When I grew up, most people attended church. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone was a devoted follower of Christ and dedicated their lives to living in obedience to him and carrying out the Great Commission, but at least a majority of American families were affiliated with going to church on Sunday. It was a core value that we held dear back then.
My graduating class from high school actually had a number of people that went into the ministry. We had Bible studies on Friday nights after the football game that we called “Fifth Quarter” that was packed with youth. The seventies were a great time to join the wave of youth that were unashamed of the Gospel.
That is easy to do in a large group, but a little more difficult in our day to day, one on one lives. My personality, at least, is such that I am a little more shy about sharing my faith in a smaller group. It is a little more easy to write about it or to share in front of a larger group. I am certainly not ashamed of my faith in God and I want to lead others to Christ.
Unfortunately, our society today is making it harder to openly share the Gospel with others and is trying to shame Christians into silence. That does not excuse us from the Great Commission. Jesus tells us in Mark 16:15 to “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” Period. He doesn’t put a comma, and go on to say… “unless society thinks it’s offensive”. So, don’t be ashamed, get out there and tell everyone in your world about Jesus!
Romans 1:16 (NLT) - “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes -- the Jew first and also the Gentile.”