As Christians, we've all experienced the fear, the hesitation, the discouragement when it comes to the topic of evangelism.

We want to share the gospel with our friends, with our neighbors, with our family members, who don't know Christ,

but all too often we can feel paralyzed and uncertain about how to actually do that.

My guest today is Max Stiles, and in our conversation, he helps to define what evangelism actually is

and offers advice for us as Christians as we seek to share the good news about Jesus with those around us.

Along the way, he shares examples about what it looks like to share the gospel well,

tips for actually doing that in a practical way,

and the story of the time that he tried to share the gospel

with Lance Armstrong while sitting in a Smashburg.

Mack Stiles is the director of Messengers Ministries Incorporated,

an organization that promotes healthy missions around the world. Mack and his family lived in the Middle East for over 20 years as missionaries,

and he's also the author of a number of books, including How Do I Get Started in Evangelism?

Which is part of the Nine Marks Church Questions series from Crossway.

Let's get started.

Well, Mack, thanks for joining me on the Crossway podcast today.

Matt, it's a delight to be here.

So when we think about evangelism, I would imagine that there are lots of different things that might come into the mind of a Christian.

Maybe we think about sharing our testimony with a neighbor in our backyard. Maybe we think about street preachers kind of yelling, yelling at people as they're walking

by in some big city. Maybe we think about handing out tracks to strangers in a park. I think that

all of that speaks to just the broad concept of evangelism in modern evangelicalism,

where we kind of have lots of different ideas associated with that term.

So I thought to start off, could you simply define what do you mean when you say the word evangelism?

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