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Evangelism for the Rest of Us: Sharing Christ within Your Personality Style
Witnessing to strangers is fine for extroverts. But what about the rest of us?
Learn how
- Share your faith more comfortably
- Discover your strengths
- Define your personality type
The most common methods of evangelism are tailor-made for extroverts. But what about those of us who are less outgoing? We may be left with feelings of guilt for not stepping out and saying more, fear of letting others down, and the desire to become someone we're not deep down.
The problem, says Mike Bechtle, is not your personality, but that you've been taught methods of evangelism that push you too far out of your comfort zone.
In Evangelism for the Rest of Us , Bechtle shows you how to share your faith in more comfortable ways by helping you discover and define your unique strengths within your personality type. With fresh, biblical insight, this much-needed resource renews a passion for sharing Christ with others--because sharing the Good News does not have to be so intimidating.
Learn how
- Share your faith more comfortably
- Discover your strengths
- Define your personality type
The most common methods of evangelism are tailor-made for extroverts. But what about those of us who are less outgoing? We may be left with feelings of guilt for not stepping out and saying more, fear of letting others down, and the desire to become someone we're not deep down.
The problem, says Mike Bechtle, is not your personality, but that you've been taught methods of evangelism that push you too far out of your comfort zone.
In Evangelism for the Rest of Us , Bechtle shows you how to share your faith in more comfortable ways by helping you discover and define your unique strengths within your personality type. With fresh, biblical insight, this much-needed resource renews a passion for sharing Christ with others--because sharing the Good News does not have to be so intimidating.
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
76 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
February 27, 2025
I'm an introvert who was raised with traditional evangelical methods for evangelism, such as going door-to-door and witnessing to strangers on the street, and I've always felt guilty about my inability and lack of confidence in those things (striking up conversations with total strangers? yeah, right!). I appreciated this book for the logical connections it made between our God-given personalities and how we can most effectively influence others for Christ. It did not downplay or excuse the need to evangelize - it simply encourages readers to be more creative in obeying the command to share the gospel, keeping the function (witnessing) but adjusting the form to mesh with God-given strengths and skills. No book is perfect, and not all of the examples or techniques will work for everyone, but it definitely is a valuable read for those who struggle with 'traditional' (extroverted) methods of sharing the gospel. While we all need to overcome the fleshly desires for comfort and convenience, there is something to be said for working WITH your natural, God-given tendencies rather than fighting against them!
July 8, 2025
I enjoyed the pov of how to share within my personality style (introvert vs. extrovert), bc I always felt like I wasn’t doing it well because I wasn’t doing it like an extrovert. Turns out that isn’t the way God wired me and He has given me a different personality style, which also will change the way I share the gospel. This book seems solely for introverts though, sometime seeming like he dogs extroverts. I did appreciate that he summarized his thoughts on gospel sharing by saying that it no matter your personality style, we all still have a responsibility to share the gospel!!
September 16, 2024
This book is a lot like one of those online recipes where the chef gives you a memoir about their life before getting to the recipe. That being said, once you power through a slow beginning, this book becomes rich with great illustrations that emphasize or reinforce the Arthur’s main point, which is that the most important part about evangelism is function rather than form. As an introverted person, I was encouraged by this book!
January 8, 2025
I’ve been feeling lately like I should be doing more to witness to people, but as an introvert who also struggles with anxiety it can be scary trying to figure out how to approach witnessing. This book offers so much insight about how to use the tools we were given and how to use our personal strengths to best reach people. It reminded me that we are all made differently, but together as Christians we can combine our strengths and reach people with the gospel.
January 9, 2012
A book for introverts who want to share the good news, but are uncomfortable with the "right way" of doing things, as determined by our culture. Helpfully explores the difference between form and function, and emphasizes a focus on relationships, not salesmanship. Also points out that a single person isn't responsible for a non-believer, but rather it is a team effort, with each person playing the part they are uniquely suited for. Gives a handful of ideas and jumping off points, and offers some well related stories as examples to illustrate points.
March 16, 2015
This is a very helpful book for introverts who are not naturally outgoing, or are uncomfortable with going up to unfamiliar people and talking to them about Jesus. The author explains that God created everyone differently, and shows how to evangelize within your personality style. The book focuses more on building relationships with people, rather than using more forceful evangelism styles. The book was directed at introverts, but I think it would probably work for shy people, too.
July 9, 2008
You get what you see. This is written from the perspective of an introvert wondering what it meant to share the gospel when you don't feel comfortable sharing the gospel like Billy Graham to your friends or people off the street.
September 3, 2012
A really helpful book for those of us who have only ever been told about extravert ways of sharing your faith, and have struggled consequently to find alternatives that work with the personality rather than against it.
July 6, 2013
Great encouragement and advice for introverts to use our strengths. I gave it only 4 stars because the title is misleading: it really is written only for introverts and won't help other personalities.
