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.
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.
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 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.
"Fay's guide to 36 common evangelism objections"
"Strengths and biblical grounding of the method"
Fay's aim is to convince his readers that, regardless of who they are or how much self-confidence they possess, they can "share Jesus without fear." He not only uses examples of previously hesitant Christians sharing the gospel fearlessly, but also shows true believers applying his method with all kinds of people — both well-educated and uneducated. Fay emphasizes the power of the gospel and maintains that the evangelist is merely a conduit for God, who is the only true "convincer."
Fay assumes his readers share his view of Scripture — that the Bible is to be read literally and conservatively. If a reader does not hold this presupposition, he or she will find little use for this book. For any Christian who approaches it with the same commitment to the inerrancy of the Protestant Bible, the book's challenge is sharp: if that reader has previously been silent concerning the gospel, the implication is uncomfortable. At one point, Fay questions what makes a "good" Christian, concluding that a good Christian cannot be silent. It naturally follows, then, that a reader who is not sharing his or her faith is, by Fay's standard, not a good Christian.
Fay's book is interesting in that it teaches something different from what many Southern Baptists emphasize. Fay teaches that as long as believers share the gospel, they cannot fail. This is not an entirely new teaching within the world of evangelism, but it is a desperately needed message within the evangelistic community. Every member of God's kingdom must see himself or herself as a steward of the mysteries of God — either a good steward or a bad one. According to Fay, most Christians are poor stewards.
One of the book's notable strengths is that it is thoroughly biblical. Drawing on the Word of God and pointed statistics, Fay emphasizes the necessity for every believer to live out the fullness of their faith. Christians, though they can acknowledge they are not responsible for the salvation of another's soul, should nonetheless feel liberated to tell everyone they meet about the gospel. Fay goes further, arguing that if Christians show their love of Christ through how they live and through their everyday conversations, they will attract people to Jesus through example. Success under the Fay method is straightforward: if they tell, they succeed. One hundred percent of Christians who verbalize the gospel succeed, because the goal is simply to tell.
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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