Scared to Talk About Your Faith? You Don’t Need a Perfect Story

What You’ll Learn

• Let go of the fear that your doubts or your past rule you out
• Find a simple, natural way to tell your own faith story without it feeling awkward
• See how small things like a text, a hug or simply showing up can change someone’s life

Introduction

Maybe you believe in God but feel awkward talking about it. Or maybe you’re not sure what you believe at all. This page looks at what Jesus told his first followers, doubts and all, and why ordinary people with imperfect stories are exactly the ones he sends to share hope.

Is it okay to have doubts about God?

Even the people closest to Jesus had them. After Jesus rose from the dead, his followers met him on a mountain in Galilee. Matthew 28:17 says, “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” These were eyewitnesses. They watched him feed 5,000 people, heal the sick and raise his friend Lazarus from the dead. They saw him crucified, buried and alive again, and some of them still doubted.

Now notice what Jesus doesn’t do. He doesn’t shake them and say, “Come on, guys, wake up! What kind of numbskulls are you?” He doesn’t send them away. He gives them a mission and a promise instead. That’s really good news for anyone carrying doubts, worries or fears today. Jesus doesn’t cast you out. He sends you into a world that needs the same good news.

What is the Great Commission, and who is it for?

The Great Commission is the last set of instructions Jesus gave before he returned to heaven. In Matthew 28:18-19 he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus had already shown that authority over sickness, over demons, over sin and even over death itself. Then he does something surprising. He hands that authority to ordinary, nervous, doubting people: go, share, teach. And he closes with a promise: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Isn’t that good news? This mission was never meant only for pastors or professionals. It’s for everyone who follows Jesus.

Is mission something a church does, or something I do?

It’s easy to point to a church’s mission projects and say, “That’s our mission.” Those are worth celebrating. But mission isn’t merely something the church does. It’s part of who the church is. And if you follow Jesus, you are the church. Put that together: your life is a mission.

When Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), he was talking to people, not to a building. That mission walks out the door with you and runs into the people you see every week: neighbors, family, co-workers, yes, even your boss. The clerk at the store needs the same hope, the same grace and the same Savior you do. And sometimes God drops someone you’ve never met right in front of you. This good news is just too good to keep to ourselves.

Why do I feel so nervous about sharing my faith?

You’re not alone. Many of us think, “I can’t share my faith. I don’t like my story. I wish God had worked in my life some other way.” The Bible says God has already made the way. Ephesians 2:10 says we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Fear can still keep us from walking in it. That’s called a sin of omission: the good we leave undone. The answer isn’t to try harder out of guilt. It’s to remember that this doesn’t depend on our work or our feelings. It depends on what Jesus has already done. And here’s something to sit with: for the people in your life, you might be the greatest gospel they ever see.

Everyone serves something. What does it mean to serve the gospel?

We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, so most of us don’t love the word “servant.” But the reality is that we’re all serving something. The question is what. We can serve wealth. We can serve an addiction, whatever it might be. We can serve a sport, a season of life, or even our kids or parents in unhealthy ways.

The apostle Paul used to persecute Christians before God turned his life around. He found a different kind of service. In Ephesians 3:7 he writes, “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.” Serving Jesus and his good news is the one place where being a servant brings freedom. It’s a free gift, powered by God, no matter how you showed up today.

Do I need a perfect life story to talk about Jesus?

No. Look at how Paul describes himself in Ephesians 3:8: “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me.” Do you hear the humility? This came from a man who once worked against the very faith he ended up spreading.

God uses our whole story, faults and all, not just our strengths. Our weaknesses are often what connect us to other people, because they’ve walked in those same shoes and needed that same grace. None of us is perfect, so we get to walk alongside others who aren’t perfect either. As the pastor joked, plenty of us are thankful there weren’t smart devices around recording every dumb thing we did as kids.

How do I start sharing my faith without it feeling awkward?

Start with your own story, and practice it. Try finishing these sentences:

• God made me… (a son or daughter of God, a parent, a friend, a teacher)
• I am a man or woman given the gifts of…
• Jesus extended grace to me when…
• God’s generosity has afforded me…
• A light shines in my life through…
• God made me…

Notice that it begins with God and ends with God. These aren’t scripts. They’re starting points that help you get comfortable telling what God has done. Paul said the grace he received was meant “to make plain to everyone” what God was doing (Ephesians 3:9). As the pastor put it, if we can’t practice this in church, no wonder we can’t do it out there.

What does sharing my faith look like in everyday life?

Sometimes we make mission bigger and harder than it needs to be. Before the pastor left his last city, Lincoln, Nebraska, a young woman pressed her four-year Narcotics Anonymous sobriety coin into his palm and said, “Thank you.”

What had he done? He showed up. Week after week she’d hug him and whisper where she was: 30 days sober, one week, sometimes one day. Every day was a victory. He celebrated with her and prayed with her. That’s all.

So who can you show up for this week? Text someone after church: “I’m praying for you. I love you.” Be available to the new person who looks or acts differently than you, and love them as they are. You won’t do it alone. Jesus promises, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

Key Scripture

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”
Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

Jesus gave these instructions to followers who still had questions and doubts, not to people who had it all figured out. He sends ordinary people to share his hope with everyone around them, and he promises to stay with them every step of the way.