Anyone but Me, by Ray Comfort

Someone once said that the 2 things we fear most are public speaking and dying. I think we could add a 3^rd fear: sharing the Gospel.  There are probably a lot of reasons for that, but perhaps a main one is that we don’t know how. We don’t know how to present, and we definitely don’t know how to rebut the arguments, and we all know that there will be arguments.

So for those of us who go into panic mode at the thought of sharing our faith with someone—family, friend, or stranger—it’s nice to know that there are resources to help us. Ray Comfort has been in the business of telling people about Jesus for a number of years. He approaches people in the park, has written books, made movies, and has a YouTube channel where he posts regularly. In other words, he knows what he’s talking about.  And to make it a little easier for us, he’s written a book designed to shore up our confidence and help us to do our part to obey the Great Commission: Anyone But Me: 10 Ways to Overcome Your Fear and Be Prepared to Share the Gospel (Baker Books, 2020).

This book has 10 short chapters, and although he uses a lot of scripture throughout, a lot of his guidance seems to be based on a few verses from the book of Ephesians, which talk about the Armor of God.  Comfort tells us we should be loving, obedient, decisive, defiant, focused, prepared, truthful, practiced, faithful and prayerful. 

He often mentions how he uses the 10 Commandments to show people that maybe they are not quite as good and righteous as they may think they are, and he often refers to his YouTube Channel. But his biggest draw seems to be the dog in sunglasses that accompanies him on bike rides through the park

Although I like a lot of what Comfort has to say, I’m not sure that his technique is quite as easy for everyone to use as he seems to think.  Maybe after quite a bit of practice the masses would feel comfortable with approaching someone and immediately start talking about Jesus, but it’s going to take a while.  I would love to have that ability myself, but know I’m not there yet.  Comfort also has the advantage of an established YouTube channel, so he can ask people if he can interview them on camera, and he also invested several thousand dollars in gift cards, so if they say ‘no’ he can also give them a quick meal as an incentive.

This may be just the book that some people need to read to jump start their Kingdom work, but I don’t think that I’m in line to be the next Ray Comfort.

Disclosure: I received this book free from Baker Books through the Baker Books Bloggers program.

The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

3/5