You’re Not Off the Hook: Why Every Believer Is Called to Share the Gospel
In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked near her Queens, New York home over the course of 30 minutes. Thirty-eight people witnessed the attack. Not one intervened.
That disturbing true story became the foundation of what psychologists now call the bystander effect—the phenomenon where people fail to act in an emergency because they assume someone else will.
Pastor Miles McPherson opened Rock Church’s Just One evangelism series with that story for a reason. Because the same thing, he argues, happens every single day when Christians walk past people who don’t know Jesus and say nothing.
“They’re going to die,” Pastor Miles said plainly. “And the question is where are they going to go?”
This message—the first session in Rock Church’s brand new Just One training—is a direct, honest, and surprisingly encouraging challenge to every believer who has ever told themselves that sharing the gospel is someone else’s job.
Watch the full message here: Rock Church on YouTube → and subscribe so you don’t miss the rest of the series!
Psychologists studying the bystander effect found five reasons people don’t act in an emergency:
Those five excuses map almost perfectly onto the reasons Christians don’t share their faith. Fear of saying the wrong thing. Thinking it’s the pastor’s responsibility. Not feeling close enough to someone to bring it up.
“The reasons we don’t share our faith are unbiblical,” he said. “Sharing the gospel is not just the pastor’s job.”
Someone can look like they have everything together—a good job, a great family, financial security—and still be heading toward eternity without Christ. Pastor Miles’ challenge: that has nothing to do with it.
Pastor Miles opened the message dressed in a firefighter suit, standing in a dark room. He flipped on a light. The darkness disappeared instantly.
“Light travels 186,000 miles per second. The only thing faster than light is darkness running away.” — Pastor Miles McPherson
The illustration wasn’t just visually memorable. It was theologically precise. Romans 1:16 says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Not the Christian’s personality. Not their intelligence or sense of humor. The power belongs to the message itself.
Pastor Miles made the point that it doesn’t matter who flips the switch—a child, an elderly person, someone wealthy or someone who has nothing. When the switch gets flipped, the light comes on and the darkness leaves. The same is true of the gospel.
“As long as you share the gospel with integrity and clarity,” he said, “the Gospel will do the work.”
That reframe matters. A lot of Christians carry the weight of feeling like they need to be theologically polished or persuasive enough to change someone’s mind. But that’s not the job. The job is to be faithful. God handles the results.
The core of Pastor Miles’ message centered on three commitments that come with following Christ. They’re drawn directly from Scripture, and he walked through each one.
1. Become who Jesus is.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Giving one’s life to Jesus isn’t just a decision—it’s a transfer of identity. The believer’s new purpose is to become who Jesus is, expressed through their own personality, humor, and life experiences.
Pastor Miles used the law of identity from philosophy to explain this: a thing can only be identical to itself. The devil’s strategy, he argued, has always been to confuse people about who they are, because when identity gets confused, purpose gets confused too.
Mark 8:34 captures the call directly: “If anyone comes after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
2. Love who Jesus loves.
John 3:16 starts with a statement about God’s posture toward the world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” That’s the model. Not selective love. Not conditional love. A love that gives.
Pastor Miles shared how he approaches everyday interactions—customer service counters, cashier lines—as opportunities to minister. “Whenever you get in a conversation with somebody,” he said, “you might find out something you can minister to.”
He also pointed to the church in Iran—reportedly the fastest growing in the world—meeting underground at real risk to their lives. The contrast with comfortable, convenience-first Christianity in the United States was direct. “What are you willing to sacrifice on behalf of somebody else?”
3. Do what Jesus did.
Luke 4:43 records Jesus saying, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities, for this purpose I have been sent.” Luke 19:10 adds: “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost.”
If believers are striving to become like Jesus and love who he loves, then doing what he did follows naturally. Jesus was always moving toward the lost. A Christian who is genuinely following him will be doing the same.
“If I’m a Jesus follower and I’m not fishing for men, maybe I have to question whether I’m really a Jesus follower.” — Pastor Miles McPherson
He was careful to add: the goal isn’t to rack up conversions. 1 Corinthians 3:6 says “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Faithfulness in sharing is the assignment. God handles what happens next.
