Evangelism Training: Avoiding Discouragement

The leading cause of evangelism discouragement is focusing on the results of evangelism rather than the task of evangelism.  When your evangelistic efforts don't result in conversions it can lead to discouragement.  Why?  Because we tend to focus on results.  The problem with this is that we cannot control the results of evangelism.  We cannot force people to convert.  There is no way to be so articulate, so persuasive, so intelligent, and so kind that people will always accept your message.  Even Jesus and the Twelve weren't that effective.  People must decide for themselves to accept the Gospel. 

The good news is that God only holds you responsible for sharing the Gospel, not for how people respond.  That's on them.  Therefore the key to avoiding evangelism discouragement and to becoming more effective is to focus on input, not outcome.  Focus on planting, not harvesting.  You can do this in several ways.

• Focus on the message:  Get better and better at sharing the Gospel with confidence, clarity, and brevity.  Educate yourself in apologetics so that you can answer questions about why you believe.
• Focus on the messenger:  Get better at sharing the Gospel with gentleness and respect.  Grow in Christlikeness so that you better adorn the Gospel.
• Focus on the volume:  You can't control how many people you save, but you can control how many people you try to save.  You can't control how people respond to the message, but you can control how often you share it. 

I once heard someone say that there are seasons of fruit, and seasons of root.  When you don't see any fruit, focus on the root.  Focus on input, not outcome.  Share the message, and leave the results up to God.