If you are like me then you bristle at evangelism that sells Jesus and Christianity as the fix for all your problems and that faith and Jesus will make everything bad go away. This produces inauthentic Christians who are too nervous that being honest about continued struggles will have others thinking that they don't believe enough.
I bristle because this does not jive with things that Jesus actually said. In fact, he often said the opposite. What do people think taking up your cross and dying involves? Jesus challenges us and many many people walked away from him because his teaching was too difficult. The disciples themselves, after three years of following didn't believe enough to non-violent stand up for Jesus at his crucifixion. Discipleship is hard and the promise isn't that it is easy but that Jesus is with us always along the way.
In the radio documentary, "This American Life" there is a conversation about how evangelism often degrades to "Bait and Switch" schemes. I recommend a listen. You can listen online and for a short time you can download it.

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