The Just One Training: What It Is and How It Works
This message launched Rock Church’s Just One evangelism training—a six-session program years in the making, built to make sharing the gospel feel accessible to anyone regardless of age, background, or personality. To learn how to share your faith for free, click here.
The training covers five core skills:
Pastor Miles also reminded the congregation that Christians don’t have to have a perfect answer to every question. Sometimes the right response is simply “I don’t know, but can I get back to you?” That honesty often opens more doors than a rehearsed argument.
This post captures the framework, but the full message—including the live illustrations, the Just One skit, and the gospel presentation delivered by two young adults from Rock Church—is worth watching in full.
Watch it on the Rock Church YouTube channel → Click here.
Subscribe while you’re there to get every message in the Just One series and every Sunday message from Rock Church San Diego delivered straight to your feed.
Thirty-eight people watched Kitty Genovese get attacked. Not one stepped in. Everyone assumed it was someone else’s responsibility.
Pastor Miles’ challenge is that Christians can do the same thing—walking past people every day who are heading toward eternity without Jesus, telling themselves the pastor will handle it, or that they don’t know enough, or that it’s not really their place.
The Bible, he argued, says otherwise. Clearly, directly, and repeatedly.
The Just One training exists to close the gap between knowing that and actually doing it. It’s designed to be simple, practical, and doable for anyone willing to try for free.
As Pastor Miles put it: “We’re not asking you to do something by yourself. We’re asking you to join God in something he is passionate about.”
To sign up for the Just One training or learn more, visit lovejust1.com.
Register now for our Gospel activation conference called Just 1 San Diego happening September 12th at Rock Church. Learn how to share your faith in a simple, spirit lead, story based way. Learn more by clicking here!
Rock Church is a diverse, non-denominational church with campuses across San Diego—Point Loma, El Cajon, Chula Vista, San Marcos, City Heights, and online.
Whether you’ve been following Jesus for decades or you’re still figuring out what you believe, there’s a place for you here.
Plan your visit at sdrock.com.
What is the bystander effect and how does it relate to sharing your faith?
The bystander effect is a psychological phenomenon where people fail to act in an emergency because they assume someone else will. Pastor Miles McPherson used it to illustrate why Christians often don’t share their faith—fear of saying the wrong thing, assuming it’s the pastor’s job, or feeling like it won’t make a difference.
Do I need to be theologically trained to share the gospel?
No. Romans 1:16 describes the gospel as “the power of God unto salvation.” The power belongs to the message itself—not the messenger’s education level, personality, or confidence. Pastor Miles used the analogy of a light switch: it doesn’t matter who flips it. When the switch is flipped, the darkness leaves.
What is the Just One training at Rock Church?
Just One is a six-session evangelism training from Rock Church designed to help everyday believers share their faith. It covers personal testimony, the gospel in nine words, the Salvation ABCs, and a “Fire Drill” section that equips participants to handle tough questions and difficult conversations.
What is a gospel partner?
A gospel partner is someone—a friend, family member, or fellow church member—who goes through the Just One training with you. The two of you watch sessions together, practice the material on each other, and keep each other accountable to actually sharing the gospel in everyday life.
What if someone calls me a hypocrite when I try to share my faith?
The Just One training addresses this directly with what it calls the Whitney Houston analogy: everyone knows what it sounds like when someone tries to sing like Whitney Houston and falls short. Christians are doing the same thing—trying to be like Jesus. They’ll fall short sometimes, which is exactly why they need the gospel too. It doesn’t excuse hypocrisy, but it does explain the journey.
What does the Bible say about sharing the gospel?
Several passages speak to it directly. Luke 4:43 records Jesus saying he was sent to preach the kingdom of God. Luke 19:10 says the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Mark 1:17 records his call to “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Ephesians 4:11-12 describes the role of pastors and evangelists as equipping the whole church—not doing evangelism on everyone else’s behalf.
