What do you think the greatest fear in the Western World is? Death? Poverty? Climate Change? For decades, the number one fear has been shown, in both the US and the UK, to be public speaking.
Does that surprise you?
Why is that?
Last time I wrote for Evangelicals Now, I discussed my love of horror. One of the classic horror stories is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It has been worked and reworked countless times, studied, parsed and deconstructed within an inch of its life. Several years ago, Mark Gatiss adapted this classic tale for the BBC (please note – this is not a recommendation to watch it) and provided it with a controversial ending.
In this BBC adaptation, Count Dracula is not actually unable to appear in mirrors, he has just convinced himself of this because looking in a mirror will force him to be seen by himself; he won’t be destroyed by sunlight, it will just allow others to see him. And he is not scared of crucifixes because they are somehow magical, but because in them is represented being seen for what we truly are, with all of the mess and all of the value, as well as all that in which he has lived in rejection of: sacrifice, grace and love. It is a profound ending and touches on something deep within all of us.
We are terrified of being seen.
To be precise, we are utterly petrified that if we are vulnerable and allow people to see who we are, they will reject or scorn us. If Dracula is not a mysterious and terrifying monster, then what is he? A frightened old man.
When we stand in front of a crowd, we expose ourselves, our ideas; our erudition all come under the scrutiny of large numbers of people and we might embarrass ourselves, we might be rejected, people might see us for who we are.
We all carry this fear to varying degrees most of our lives. We adapt our accents for the plumber, or we hide our tears from our colleagues or we go to church and tell people our relationship with God is great! We even hide those deepest, darkest parts of ourselves from those we treasure most: our spouse, our children, our parents, our best friends.
Last time when I wrote, I spoke about the need, in evangelism, to truly see others, this time I want to talk about the vulnerability to be seen.
Being seen
Evangelism costs something. It is embarrassing, counter-cultural and to many, deeply offensive. One place this is certainly true is in evangelism to Jewish people.
As a Jewish believer in Jesus myself, I have experienced profound fear of rejection. Fear that I will be rejected by my family, by my community, by my friends and seen as a traitor to my people and my heritage.
Let’s not underestimate this fear. The New Testament is full of examples of Jesus warning that those who come after Him will be rejected, sometimes profoundly. The reason Jesus warns us of this is because He knows it is incredibly hard to open ourselves up to this. Jesus said in no uncertain terms that we would experience persecution (Matt. 24), rejection from our tribe (John 16), and even from our family (Matt. 10)!
Being willing to be seen to be vulnerable in the pursuit of sharing Christ is hard, but noble.
Maybe you love Jewish people, and you want to share the gospel with them, but you’re not Jewish yourself. Maybe there the fear of rejection is around, "What if they don’t see my heart? What if they think I hate them or am antisemitic?"
This is a deep-seated fear within all of us. We are born separated from our Creator and so feel that deep need for connection. However, if we are believers, we have this relationship. The source of connectedness that the whole world is looking for – a relationship with the creator of the universe through Jesus Christ.
So, when you evangelise, be vulnerable – share yourself and your life with those around you. Do not fear rejection, but run to Christ.
Evangelism itself opens us up to criticism, but deep interpersonal evangelism of the type Christ did, where He shared His life with those around Him and was vulnerable with them, that type of evangelism opens us to an even deeper fear of being seen. It is not just us who have this fear but those with whom we seek to share.
In the cross, we are truly known, Dracula, the monster inside us, is seen. We in all our sin and mess are seen and valued.
We can open ourselves up to the possibility of rejection, because the King of the universe loves us and in Him, we live and move and have our being.
Do you see others as a means for your own gain?
I am a horror fan – I will admit it. I know Christians have mixed views on horror, but there …