January 26, 2016
I'd give this book 3.5 stars. Some good tips in here (others I've already known about), not only for introverts but anyone wanting to share the Gospel with others.
April 17, 2017
Excellent discussion of different ways to share one's faith, and to understand our strengths and weaknesses in doing so.
June 27, 2017
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. I thought there were great insights on biblical evangelism throughout the book. However, I have some qualms about the book as well.
First, I didn't like the first three chapters. I thought that the author was extremely repetitive about the distinctions between introverts and extroverts. He gave so many examples of what an introvert/extrovert looks like that by the end of the chapters, I was honestly thinking of quitting the book and I even regretted spending money to buy the book. I kept on thinking to myself: "There's a difference between introverts and extroverts, I get it. Please move on to the part about evangelism".
I also didn't like how the author kept on stressing the point about God making us the way we are, without emphasising that we also live in a fallen world and thus are naturally sinful people. So it's not necessarily always the case that "I was born this way because God made me like this", but rather, I might have been born this way, but, this can be the effect of the Fall. I know this point is ancillary, and I know that the author was just explaining how God made us either introverts or extroverts - but, if we have the attitude of "I'm the way I am because God made me like this", we can justify all sorts of sinful behaviour because "I was born this way" (e.g. "I'm naturally prone to be angry at others, but I have no intent on stopping because I was born prone to be angry").
Aside from that, I also didn't agree with the parts of the book which explained why people reject the Gospel. I would argue that it's not so much that people don't want to follow Christ because they're put off by other Christians, and they were somehow traumatised by failed evangelism attempts. Rather, people don't want to come to Christ because that's who we are in our natural state - we naturally hate God and we don't want anything to do with Him. It's only because of God's work in us that makes us responsive to the Gospel. We get this conclusion from reading Romans 1-3.
Nevertheless, this book was still good because of the way it emphasised God's work in evangelism. It's not us that converts other people, rather, it's God working through us (and other Christians) to lead people to Christ. We can't force people to become Christians. We shouldn't view people as merely a potential convert we can tick of our list; we shouldn't merely be Evangelist sales people who care more about alleviating our guilt of lack of evangelism. Rather, we should love other people and develop real relationships with them, then, a God given time will come when they will be receptive to hear the Gospel. That's the main message I got from reading this book and to be honest, that message alone was worth reading the book.
The author also emphasised that there's not just one way to evangelism. There can be different methods to evangelise (extroverts might for example be called to street evangelism, whilst introverts might be called to develop deep relationships with others before sharing the Gospel). Despite the various methods, we have the same goal which is to lead people to Christ. That's our main focus, so it's fine to be creative with the means to achieve the main goal.
I also like how the author does back up the majority of his points about evangelism with scripture, and I also liked how he provided real life examples of certain encounters he had with people to evangelise. I thought they were insightful and it was great to see his points illustrated in practice.
So, would I recommend this book? If you're an introvert, I would recommend it, if you're an extrovert, you'd probably be irked by many of the authors comments, but I would still recommend it for you to see what it's like for us introverts and the struggles we face with evangelism. Overall, this book isn't a must read, but it's still enjoyable. If you only want to read a few books on evangelism, there's probably better books out there. But if you love books on evangelism and want to get different perspectives from different authors, you definitely won't regret reading this book.
First, I didn't like the first three chapters. I thought that the author was extremely repetitive about the distinctions between introverts and extroverts. He gave so many examples of what an introvert/extrovert looks like that by the end of the chapters, I was honestly thinking of quitting the book and I even regretted spending money to buy the book. I kept on thinking to myself: "There's a difference between introverts and extroverts, I get it. Please move on to the part about evangelism".
I also didn't like how the author kept on stressing the point about God making us the way we are, without emphasising that we also live in a fallen world and thus are naturally sinful people. So it's not necessarily always the case that "I was born this way because God made me like this", but rather, I might have been born this way, but, this can be the effect of the Fall. I know this point is ancillary, and I know that the author was just explaining how God made us either introverts or extroverts - but, if we have the attitude of "I'm the way I am because God made me like this", we can justify all sorts of sinful behaviour because "I was born this way" (e.g. "I'm naturally prone to be angry at others, but I have no intent on stopping because I was born prone to be angry").
Aside from that, I also didn't agree with the parts of the book which explained why people reject the Gospel. I would argue that it's not so much that people don't want to follow Christ because they're put off by other Christians, and they were somehow traumatised by failed evangelism attempts. Rather, people don't want to come to Christ because that's who we are in our natural state - we naturally hate God and we don't want anything to do with Him. It's only because of God's work in us that makes us responsive to the Gospel. We get this conclusion from reading Romans 1-3.
