*Guest article written by Jonathan Woodward, keynote blogger at Sorting Beans.

I can see with my mind’s eye the old fashioned street corners newspaper boys… “Attention everyone! Ladies, gentlemen, and all those near! The Exclusive is out! Hear how ‘Wimps for Christ’ were forced to share their faith! Read all about it!”

Indeed, wimps will face days when their greatest fears are met. Some of those wimps will be forced to fight, some to drive on a highway, some to speak to large audiences.

And then there are the other kind of wimps. You know them. To be sure, you are one of them. It’s the one’s who fear sharing their faith. Those kind of wimps. Do not worry, you are in good company. Good company, however, may challenge you at times. Read on.

I’ve seen “evangelists” who clearly have the “gift” of evangelism. They talk to a person for ten minutes and suddenly the person is bowing his or her head and receiving Christ. This baffles me.

I don’t have that gift.

And quite frankly, I don’t understand those who do. But to tell the truth, I envy them. You see, I secretly want what they have, because if I had what they had, I would be… here it comes…. successful.

But is this the point of our Christian witness? To be merely successful? Is all we are doing is simply ticking off numbers of converts to Christ?

No, no, it’s not. Our Christian witness is to be Christ in the world. But we fear, because we rely so much on our own efforts and ability. And the key word here is fear.

I recently read in a book, The Complete Evangelism Guidebook, about how many people are fearful of evangelism because of what has been made out of it. So much energy is put into making great successful, cultural missionaries that all the other Christians (the wimps) pale at the thought of “measuring up.” Here is what this author writes.

“My fear is that programs that were developed to enhance evangelism has now elevated evangelism to a level that intimidates most believers. . . . As we grow in our faith, we should grow in our ability to evangelize.”

Here, the author speaks about evangelism being a very intricate part of our faith. He speaks of a form of evangelism that does not proclaim from the street corner, but one that emanates from a deep faith and trust in Christ. This kind of evangelism is limitless in its expression.

But again, fear is the problem for many of us. And the author realizes this, and thus continues to remind his readers that Jesus is the answer to our fear. He writes:

“Light always dispels darkness. Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), and He will always conquer any fear we may have in sharing our faith. The challenge is for us to know Him in His fulness (17:3) and discover that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).”

It must be our constant reminder that our faith in Christ is directly related to the level of fear we experience. To the degree that we fear is to the degree that we do not trust Jesus in that area of fear.