Chapter 7 serves as kind of a follow-up chapter and presents 10 questions to present to

the new believer. Fay reminds us that new believers are like babies and that it is our job to help

make them disciples. The questions serve to make sure the believer clearly knows what just

happened, and to follow up with them to make sure they find a church, and to make sure they

have some type of Christian-network to associate with. This chapter also tells the person

witnessing to direct the new believer to start reading the Bible. Chapter 8 is kind of a trouble-

shooting chapter, and gives a list of objections and appropriate responses. Chapter 9 reminds us
of our commission and that we are not to hide from the world, but to go into the world. (pg. 115)

This chapter urges that we should build relationships with non-believers with the attempt to live

a lifestyle that truly shows who Jesus is. Chapter 10 is the final chapter and revolves around

using prayer. Fay gives a list of things that witnesses can use to help prepare for sharing Jesus.

This list includes a prayer for: opportunities, love, that others will see Christ in us, boldness, and

power. (pgs. 132-134) The chapter concludes with a section on how to pray for the lost and the

usefulness of prayer lists.

Evaluation

Fay succeeded in writing an everyday manual to help Christians realize the importance of

witnessing and to set them up for success by helping them to overcome their fears by giving

them the appropriate tools that they would need in their endeavor. Fay wants people to

understand that we are supposed to be witnessing and spreading the gospel, and it is Fay’s facts

and figures on the percentages of people who do witness coupled with Biblical scripture showing

what our commission is that well-served his goal. Likewise, one of Fay’s goals was also to make

sure that people fully understand what the commission is. Fay explained that we are not

responsible for making a new-believer, but that we are responsible for being obedient. Again,

Fay used scripture to successfully make this point. Fay’s main theme is very convincing as he

makes his points and backs them up with scripture and real-life experiences.

Fay addresses the issue of sharing Jesus with the presupposition that Christians will want

to be obedient to God’s command for us to spread the gospel and make disciples. Fay’s whole

case rests on the assumption that people will read God’s word and be obedient to it. Everything

that Fay says in his book rests upon this one hinge that people will jump onboard once they read
the Great Commission. Perhaps, and hopefully, this assumption proves true; however there are

many things that are in the Bible, that people refuse to abide by. For example just glancing at the

Ten Commandments, we see that we are not to lie or covet. How many times does a believer do

this even on a daily basis? I would hope that all would be convicted by the Word of God;

however I am not entirely sure that this is true as there are many other examples showing

otherwise. Despite this, Fay’s arguments are very logical and convincing. The use of personal

experience and a rather straightforward tone, gives the reader the feeling that Fay’s explanations

are real, and thus believable. This reader would point out though, that even though the reader

gains confidence in Fay’s explanations, there really is not a lot of documented evidence to

support his points; most points seem to hinge on Fay’s opinion or experiences.

Fay has several conclusions to his piece. For one, everyone should recognize their

commission and start to witness. Along the same lines, everyone should define success out of

being obedient to God and not by adhering to measurable outcomes, such as the number of

people saved. Fay ultimately reaches the conclusion that eventually people will accept Jesus.

Fay cites that it takes on average 7.6 times of hearing the gospel before someone is ready to

accept. (pg. 30) Therefore, Fay’s main conclusions are that Christians should recognize their

duty to evangelize, adhere to this stated goal by using his prescribed methods, and ultimately

people will respond when their timing is right (after about 7.6 times).

This reader found that this book is interesting in that it is very straightforward and

practical. The way that Fay presents his information via personal testimony seems awkward

after evaluation, however it is the way that Fay presents his information with such confidence

and scripture that grabs the attention of the reader and urges them to take action based upon his

presentation. One theological bias that this reader noticed involves Fay’s use of the 7.6 average.
Fay seems to believe that if someone is presented with the gospel a certain number of times, they

will eventually respond.

Overall, the book teaches readers that it is not that hard to be obedient and to witness to

someone. The techniques shared may seem complicated and lengthy at first glance, but the

processes are actually direct and detailed just enough to give those that are witnessing a sense of

confidence in the process. The book is good in that it is based upon personal experience and it is

admirable that Fay made it to Jesus and is now able to share his valuable knowledge with others.

It is unfortunate that Fay did not back up his statistics and numbers used throughout his

presentation, however this may not be too much of a hindrance as it seems that Fay was able to

gain the confidence of readers by sharing personal information about himself and his experiences

early on in the book.

This book should be a valuable tool and should be read by one who is already a believer.

It should not matter whether or not the believer is currently witnessing or not, as this book could

also provide new insights and methods for a seasoned evangelist. A person would be able to

implement these concepts into practice fairly easily as Fay has provided the questions to ask, the

responses to give, and even the scripts to use. This book could also be used in a class-type

setting and shared with a group to help teach others how to witness. This book greatly

contributed to this readers understanding of sharing Jesus without fear. The scripture references

confirmed my duty to evangelize, and the tools provided along with the personal testimony of

Fay showing that the tools work, also gave me confidence in the whole process.