Are you often reluctant and afraid to evangelise at your Workplace? What are the challenges you face in so doing? Joanne Liaw spoke to Gary Lee who shared his personal experience of evangelising in his workplace at Shell.

Describe your first experience of evangelising in the workplace.
One of the very first opportunities came in the form of a presentation where I was asked to introduce myself to my new work team. I remembered my pastor’s advice back in my University days to tell my colleagues about Jesus and identify myself as a Christian from the start, as it gets harder with time. I was nervous to identify myself as a Christian as I was afraid of offending someone, especially since I was new to the department.

But God used my rather meek attempt to bring other opportunities to evangelise. For a start, I knew of another Christian working in the department and through my presentation, I got to know other believers in my department. We then decided to start a small departmental prayer meeting. The prayer group started to expand by word of mouth and it became a launch pad for inviting non-believing colleagues.

What were the challenges you faced as you sought to evangelise in the workplace? How did you overcome those challenges?
The biggest challenge was moving from introducing myself as a Christian to actually sharing the Gospel with my colleagues. One opportunity I had was on a work trip with a colleague who started asking me about Christianity. I then realised that although I lacked the courage to evangelise, I ought to keep my colleagues in my prayers and pray for evangelistic opportunities.

Share about the most memorable moment in your experience of evangelising in the workplace.
When I was working in Holland, there was a new colleague who was pretty and very popular with the guys. I therefore had this prejudice against her, thinking that she would not be interested in God. One evening at a social, I bumped into her and found out that she was actually interested in God. In fact, she had been looking for a Christian to tell her more about the Gospel. Clearly God was working in her and had arranged for this conversation to take place.

What advice would you give to those who are afraid to evangelise their colleagues, family and friends?
I am still afraid of evangelising my colleagues, family and friends. I believe that this fear is partly due to my lack of love for them. I pray that I will love them more by being a good witness for Christ to them. Evangelising alone can be daunting, so doing it in partnership can give us more confidence. However, the greatest assurance is knowing that God is behind the scenes all the time. Whoever I meet and the conversations I have are ordained by God (Acts 17:26). He is ultimately sovereign in all our evangelistic efforts.

We have a range of tools to help you evangelise. Check out the Cathedral BookCorner for resources or contact the Cathedral office for more information.