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Why I Stopped Trying to Convince People to Become a Christian Like Me
And What I (Try to) Do Instead
As a young man growing up in the evangelical church, I was taught that if I didn’t convince people to follow Jesus, I was practically handing them over to Satan myself. Every good Evangelical had one duty: to convince as many people as possible to become Christians like us.
We called this evangelism.
And it wasn’t just a suggestion — it was a divine mandate. We were given tracts, trained in apologetics, and encouraged to seize every opportunity to “share the gospel.” From school hallways to family dinners, no interaction was too casual, no relationship too sacred to avoid the weight of eternal consequences. If we truly loved people, we would warn them about hell. If we remained silent, we were complicit in their damnation.
Of course, there was nothing more awkward to me than a contrived and forced conversation about heaven and hell with my school friends. So, I did what any self-respecting teenager would do — I procrastinated. But not indefinitely. I made a deal with myself: before we graduated, I would finally tell them the so-called gospel.
When I finally worked up the nerve to break the news to my best friend, Colin, at the end of my senior year, I was stunned to discover…
