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As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we feel a deep obligation to share the gospel. However, openly sharing our faith does not come naturally or easily.
Opening our mouths as member-missionaries often causes us to cringe with fear of rejection or an artificial shyness that is not part of our personality when sharing other aspects of our lives. For example, I have no fear when telling people about their legal rights. After all, that is what I do for a living. I also have no angst in sharing my favorite dinner recipe, or anything else that I find joyful or beneficial. But when it comes to opening my mouth about the gospel, I am much more comfortable sharing in my non-native second language. I can approach people in Spanish with zero inhibition about the Book of Mormon or the First Vision. But in my native English, my reluctance-meter shoots way up. Why is that?
Have you ever thrown your voice the way a ventriloquist does? Try it. By stepping aside from your own voice, you lose the fear of failure as you project through another. In a sense, this is the key to shedding our fears about opening our mouths and sharing the gospel. When we learn to project our thoughts and voice through the Spirit, we lose all fear because the Spirit–not us–becomes the teacher.
Here are three ways to allow the Spirit to become the teacher as you share your faith with others:
- Don’t force a gospel conversation. Let it develop naturally. As a gospel conversation develops around family, friendship, parenting or partnership, share how the gospel has improved your life and increased your happiness. Allow your neighbor to “taste” your family’s happiness. It is much more effective to share a luscious chocolate cake than to force someone to buy your recipe. Allow that delicious spirit to permeate the taste of the conversation by inviting others into the rhythm of your daily life.
- Forget about convincing anyone of the correctness of your beliefs. Since the Spirit is the teacher, why not allow the Spirit to touch hearts? The poignant emotions of love, belonging and the sense of purpose in a chaotic world are more powerful than all the scriptural logic you could ever share. Find the seeker’s emotional center and you find the way to their heart. That path begins with your genuine concern for others, regardless of whether they are interested in a gospel conversation. It is a path paved with charity.
- Know your goal. If your goal in sharing the gospel is to cause someone to “join your church,” you will be met with stiff resistance and even stiffer headwinds of social commitment and cultural clash. If, however, your goal is to see people the way our Heavenly Father sees them, you will help them see for themselves His eternal purpose for them. God wants His children to be happy, to make correct choices and to turn to Him when sin burdens peace. Everyone wants and needs to feel loved, appreciated and centered. Since the gospel does that in lasting ways, you have only to be an instrument in revealing, not detouring, the seeker’s path to God.
For those of you who remain shy about opening your mouth, be at peace. Like you, my wife and I have contributed to missionary efforts in various ways such as raising children who served full-time missions, being good neighbors, and trying to set Christlike examples in all we do. Continue to do that.
We occasionally invite friends to church or church-related activities. When those friends show interest, we invite them to hear the full-time missionary discussions. We are more successful when we do all of the above out of genuine love for those we fellowship and when we remain friends long after any gospel discussion, regardless of outcome. In summary: don’t force the conversation, forget about Bible bashing, and know your goal in guiding the seeker to his or her eternal identity with God.
