Never Ashamed: Stories of Sharing Faith with Scoffers and Skeptics

by Avi Snyder; David Brickner

Publisher:

Whitaker House

, 2022

Overview

Most books on evangelism deal primarily with different approaches to sharing the good news. From street ministry to personal witnessing, books abound on how to present the gospel in a variety of ways and situations.

But Never Ashamed isn’t a book about how. Rather, it’s a book about why. Author Avi Snyder explains:

• Why we mustn’t be ashamed of sharing the good news in an open and direct fashion.
• Why believers find it difficult to share the good news of salvation, despite the variety of fruit that always abounds.
• Why non-believers often choose to walk away from the claims of the Messiah, even when they know or at least suspect in their hearts that His claims are true.
• Why the early church felt compelled to proclaim His message, regardless of the risks and costs.

More than this, however, Never Ashamed is a book of stories:

• The man who told Avi he wouldn’t stop him from jumping out a window.
• The Marxist lady trying to figure him out who eventually concluded he was a provocateur
• The woman who prayed for God to give her compassion like Him and wept when she received it
• The Soviet guard who helped Avi’s team pass out literature

These and many more encounters that Avi shares will make you laugh, cry, and be filled with joy at the winsome ways in which he brings people to Jesus.

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Praise for Never Ashamed

Avi Snyder is, for me, an example of a true evangelist in the mold of the apostle Paul. Avi’s latest book, Never Ashamed, perfectly captures his love for God and passion for the gospel. Since Avi is a consummate storyteller, each and every point he makes in every chapter is wonderfully illustrated with a poignancy that will capture your heart. Read this book to be inspired. Read this book to be instructed. Read this book to be motivated to join with Avi and with the apostle Paul in fulfilling that wonderful Great Commission. This is a calling God has given, not only to the expert evangelists like Avi Snyder, but to each one of us who would follow the Lord Jesus.

Not since Rebecca Pippert’s Out of the Saltshaker and into the World twenty years ago have I come across a book that encouraged and motivated me evangelistically like Never Ashamed. With riveting stories from decades of witnessing to Jewish people, Avi Snyder melts away the fears that keep us silent when love demands we speak. Fun, practical, and timely.

Never Ashamed is a fresh, winsome retelling of the biblical narrative on evangelism. Through vivid analogy and personal story, Avi has crafted a compelling and inspiring case for personal witness. Reader beware, however: Never Ashamed is a deceptively simple, short book that will sneak up on the Christian spirit, reigniting a love for the lost and a passion for soul winning.

Avi Snyder peppers his teaching with parables/stories. Just like Jesus. He powerfully reminds us that the gospel is not simply “good” news; it is compelling, interesting, and, to use Avi’s new term “provocative.” Never Ashamed is an overwhelming call to speak about Jesus, to tell the world that Jesus is believable and beautiful, to understand that we can trust the power of the seed. I have never felt more compelled and excited to share the gospel.

Something I have observed in many of my friends who are Jewish believers is they are the most courageous, outrageous, and passionate evangelists. Avi Snyder is one of these. I read Never Ashamed and couldn’t put it down. It makes compelling reading. It challenges the notion that social action is enough. It is not. Proclamation is what’s needed.

As Avi says, “The gospel must be communicated in love and with compassion. Why? Because the message itself is so cutting that it hardly needs any additional sharpening from us. The very first time that the Spirit filled the disciples, He filled them for no other reason than to empower them to proclaim. In other words, gospel proclamation was the very first manifestation of the Spirit’s filling. The gospel is not just good news. The gospel is urgent news.”

If you are a reluctant evangelist, reading this book will inspire and encourage you to proclaim the gospel effectively and with a fresh sense of urgency.

Never Ashamed comes out of Avi Snyder’s international walk with Yeshua, and his passion to explain simply but powerfully how Messianic Jews and non-Jewish Christians should be bold in sharing their faith in Yeshua. Filled with great stories, good humor, surprising ideas, and thought-provoking perspectives, Never Ashamed will provoke both laughter and reflection while inspiring readers to renew their commitment to bringing Yeshua’s salvation to Jews and non-Jews alike.

