What if I told you that 98% of believers are not talking to their family, friends, neighbors, or classmates about Jesus? Not 10%. Not 50%. 98%.

That number should stop us cold. Jesus himself said in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” If that was true when Jesus said it, how much more so today?

The Problem Is Real — And It’s Personal

I’ve been preaching for 48 years. In all that time, I have never once met a pastor who said, “Dennis, if there’s anything we’re knocking the ball out of the park on, it’s evangelism.” Not one.

I’ve checked every reputable survey I can find on this. The numbers started at 95% of believers never sharing their faith in a lifetime. Then 96%. The latest I’ve seen, out of Ray Kaufman Ministries, says 98% of believers are not talking to their family and friends and neighbors and classmates about Jesus.

That burden is what drove me to develop Every Believer a Witness — not because I had a plan to start a ministry, but because I was a bi-vocational pastor in Atlanta, Georgia, on my knees asking God a hard question.

The Prayer That Started It All

I was pastoring and working four days a week with Walk Thru the Bible Ministries with Chip Ingram. And I began to pray: “God, every pastor worth his salt has exhorted his people to witness. Yet most of them still aren’t doing it. Give me some insights into this.”

Guys smarter than me, more godly than me, wiser than me have stood in pulpits and pleaded with their people to share their faith. And still — nothing. So I asked God: why?

Reason #1: They Don’t Want To

The very first reason people aren’t witnessing is because they don’t want to. Think about this: as much as we have time, money, and energy, we all do what we want to do. There are hundreds of pastors who could have come to an evangelism conference but didn’t. You know why? They didn’t want to be there. It’s just a choice.

You know Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity? Doing the same thing you’ve always done, expecting a different result. If we continue the same methods of motivating and training our people to witness, we’re going to get the same results.

And I realized — it has to start on Sunday morning. As long as we do evangelism training on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, Wednesday nights, and Sunday evenings, we’ll reach more or less the same small group of people who were already motivated. The masses of the most apathetic people are there Sunday morning. If reaching lost people is really, really the heart of God — and it is — then let’s take Sunday morning to teach people how to do it.

Reason #2: They Don’t Know How

You can take doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and professors — people who are sharp and capable in every area of life — and they simply do not know how to share their faith. When Jesus gave the Great Commission, he didn’t just say “tell them.” He said “teach them” (Matthew 28:20). There’s a difference.

Most evangelism training programs require 10, 12, or 16 weeks of commitment. And the people who sign up? They’re already the ones doing it. The 98% who aren’t witnessing are not going to sign up for a multi-week course. So we have to make it accessible. Easy. Practical. And done on Sunday morning.

Reason #3: Fear — And It’s Bigger Than You Think

I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been preaching for 48 years, telling people about Jesus my whole life — and there are still times when I get a chance to witness and I’m nervous. Scared. You know what I mean — scared down there. So if I still feel it, imagine what the person in the pew feels every single week.

Fear is real, and it’s a massive barrier. But here’s what the Word of God says — “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). And God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

Those are truths. But we can’t just tell people these truths. We have to teach them how to overcome fear — practically, Biblically, and in the context of real life.

The Real Key: Witnessing as Conversation, Not Presentation

Lifeway Christian Resources surveyed 15,173 people and asked them 15 ways they would be willing to receive information about Jesus. 63% said they would hear a personal conversation with a family member. 56% said a friend or neighbor. After that? Nothing measured in double digits. Not the internet. Not billboards. Not special events.

We will never fulfill the Great Commission until people come to see that evangelism is best done in a conversation, not a presentation. People today can spot a canned presentation from a mile away, and they don’t want to hear it. But a conversation? That’s different.

The Apostle Paul actually gave us the outline for a personal witnessing story. When he stood before King Agrippa in Acts 26, he shared:

  • My life before Jesus
  • How I came to Jesus
  • My life since Jesus

That’s the framework we use — but we change the setting. Not a courtroom. Think about the ballpark watching your grandkids play ball. Walking the dog. Raking leaves. Riding the bus. The goings of everyday life.

How It Works in Real Life

Here’s the essence of it. When you share my life before Jesus, you don’t mention the Bible, God, church, or anything spiritual right away. You talk about where you grew up, your family, your likes and dislikes — just you as a person.

Then you transition into how I came to faith in Christ — and here’s the critical part: you have to have the gospel in it. If you don’t have the gospel, it’s not witnessing. It’s just telling a story.

Then you share my life since Jesus — the first immediate life change. Because if the God who spoke billions of galaxies into existence comes into your life, something is going to change. And then you go back to the everyday stuff — where you went to school, how you met your spouse, how God got you through a financial crisis or a health scare.

And when you finish, you simply say, “Tell me about you.”

That’s it. That’s conversational evangelism. And we want to be consistent and persistent — but never abrasive — in sharing the gospel.

The Missing Ingredient: The Holy Spirit

Here’s where so many programs miss it. Witnessing is not intended by God to be a program or a strategy. It is the natural overflow of the Holy Spirit. The average person in your church doesn’t see themselves as capable of leading someone to Christ. They might think you can do it. But not them.

That’s why, in Every Believer a Witness, we teach people how to witness — and then we say: if you want to see God at work, you have to be filled with the Holy Ghost. You have to be a clean vessel. We give an altar call with no music, no pressure — just the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And the worst response I’ve ever seen in 20 years? One third of the church comes forward. Most of the time, it’s the overwhelming majority — sometimes 100% of the congregation. Because at any given moment, most believers have sin in their life that’s a hindrance to witnessing.

Putting It Into Practice

So what do you do with all of this? Here are some next steps to consider:

  1. Pray for lost people every service — by name, specifically, consistently. I have five lost grandchildren — Amanda, Brad, Zachary, Lyle, and Grace — and I want people praying for them because I believe prayer makes a difference.
  2. Write out your story — your life before Jesus, how you came to faith, your life since. Make sure the gospel is in it. Keep it conversational.
  3. Start with a conversation, not a presentation. Look for everyday moments — at the ballpark, on the bus, at the dinner table.
  4. Be filled with the Spirit — because witnessing is the natural overflow of a Spirit-filled life. If your people are filled with the Spirit, they will talk about Jesus. There’s no way around it.
  5. Keep evangelism on the front burner. As a good friend of mine, Alan Taylor, once said: “If evangelism is not at the top of the list, it won’t be on the list.”

The harvest truly is plenteous. The labourers are few. But God can change that — starting with you, starting this week, starting with one conversation.