Paul Little's classic work, How to Give Away Your Faith, offers a simple yet often times profound look at one of the "hardest" tasks of the Christian life: evangelism. Witnessing is hard. Most Christians try to stay away from it and those who do evangelize often prove to be more of an embarrassment to the faith than a witness. How are we to faithfully proclaim the gospel of Christ to a world in need? How do broken clay jars carry an eternal message of hope and life to the thirsty and starving? In seeking to answer such questions, Little charts a helpful course for those who seek to be Christ's ambassadors to the world.

Be Real! The world's need for Christ is real and his help is a necessity. Christ and Christianity are the only real answers to the world's need. We must be aware of this need and we must sincerely and truthfully proclaim the wonders of his name. It is our duty to live a life of genuine faith and sincerity of mission because superficial Christianity is empty and meaningless. Our focus should be ultimately placed on things eternal while seeking to remedy things material. Our goal is to have others not just assent to the facts of Christianity but to believe in the Christ of Christianity.

How then are we to witness? First, Little highlights the necessity of evangelism for our own personal spiritual growth. It is necessary to witness the power of the gospel. Then we must obey. Evangelism is a matter of obedience. Obedience to Christ brings forth proclamation of his truth. Little proceeds to list seven steps toward active evangelism. First, we must have contact with others in a social context. Secondly, we must seek to establish a common interest with the purpose of bridging communication. Then we must provoke an interest in spiritual things. Fourthly, we must recognize when we should stop and when we should continue on sharing. We also must not condemn those whom we are witnessing too for their various sins. Sixthly, we must not become sidetracked. We must stick to the main message. Lastly, we must call them to repentance. We must call them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that they might be saved.

How do we handle those "ticklish" awkward situations? Our desire is to have the unbelievers with whom we are in contact to begin to respect us even though we are different. As they begin to respect us so they will also begin to listen to us instead of viewing us as weird or insane. But awkward moments will come and the best thing we can do is to be prepared for them. We should anticipate difficult situations and have alternatives to comfortably work through them.

As ambassadors of Christ it is our duty to proclaim his message. The messenger must know and understand the message for the purpose of being a faithful and knowledgeable ambassador. Little sums up the gospel message in Jesus Christ himself - "who He is, what He has done, and how He can be known in personal experience" (56). He suggests following the pattern of problem, diagnosis, cure for setting forth the message of the gospel.

Further, ambassadors cannot just know the message but they must also believe it and live it. We don't have all the answers, but we nonetheless must be ready to give a reason for the hope within us. There are many questions, which non-believers have, but their basic problem is one of moral unbelief. They have rejected their creator and traded his truth in for a lie.
Christ is the answer to those questions, which are asked. However, he has left it as our duty to show the helpless and lost the importance and relevance of Christ in answering those questions. Christianity is true because Jesus is the truth. He is the relevant truth the world needs.

So how are Christians to witness to a corrupted world without compromising our holiness? It is our duty to reach out to the world, but we must not succumb to worldliness. We must recognize that all of our life is God's and we are to live as unto him and for his purposes. We should live all of life cognizant of being stewards of God's time and we must strive to live a life of constant witness to the truth.

The gospel is not just for a one-time salvation event; the gospel is for life. Faith in Christ, the object of our salvation, must continue throughout the Christian life. We are in a daily battle but with Christ it is a victorious battle. We battle against our secret self; against sins both external and internal. This battle must be fought with the Sword of the Spirit and it must be waged through the power of prayer. We also battle over time and priorities, which must be aligned with God's prerogative. In doing so we will have fought a victorious battle.

Witnessing is not optional for the Christian. In fact, as Little has shown, it is vital to the Christian life. It is a matter of obedience to our Creator and Redeemer. Little, offers a helpful guide toward developing better witnesses. While he offers various witnessing helps he goes beyond the task of evangelism and hits the witness himself. This is where Little is most valuable and while this work will be used for some years to come.

The book had many positive and negative aspects. In one example Little says that a Christian may allow a roommate to leave pornographic magazines around the shared area but he or she should put his or her "foot down" when the roommate invites someone of the opposite sex to sleep over (82); however both circumstances should not be tolerated. A few pages prior, Little mentions, "Do not condemn the other persons and do not compromise your own convictions" (75)-tolerating pornographic magazines to be left out in the open is a compromise and a possible source of temptation. Christians are called to be holy, and to say nothing about the porn magazines is the same as condoning it. The Bible exhorts that Christians are to "take no part in the worthless deed of evil and darkness (Eph. 5:11 NLT)." The Christian should ask that the roommate keep porn magazines in his or her own personal living space.

Little mentions that there is an "absence of an explicit biblical standard" regarding alcohol consumption. He states that French Christians often drink wine because it is part of their culture (149). There is a certain people group in the United States who was infamous for making "moon shine" and would probably consider alcohol consumption as part of their culture. Just because one is accustomed to certain practices does not mean that the act is acceptable. Christians are called to put an end to selfish desires that impede on a relationship with God (Galatians 5:24 and Romans 21:1).

Little asserts that praying over a meal before eating is not a "witness vehicle" so he suggests that Christians ought to pray with eyes wide open so as not to offend anyone (79). Jesus states, however, "For whoever is ashamed of Me...of him the son of Man also will be ashamed (Mark 8:38 NKJV)." Praying in public may not be a witnessing tool, but Christians should not be afraid of what others would think if he or she prays silently before a meal.

On a positive note, the inclusion of study questions and the suggestions for group leaders would be helpful for a church evangelism class. The questions evoke a response from the student, forcing him or her to make practical applications of the chapter's content. For instance, one of the questions in chapter five, "What is Our Message," asks, "What would you reply to a person who said, `I'm glad Christ will forgive my sins but I haven't got anything to repent of. I'm as good as the next guy'? (103)." Another from the same chapter asks a question but also poses a challenge, "Prepared with new insights from this chapter, would you like to contact someone in order to explain or clarify the gospel or to help the person continue in Christ? Consider doing so this week (103)."

Little explains that sometimes non-Christians refute or seriously doubt the reliability of the Bible. To this, Little counters by asking for specific examples, which he observes very few people ever give (121). In fact Little insists, "We don't have to be answering questions all the time. We can pose a few questions for him, too" (114). For example, Little's question for those who deny Jesus Christ as the only way to God is "Since you don't believe Jesus Christ was the Truth, which of the other three possibilities about Jesus Christ do you believe? He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend or the Truth" (114).

The first edition of Paul Little's book was published in 1966 and was updated by his widow, Marie Little, who republished it as a second edition in 1988. It is amazing how the examples are still relevant. Little's quest to help people present the good news in a "relevant" way and to communicate the gospel effectively to those who find it strange or foreign was achieved (13). Not only does Little equip people with the purpose, method and challenge of evangelism, but also devotes several chapters on strengthening the inner spiritual qualities of Christians. Two reflective questions he posed were, "Are we convinced that our behavior is giving glory to God?" (153), and "Am I doing this and not doing that because of love for Jesus Christ and a desire to honor and glorify Him? Or is the real reason a cultural bias that won't hold if I move from one social or cultural group to another?" (158). Little believed that an "inner spiritual reality" of spending time with God in prayer, worship and fellowship is crucial for becoming an useful witness (190). Little's book prompts the reader to realize and to act according because "the greatest favor you can do for others is to introduce them to Jesus Christ" (11).