Spread the word about Jesus! That is a life motto of Avi Snyder, who, with this book, continues and deepens his thoughts from Jews Don’t Need Jesus—and Other Misconceptions. When reading the pages of this new book, Never Ashamed: Stories of Sharing Faith with Scoffers and Skeptics, we hear above all else the voice of a heart that has experienced the love of God and cannot remain silent about it. Avi draws on the wealth of experience from decades of personal evangelization in several continents and cultures. All of this is served with that special pinch of Jewish humor with which the author spices his statements and brings weighty truths to his readers. What would he want from his readers and the history of the impact of his book? Perhaps that we say after reading, “We cannot keep silent about what we have seen and heard ourselves!”

The gospel seems to be losing its weight in today’s society. The post-modern or post-Christian world is not interested in being saved. But we Christians have a Jesus-given command to go and preach the gospel, and to make disciples of those who make a commitment to follow Jesus. Avi Snyder’s book reminds us of this mandate. The command is still active, not completed, not taken back. Read this book, feel Avi’s heart for sharing the gospel, and as you go, be open to share the life-saving, life-changing message of the gospel! This book has challenged me and I hope it will challenge you as well to share your faith—a faith that saves.

It gave me great pleasure to read the manuscript of Avi Snyder’s book Never Ashamed: Stories of Sharing Faith with Scoffers and Skeptics. I have known and held the author in respect for a number of years, having gotten to be acquainted with him during his years of ministry in Hungary. His book commends itself for a number of reasons. It contains a clear challenge for both Jewish and non-Jewish readers to be unashamedly outspoken about their faith in Jesus Christ and the need for everyone to repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness of their sins and a new life. This call is much needed in our day and age, when efforts are being made more than ever to marginalize the Christian faith, to push Jesus Christ out of the public discussion, and to cancel or persecute people who speak out about Him. The gospel message is the only solution to mankind’s most fundamental problem and Avi makes a strong case in his book for it being presented to all and sundry in compassionate and clearly understandable terms. This is the duty of every follower of the Messiah Jesus, Jewish and Gentile alike. In underpinning his arguments, Avi uses a plethora of quotes from both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The book is very readable; the different points the author makes are liberally illustrated by real-life examples taken from Avi’s own life and ministry as well as other sources. I am persuaded that readers of this book will be spiritually uplifted and derive from it a renewed impetus to go and share the gospel with friends, relatives, colleagues, and all.

I love to read. But I especially love to discover books that grip my soul and require me to pull out my yellow highlighter! It came out early into Avi Snyder’s book. As I read his compelling stories, his powerful biblical application, and his encouraging challenges, my heart was stirred. I experienced those “aha!” moments that excite me when I read a book that requires response from me.

In one story, Avi is referred to as a “provocateur.” I agree. He is. So is his book. And I am so thankful God provoked me through Never Ashamed: Stories of Sharing Faith with Scoffers and Skeptics.

Whenever I encounter Avi, God stirs my heart with a renewed passion to share the good news about Jesus, or Yeshua. Never Ashamed has revitalized my courage and confidence to share Jesus. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the fruits that God produces when we share the gospel as it reminded me of God’s sovereignty through the gospel message. Each chapter uses biblical truth and winsome stories to build us up in our faith and our common responsibility to share Jesus with others. In a time when Christians tend to overcomplicate life in and through Jesus, Avi reminds us of the simple and straightforward truth of the Gospels. I will encourage every member of my church to read this book—and I look forward to the fruit it will bear for God’s kingdom.

