BIOGRAPHICAL ENTRY
Fay, William, and Linda E. Shepherd. Share Jesus Without Fear. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Bill Fay can be seen in many lights. He is both an evangelist and a radio host. Before his salvation, Fay was CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation. On top of his day job, he owned a house of prostitution and many more businesses that were affiliated with the mafia.
Through trials and near imprisonment, God brought Bill Fay to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now as a Christian, Fay has a passion to equip others to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help them overcome their fears of sharing the Gospel. He has also witnessed to almost 25,000 people since becoming a Christian. This, in many respects, is his greatest credential. Fay also has authored many materials for Sharing Jesus Without Fear and is a graduate from Denver Seminary. Bill Fay currently resides with his family in Ft. Myers, Flordia.
CONTENT SUMMARY
Share Jesus Without Fear is a book that is like no other. It takes the Gospel message and teaches how to reach the lost in the most practical manner. The author of this book, William Fay, was very successful in the world’s view. Fay was a CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation and felt like he needed nothing, including God. Along with being a CEO, Fay also had ties with the mafia. He ran a brothel house including other businesses tied to the mafia. After a while Fay was finally arrested for his house of prostitution. After being arrested, Paul Grant, a man that had been witnessing to him for about a year, reached out to him again with the love of Jesus Christ. Paul and his wife Kathie invited him over for dinner one day and shared with him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has changed their lives. Later on, Fay reached out to his pastor that married him and his fourth wife. This was after being arrested and facing 8 years in prison. After this point, Fay accepted Christ as his Savior. Immediately after his salvation he began to witness to his daughter whom he had not seen in over 20 years. After witnessing to his daughter, he began to witness to the officers and detectives that had arrested him. Throughout Fay’s life, he has witnessed to over 25,000 people.
Chapter one of this book begins with a simple concept, “You can’t fail.” Whether a person responds to the Gospel in a salvation experience or not is irrelevant. Obedience to God in sharing one’s faith is more important than a result. If an unbeliever does not respond to the believer sharing their faith it does not mean that the believer failed. It means that they were obedient to God. A Christian sharing their faith has “nothing whatsoever to do with bringing anyone to the Lord. It has everything to do with obedience. Even if you don’t have the privilege to see someone respond, you have not failed because you were obedient” (pg. 3).
In chapter 2 Fay shares a startling statistic of Christians sharing their faith. He states that only five to ten percent of people in the American church have shared their faith in the past year (pg. 6). This means that the other 90 to 95 percent are drowning themselves in the sin of silence. Fay states that churches that made a choice not to reach the lost will die out. He also points out that “evangelism involves telling one’s friends how to go from the state of death to the state of life” (pg. 8). Christians do not need to feel like they have to have experience in sharing their faith in order to reach an unbeliever. They also need to realize that it is the job of every Christian to reach the lost, not just the pastoral staff. Every believer is commanded by God to share their faith with the unbelieving world. Fay also points out that it takes an average of 7.6 times of hearing the Gospel for an unbeliever to respond. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a command that all Christians must practice with boldness.
In Chapter three, it addresses the main rationale that Christians give for not sharing their faith. Many Christians believe that they do not have the gift of evangelism and as a result they do not have to witness to the lost. This is far from biblical. A believer is commanded in the Great Commission to evangelize to the lost (pg. 15). According to Philippians 4:13, God has equipped all believers in sharing their faith. The fear of rejection must be put aside and obedience to God must take priority. Many Christians believe that if they lead someone to Christ they have caused them to be saved, but in reality only God leads someone to salvation. If an unbeliever does not respond “they are rejecting Jesus and God’s Word. Therefore you did not fail in your obedience” (pg. 17). Believers must drop all excuses for not sharing their faith. When Christians remove the disobedient excuses in their life they grow more in their relationship with God.
Chapters four, five, and six really reaches the heart of this book. In these combined chapters, Fay introduces a method that he uses in reaching the lost. He starts out examining the “conversational joggers,” which is on page 30. Fay uses questions “to determine if God is at work and to see if their heart are open” (pg. 30). These questions can include, “What are the biggest problems facing women today?” and “Do you go to church anywhere?” Questions that can be used in “conversation joggers” can be found on pages 145-146. These questions help to lead to Fay’s sharing Jesus without fear questions. These questions include “Do you have spiritual beliefs?”; “To you, who is Jesus?”; “Do you think there is a heaven and hell?”; “If you died tonight where would you go?”; and “if what you were believing were not true would you want to know?” These questions are simple and practical questions in sharing one’s faith. They are meant not to be argumentative in nature. Also, these questions help to promote control when the believer is witnessing to the unbeliever. Fay also stressed the importance in listening to the unbeliever when asking these questions. After presenting these questions, Fay encourages the sharing of certain scripture passages with the unbeliever. These passages are put in a unique order. When presenting these passages the Christian would ask the unbeliever to read it aloud. After reading the passage aloud the person sharing their faith would then ask, “What does this say to you?” After sharing the passages the believer may have the opportunity to ask the five commitment questions. They are, “Are you a sinner?”; “Do you want forgiveness of sins?”; “Do you believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and rose again?”; “Are you willing to surrender you life to Jesus Christ?”; “Are you ready to invite Jesus Christ in to your life and into your heart?” These questions can be found on page 148.
Fay also gives practical advice when confronting objections. When the unbeliever gives an objection to the five commitment questions just ask them “why.” This will allow the one that is sharing their faith to filter out the multitude of objections and get straight to the unbeliever’s heart. Fay also helps by giving his “ready responses to common objections” (pg. 81). William Fay concludes his book with an exhortation to pray for the unbeliever. He presses the Christian to spend time in prayer daily for the lost (pg. 129). Along with praying for the lost, he encourages the believer to pray for God to open doors for an opportunity for sharing one’s faith. The Christian should also manifest a Christ-like love to the unbeliever that they might see Christ in them.
EVALUATION
When reading this book, one may notice that all of Fay’s stories always ended in positive success. The unbeliever always received Christ. This can be considered ironic since Fay stresses the notion that success is not based upon the response of the unbeliever, which is true, but he never stated when someone did not receive Christ when he shared his faith. If Fay’s purpose was to encourage Christians to share their faith despite the response, then he should have shared more examples of unbelievers rejecting the Gospel. The believer can be discouraged in reading only success stories and never really seeing the hardships of sharing one’s faith. Fay’s assessment is true that the believer is only successful in being obedient, but their needs to be a consistency with his examples.
Another negative aspect of this book was a story that is presented in chapter six. The story is about a boy that was in a severe car wreck and Fay had the opportunity to witness to him (pg.66). Fay only had about thirty seconds to share the gospel with the young boy before he was towed away in a helicopter. He asked the commitment questions and the boy could only respond with an “Uhhhh.” As stated before, Fay only asked the questions in about thirty seconds. Not a yes or a no, only an “Uhhhh.” After asking the questions without a clear response Fay states, “You see, if this groan came from the boy’s heart, then he was saved.” It is true that one can come to a salvation decision at their deathbed, but it should never be promoted to wait until then. Fay comes across when telling this story as if he boldly knew that this boy was saved. An “Uhhhh” is far from a “yes.”
Many Christians struggle in sharing their faith. This book provides a simple method for sharing one’s faith. The under arching theme of this book is a necessity for all Christians. All believers must be bold in sharing their faith without fear. Having fear is an invalid excuse for not witnessing to others. It is also disobedient to God. Fay’s simplistic methodology is biblically well supported. This method is one of many good methods in sharing one’s faith.
