Book Review: Share Jesus Without Fear by William Fay
This book review examines William Fay's Share Jesus Without Fear (B&H Publishing Group, 1999), an instructional manual designed to motivate and equip evangelical Christians in personal evangelism. The review covers Fay's background as a converted businessman, his three-part evangelism framework — including the "Share Jesus" questions, "Share Scripture" passages, and "Commitment" questions — and his central argument that obedience, not results, defines evangelistic success. The evaluation highlights the book's biblical grounding and accessible approach while noting its over-reliance on positive conversion examples as a significant weakness.
- Bibliographical Entry and Author Background: Fay's credentials and dramatic conversion story
- Overview of the Evangelism Method: Fay's obedience-centered approach to gospel sharing
- The Three-Part Evangelism Framework: Questions, Scripture passages, and commitment steps explained
- Handling Objections: Fay's guide to 36 common evangelism objections
- Critical Evaluation: Strengths and biblical grounding of the method
- Conclusion: Key weakness: over-reliance on positive examples
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What makes this paper effective
- The review maintains a clear organizational structure, moving logically from author background to content summary to critical evaluation, making it easy for readers to follow the argument.
- The critical evaluation is balanced, acknowledging the book's genuine strengths — particularly its biblical grounding and accessible framework — before identifying its most significant weakness.
- The writer connects the book's practical implications to its target audience, noting how Fay's presuppositions about biblical inerrancy shape the book's usefulness for different readers.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This review demonstrates the standard structure of a theological book review: bibliographical entry, author background, content summary, and critical evaluation. The writer effectively uses Fay's own statistics and claims against the book's examples, pointing out an internal inconsistency — Fay acknowledges most people hear the gospel eight times before accepting it, yet he primarily includes successful conversion examples. This use of an author's own data to critique their methodology is a strong academic move.
Structure breakdown
The paper is divided into four formal sections mirroring conventional book review format: bibliographical entry, author information, content summary, and evaluation. The content summary explains Fay's three-part system in detail before the evaluation section weighs its merits. The conclusion of the evaluation returns to the book's core thesis to measure how well Fay ultimately delivers on his promise to readers.
Bibliographical Entry and Author Background
Fay, William, and Linda Shepherd. Share Jesus Without Fear. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1999.
William Fay describes himself as a "sinner saved by grace." The author of Share Jesus Without Fear was saved while serving as the CEO and president of an international, multimillion-dollar corporation, which remains unnamed in all of his literature. Fay writes on the first page of his book, "I owned one of the largest houses of prostitution" and "was involved in racketeering, bookmaking and gambling… and I mocked anyone who dared share his faith in God with me."
Once he was saved, Fay left his business interests for a life of full-time ministry. He attended and graduated from Denver Seminary, where he met his mentor, Gordon Lewis, whom Fay credits with giving him a strong foundation in ministerial work. After graduating and being ordained, Fay served as the senior pastor of a church for many years before leaving that post to devote himself entirely to evangelism. He hosts a worldwide syndicated radio program where he encourages listeners — as he encourages readers — to share their faith with others.
Overview of the Evangelism Method
William Fay's Share Jesus Without Fear is an instructional manual designed to motivate, teach, and equip evangelical Christians in sharing the gospel. Fay instructs his readers to share the gospel through several steps: presenting God's vision for evangelism, explaining God's plan for salvation, and starting conversations confidently while addressing objections that people may raise.
Fay has developed a relatively simple, distinct system for evangelists to use during the course of everyday life to move any conversation toward the gospel, and he offers one central reason for doing it: obedience. One evangelizes because Christ commands it. Fay does not want his readers to be overly concerned with the results of their conversations, nor does he direct them to worry about whether a person makes a decision. Instead, he is concerned only with whether the evangelist is obedient to Christ's command.
The Three-Part Evangelism Framework
The no-fear evangelism plan is divided into three parts: five "Share Jesus" questions; seven "Share Scripture" passages; and five "Commitment" questions.
Fay is not promoting in-depth theological discussion. Each element of his method requires just one thing from the evangelist to be effective: silence. By saying nothing after posing a question, the evangelist keeps his own views out of the conversation and allows the listener's heart to remain open to the work of the Holy Spirit.
The five "Share Jesus" questions are designed to help a person reflect honestly on where they stand regarding life after death, and they need not come in any particular order. The seven "Share Scripture" passages are used to bring a person to the realization of their need for a Savior. The five "Commitment" questions then bring a person to the threshold of a decision.
Following these five commitment questions, if the Lord has been working and the person has responded, Fay suggests ten additional simple things to ask and say to the new believer. These comments and questions prompt the person to articulate what has taken place in their heart and reassure them that the believer who led them to faith is invested in their ongoing growth and discipleship.
Conclusion
The only notable weakness of the book is that it lacks negative examples — conversations that did not go as hoped. The great majority of the examples Fay uses end with the person being witnessed to accepting Christ. Yet by his own accounting, most people need to hear the gospel nearly eight times before they accept it. If this is true, Fay should have included more examples of people rejecting the gospel during a witnessing encounter, since this is a very real and common outcome and readers need practical tools for handling such rejection. When a believer puts the principles of Share Jesus Without Fear into practice, he or she may become quickly discouraged by a lack of acceptance. Fay does argue for the believer's success regardless of the response, but his examples are inconsistently positive for a book that claims the response is irrelevant.
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