Beau Crosetto - Beyond Awkward: When Talking about Jesus Is Outside Your Comfort Zone

www.IVPress.com/books

awkward: clumsy, inept, unskillful.

I cant think of a better word to describe many of my early evangelistic efforts than the word awkward.

I was a freshman in college when Jesus became real to me. I was so blown away by Gods grace and its power to change my past, present and future that I couldnt imagine keeping it to myself any more than I could imagine keeping the cure to cancer to myself. I had to get the good news out there so it could help the people who needed it!

With that unbridled motivationand having recently been through an evangelism training programI canvassed the University of Missouri campus. I stopped complete strangers on the sidewalk by asking them, Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today, you would go to heaven? After they stammered for an answer, I would counter with, Suppose that you were to die today and stand before God and he were to ask you, Why should I let you in to my heaven? What would you say? I ambushed hundreds of people with those two questions in my bungling enthusiasm. Unfortunately, each conversation left me with the feeling that I was actually turning more people away from God than toward God. I was an awkward zealot.

I was on the way back to Missouri from Oklahoma City on a road trip with my college roommate when we slowed the car to pick up a hitchhiker. Relieved to get a ride, he jumped in the back seat and introduced himself: Hi, Im Bill. My first thought was, I have a captive audience!

Within minutes I had turned our conversation toward spiritual things. I tried the questions again, Bill, have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today, you would go to heaven?

Bill admitted he didnt know that for sure. So I pounced on him with the second question: Suppose that you were to die today and stand before God and he were to ask you, Why should I let you in to my heaven? What would you say?

Bill thought and said, Cause Ive been a pretty good guy.

He had fallen into my evangelistic trap, and by the time we crossed over the state line and headed back to school, Bill had agreed to follow Jesus and be baptized. I was so excited that I told my roommate who was driving to take a detour to a local church where we baptized Bill before we even got back to our college dorm. I was on an evangelistic high!

However, the buzz only lasted till the next day when our wayfarer friend took twenty dollars out of my wallet and stole my roommates car. We never saw him again.

Bill didnt believe. Bill didnt say yes to Jesus. He had duped this awkward zealot.

I think that might have been the turning point. My enthusiasm for Jesus and gratitude for Gods grace didnt waver, but my evangelistic efforts went into a steep decline.

It was years later that I found myself leading a large church with a vibrant evangelistic mission of helping people find their way back to God, but personally keeping silent about Jesus unless someone asked me. At one point I came to the realization that I had lived on my street for seven years and never mentioned anything about Jesus to anyone. I didnt invite anyone to church. I didnt have any spiritual conversations.

I had unconsciously made a choice that I wasnt going to risk being an awkward zealot. Instead I lived in an awkward silence. And my awkward silence yielded the same results as my years as an awkward zealot: I was pointing almost no one to God.

Perhaps you find yourself feeling awkward in your attempts to share Jesus. Maybe, like me, you have been awkwardly zealous and have seen people turn away from Jesus and spiritual things. Or maybe you can relate to the awkward silence because you know what it is like to live or work near people who have never heard you say one word about Jesus. If either of those are you, then you have picked up the right book!

Beau Crosetto is the perfect person to author Beyond Awkward. Beau is a passionate and gifted evangelist who loves introducing people to Jesus. What Beau loves even more is equipping people like us who often find ourselves either overzealous or too quiet in how to share our faith. Beyond Awkward is a great handbook, by a terrific evangelist, that equips the rest of us to evangelize more effectively.

Beau challenges us to enter in to the awkwardness of spiritual encounters. He rightly suggests that all of us need to be prepared for those God moments, and he asks the poignant question: Who is just waiting for you to tell them about Jesus? In the pages to come you will discover your part and the Spirit of Gods part in every spiritual encounter.

Once you finish the pages of Beyond Awkward, you may never again find yourself acting as an awkward zealot or quietly living in an awkward silence. Through inspiring stories, practical tools and a strong dose of motivation you will be equipped and ready when you meet the person who is just waiting for you to share Jesus with them.

Dave Ferguson

Lead pastor, Community Christian Church

Spiritual entrepreneur, NewThing