I have a lot of admiration for those people who are especially skillful at evangelism. Likewise, I have a lot of admiration for those people who feel especially called to it. I sometimes marvel at how adeptly they are able to steer conversations to topics that matter and how easily they can get to Jesus from any starting point. It’s not that I won’t share the gospel or that I’m incapable of doing so, but simply that it feels so much more difficult and so much less natural when I do it. This should not be a surprise, though, or even a disappointment, since God gifts each one of us in different ways. It is good to admire and appreciate the gifts he has given others, though not to neglect or despise the gifts he has given us.
Preston Perry is one of those Christians who is especially passionate about sharing the gospel and especially eager to do so. He’s the kind of person who can begin a conversation with words as abrupt as “Hey. Do you believe in God?” and somehow have it not be weird. “Talking to people about God feeds me in a unique way. It is both a pouring out and a filling up. It requires me to give up some of myself, but at the same time, I don’t feel like myself when I don’t share my faith. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’ve accepted that I’m an evangelist at the core. There is a deep burning inside me to share the gospel with those who do not know it.”
How To Tell the Truth is a book that is both biographical and theological, both the story of his life and a means of instruction. He begins by describing his childhood summers at his grandmother’s house on the south side of Chicago. “Chicago’s south side was intriguingly tragic, a truth that was obvious to us even then. No two days in our neck of the woods were just alike, yet each day was related. Every day saw shoot-outs, fistfights, and police harassment. Living in the city in those days was like being trapped in a broken jukebox, one that refused to play the same song twice and skipped the song you selected, yet everything it played sounded the same.”
While at that time he wasn’t a Christian, his grandmother was. He knew her as a spiritual stalwart who “saw the goodness of the Lord everywhere she looked, her joy daily made full and then spilling over into praise shouts and singing throughout the day. Even though my cousins and I weren’t living like we should, she never preached at us or lectured. She just lived her faith out loud and prayed that God would chase us down and catch us before a bullet did.” Yet around him he saw token Christians, Muslims, followers of the Nation of Islam, and those who held to various cults. Many different voices were vying for his attention. Yet eventually, under the persistent and loving mentorship of a man who took him under his wing, he came to know the Lord.
Immediately, he felt a burning desire to share his faith with others and began to do so. Yet like so many young and zealous believers, he believed his task was more about argumentation than persuasion. He presented the truth of the gospel, but did so without love. It took him some time to learn that “as Christians, we can often believe the world is rejecting the truth we speak. But what if that’s not always the case? If you give someone a gift that’s in a garbage bag, they might not be rejecting the gift but the way you gave it to them. The gospel is the greatest gift we can give to the world. This is why the Lord cares how we deliver it.” A great change came over him when he understood this: “the way we do apologetics looks different when we are motivated not by our desire to conquer the other person but by our genuine love and compassion and by our desire to see people discover God’s life-giving truth. … apologetics isn’t about winning a debate. True apologetics is about honoring Christ as holy, loving others more than ourselves, and presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ in love.”
And that kind of apologetics, the kind that combines truth and love, that honors Christ while attempting to persuade another person, becomes the theme of his book. While the book remains biographical, it begins to teach both the why and how of sharing the Christian faith. It includes calls to become active in the task and calls to remain active in it, even when faced with rejection or discouragement. It includes calls to boldness, since “the way I see it, boldness isn’t about doing what you are afraid to do. It’s about doing what God is telling you to do. Boldness is more about obedience to God than being fearless before people. If we are convinced that God is someone worth following and obeying, please believe he can give you the boldness to say yes to him, even when it might cost you something.”
As someone who is an obedient but not particularly gifted evangelist, How To Tell the Truth proved interesting, helpful, and convicting. I think it has equipped me to better understand why I ought to share my faith, it has given me tools to do so, and it has helped me know what bold evangelism is all about: “being willing to put your social status on the line, your career on the line, your friendships on the line, and even your life on the line to proclaim the name of Jesus to a world that hates him. If we are going to fulfill the great commission and make disciples of all nations, at some point Jesus is calling us all to walk in some measure of boldness.”