Nevertheless, this book was still good because of the way it emphasised God's work in evangelism. It's not us that converts other people, rather, it's God working through us (and other Christians) to lead people to Christ. We can't force people to become Christians. We shouldn't view people as merely a potential convert we can tick of our list; we shouldn't merely be Evangelist sales people who care more about alleviating our guilt of lack of evangelism. Rather, we should love other people and develop real relationships with them, then, a God given time will come when they will be receptive to hear the Gospel. That's the main message I got from reading this book and to be honest, that message alone was worth reading the book.
The author also emphasised that there's not just one way to evangelism. There can be different methods to evangelise (extroverts might for example be called to street evangelism, whilst introverts might be called to develop deep relationships with others before sharing the Gospel). Despite the various methods, we have the same goal which is to lead people to Christ. That's our main focus, so it's fine to be creative with the means to achieve the main goal.
I also like how the author does back up the majority of his points about evangelism with scripture, and I also liked how he provided real life examples of certain encounters he had with people to evangelise. I thought they were insightful and it was great to see his points illustrated in practice.
So, would I recommend this book? If you're an introvert, I would recommend it, if you're an extrovert, you'd probably be irked by many of the authors comments, but I would still recommend it for you to see what it's like for us introverts and the struggles we face with evangelism. Overall, this book isn't a must read, but it's still enjoyable. If you only want to read a few books on evangelism, there's probably better books out there. But if you love books on evangelism and want to get different perspectives from different authors, you definitely won't regret reading this book.
June 25, 2017
An encouraging read regarding evangelism for those who fall more on the introverted side of the spectrum.
The title is a bit misleading; the book is really about evangelism styles for the introverted. Those who are extroverts would do well to consider the book also in light of how they treat and work with those who might be introverted both within the body of Christ and those without.
The author discusses, through his own path and experiences, the challenges he encountered in attempting to evangelize according to the "playbook" he was given. He came to recognize that much of what passes for evangelism strategy is tilted towards those who are naturally extroverted.
He does not seek to reject such methods for those for whom it works, but he points a way forward for those who are a bit more introverted to find ways to witness for Christ through writing, through the cultivation of relationships, and to ascertain how one's particular skills and strengths can be best used to advance the Kingdom. He points out that introverts might notice things others might miss, may prove more reflective and provide great counsel, and their contributions should not be minimized just because they do not reflect the strengths of the extroverted.
I find myself split on the extroverted/introverted spectrum but much of what the author says resonates with my perspective and approach. It was nice to be affirmed for what I am and not expected to become something I am not.
The title is a bit misleading; the book is really about evangelism styles for the introverted. Those who are extroverts would do well to consider the book also in light of how they treat and work with those who might be introverted both within the body of Christ and those without.
The author discusses, through his own path and experiences, the challenges he encountered in attempting to evangelize according to the "playbook" he was given. He came to recognize that much of what passes for evangelism strategy is tilted towards those who are naturally extroverted.
He does not seek to reject such methods for those for whom it works, but he points a way forward for those who are a bit more introverted to find ways to witness for Christ through writing, through the cultivation of relationships, and to ascertain how one's particular skills and strengths can be best used to advance the Kingdom. He points out that introverts might notice things others might miss, may prove more reflective and provide great counsel, and their contributions should not be minimized just because they do not reflect the strengths of the extroverted.
I find myself split on the extroverted/introverted spectrum but much of what the author says resonates with my perspective and approach. It was nice to be affirmed for what I am and not expected to become something I am not.
May 14, 2018
This is a very helpful book especially those who yearn to do evangelism and are introverted or shy. In the book there is a short test to see how introverted you are. I scored 57 points out of 60. That makes me over 95% introverted. It was very refreshing to know that even though I am introverted and struggle sharing my faith, I am not broken as some books claim me to be. God built me to be who I am, and made no mistakes when He did. If He built me as an introvert, then I need to work my evangelism style into that.
But make no mistake, we are to stretch ourselves and work out of our comfort zones from time to time, and that is a good thing. I have done witnessing on the street to strangers, and even open-air-preaching in front of thousands of people. But that's not where I am comfortable and I fight it constantly. He gives great advice on how to conquer fear, how Jesus shared the Father with others, and also how Satan and the enemy keeps us from thriving.
He offers up that us introverts just need to tweak how we do evangelism, and that the world needs introverts just as much as extroverts. That our style is just as important as those who are outgoing.
I really liked the book, and I encourage introverts, as well as Pastors and Evangelists to read this book. I wish he would have elaborated more on tips and tricks for introverts, and gone into detail when it comes to maybe a typical conversation. But it was so very close to 5 stars.
But make no mistake, we are to stretch ourselves and work out of our comfort zones from time to time, and that is a good thing. I have done witnessing on the street to strangers, and even open-air-preaching in front of thousands of people. But that's not where I am comfortable and I fight it constantly. He gives great advice on how to conquer fear, how Jesus shared the Father with others, and also how Satan and the enemy keeps us from thriving.