With wit, humor, and not a little passion, Avi Snyder distills the wisdom and experience of many years in this marvelous book. Avi’s ministry in the USA, Russia, and Germany will inform and challenge you as he shares his encounters and recollections. A great storyteller, Avi knows how to communicate. With honesty, humility, and empathy, he details the challenges and opportunities he has been given in following the call of his Messiah Jesus to share the good news with Israel and all nations. As a preacher, he brings Scripture alive, illustrating it with personal insights and the principles that have shaped his discipleship and witness. Read and enjoy!

I have known Avi for almost twenty years. He reminds me of the apostle Paul. He lives what he is writing about. And he did this for over thirty years in different contexts and cultures. That is one of the reasons why he is such a wonderful storyteller. His stories are powerful illustrations of this much-needed message to us Christians, pastors, and churches, which can help us to overcome timidity, fears, and excuses when it comes to sharing the gospel. Avi does not write about methods of evangelism, but why sharing the gospel is such a divine necessity, and why the presentation of the gospel should be clear and provoke a response. Avi is aware of the timidity and fears of the human heart and knows the excuses and reasons that shut our mouths. Therefore, he describes the various fruits and joys of sharing the gospel, and why he and the early Christians felt compelled to do so. The book is convincing. Reading Avi’s book made me pray again: “Lord, fill my heart with your compassion for the lost.”

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend” echoed in my mind as I read Never Ashamed. With the chutzpah of a veteran street evangelist, Avi Snyder walks up to those of us who are lost when it comes to sharing the gospel and says, “I have good news you desperately need to hear.” Through humor and storytelling, Snyder brings us to God’s Word to show us the reasons why we struggle and why that struggle is worth overcoming. In a day when so many voices in the church call us to self-care, Never Ashamed calls us back to God’s heart—care for the lost. Avi Snyder is the friend we all need.

Product Details

• Title: Never Ashamed: Stories of Sharing Faith with Scoffers and Skeptics
• Authors: Avi Snyder, David Brickner
• Publisher: Whitaker House
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2021
• Pages: 144
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781641238748, 9781641238731, 1641238739, 1641238747
• Resource ID: LLS:9781641238748
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T21:40:15Z

About the Authors

Avi Snyder grew up in a traditional Jewish home in New York and New Jersey. In his early twenties, he defined himself as a Jewish atheist. But in 1975, a tract from Jews for Jesus challenged him to consider Yeshua’s messianic claims. Thanks to that tract and the faithful witness of Christian friends, Avi gave his heart to the Lord in March 1977. He graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Missions with a master’s degree in missiology. Avi married Ruth in late 1977, and in 1978, they joined the staff of Jews for Jesus. Throughout the 1980s, Avi led the work in Los Angeles. During that time, he won a landmark case in the United States Supreme Court against Los Angeles International Airport. The airport had sought to prohibit his right to distribute free religious literature on the terminal’s grounds, which was designated as public property. In the late 1980s, Ruth and Avi caught a vision for reaching the Jewish people in the unravelling USSR. A probe team excursion in 1990 led to them moving to Odessa, Ukraine, a year later. Today, indigenous Jews for Jesus teams share the good news in cities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Avi and Ruth came out of Russia in 1998 in order to oversee leadership transitions, first in New York and then in London. But all the while, Avi’s sights were fixed on Germany because of the growing influx of Jewish people who were emigrating from the collapsed USSR. Today, a team of Jews for Jesus now brings the gospel to the Jewish population of Berlin. In addition to German-born Jews and Jewish people from the former USSR, some 20,000 Israeli expatriates who now call Berlin their home. Outside of the former USSR, the largest indigenous Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe resides in Hungary—nearly 100,000 people, most of them living in Budapest. In 2011, Avi and Ruth moved to Budapest to establish another Jews for Jesus outreach. Ten years later, Hungarian-born Jews for Jesus conduct a thriving ministry, especially among Jewish intellectuals and Holocaust survivors. Avi is the author of a number of articles and tracts, as well as the book, Jews Don’t Need Jesus—and Other Misconceptions. He and Ruth currently live in the States, where Avi serves as the Jews for Jesus European ambassador. They have three grown children: Leah, Joel, and Elizabeth.