He offers up that us introverts just need to tweak how we do evangelism, and that the world needs introverts just as much as extroverts. That our style is just as important as those who are outgoing.
I really liked the book, and I encourage introverts, as well as Pastors and Evangelists to read this book. I wish he would have elaborated more on tips and tricks for introverts, and gone into detail when it comes to maybe a typical conversation. But it was so very close to 5 stars.
May 9, 2017
Evangelistic efforts have often been geared towards people who are more extroverted and comfortable with talking to people they don't know. In this book, Mike Bechtle makes the case that we will be best able to reach people as we embrace our God-given personality and love others from who we most naturally are. He sort of helps you discover that although the book mostly acts as a counter-way to the outgoing and extrovert-friendly ways the church has promoted for a few decades. If you're less comfortable with large groups and approaching strangers yet want to grow in loving others and learn how to naturally share your faith or introduce your friends to Jesus, this would be a good book to look at.
April 10, 2019
What a great book! It totally opened my eyes and relieved that pressure to operate as someone I am not! As an introvert I've read many books on bringing people to Jesus and would gulp and choke before even getting around to opening my mouth! This book shares simple tips from introvert to extrovert. Love it. We need to remember that we are called to be salt, light and seeds.. that we are only the one small part of the equation. It is Gods job to be fruitful and multiply. Our job is only to be who we are.
December 31, 2024
This had some good points (that there might be different ways of sharing Christ more effective for different personality types, that introverts might share better through slow friendships and conversations, that forced sales pitches aren't that effective), but also had a general tone of self-justification and excuse-making... more time spent on why you shouldn't feel guilty about not evangelizing than on how you should actually evangelize. Some good nuggets I might revisit, but generally pretty unsatisfying.
February 25, 2018
Practical Evangelism
Shows practical ways to evangelize for introverts. How to approach people, without scaring them off, first step is to show genuine active listening. Convenient conventional wisdom for how to develop your approach from you the individual, cookie cutter approaches are not effective. Your way is not the same because God made you unique and therefore you share yourself differently. Practical guide for those not in ministry.
Shows practical ways to evangelize for introverts. How to approach people, without scaring them off, first step is to show genuine active listening. Convenient conventional wisdom for how to develop your approach from you the individual, cookie cutter approaches are not effective. Your way is not the same because God made you unique and therefore you share yourself differently. Practical guide for those not in ministry.
March 20, 2024
Great encouragement… for the rest of us!
Easy to read with terrific practical examples and encouragement. I always say of myself, “I don’t start conversations.” But, reflecting on my life, I see that I start LOTS of conversations. It’s just that it’s more personal with me. Not much “chit-chat” goes on with me. And that’s OK. God made me that way! I dig deep. This book shows me that can be very useful.
Easy to read with terrific practical examples and encouragement. I always say of myself, “I don’t start conversations.” But, reflecting on my life, I see that I start LOTS of conversations. It’s just that it’s more personal with me. Not much “chit-chat” goes on with me. And that’s OK. God made me that way! I dig deep. This book shows me that can be very useful.
February 18, 2020
This is a refreshing contrast to the usual guilt-ridden approaches to evangelism. The book is ideal for introverts as he highlights how introverts can use their uniqueness as introverts in being genuine in evangelism. I like how he notes that introverts can often use writing as a means to read a wide audience.
April 11, 2025
I learned a lot about myself while reading this book. I felt seen and validated, and realize that there is nothing wrong with my introvert tendencies. Instead, I learned that God created me that way for a very special reason. Highly recommend reading this book if sharing your faith can seem uncomfortable.
December 9, 2018
Well written and thoughtful
I found this book very encouraging and it helped me feel like evangelism is something I can do because God created me to do it- with the personality He gave me!
I found this book very encouraging and it helped me feel like evangelism is something I can do because God created me to do it- with the personality He gave me!
January 9, 2025
Good overall point. Don’t apologize for how God made you. It wasn’t an accident or something that needs to be fixed. He made you on purpose to be used the way you are. Your strengths will reach and connect with people extroverts won’t reach.
October 20, 2017
An encouraging and uplifting look at sharing Christ as an introvert. Bechtle comes across as sincere and genuine (which tends to be my style) rather than pushy or forceful.
December 30, 2020
Reading this book was a great journey that I recommend for everyone whether introverts or extroverts. It consists of some dynamic information that would help us to develop as Evangelist walking to accomplish the Great commission of Matthew 28
September 25, 2021
One of the best books on evangelism for introverts. Well-worth the read.
December 17, 2024
Loved it! The author "gets" introverts; first book on this subject where I felt understood.
January 18, 2025
Glad I didn’t live in the 80s
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews