Willie Robertson was just a young boy when he first experienced the transforming power of the Gospel. He watched as his own father went from a raging, adulterous alcoholic to a sober, born-again family man after coming to Christ — and it always stuck with him.
In addition to inspiring the record-setting film “The Blind,” which was released earlier this year, the Robertsons’ incredible testimony of how the Gospel can transform an entire family and leave a lasting legacy of faith was the motivation behind Mr. Robertson’s latest book: “Gospeler: Turning Darkness into Light One Conversation at a Time.”
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“Everything in life that I’ve done, pretty much everything, has been influenced by the Gospel coming into my family’s life,” Mr. Robertson recently told The Washington Times’ Higher Ground. “I mean, that’s the deep-seated appreciation that I have for the Gospel.”
It wasn’t just that his parents, Phil and Kay Robertson, were walking examples of God’s grace and redemptive power. What inspired their son so much was that the couple never shied away from sharing their story with others. They were committed to talking to people about what God had done in their lives and the truths from the Bible that transformed them all those years ago.
“I was really inspired, the first chapter of the book is about my parents and their conversion,” Mr. Robertson said. “That was inspiring and then what I learned from Mom and Dad as they walked their journey and shared their faith a lot, so I was able to witness that.”
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In fact, sharing the Gospel with others was always a priority for the Robertson family, especially as God continued to bless them and opened doors for a multi-million-dollar business, popular television show and worldwide influence. But it wasn’t until Mr. Robertson was asked to lead an evangelism ministry at a local church that the pieces began to fall into place to write his latest book.
“I heard from a lot of people what they thought and probably more glaring was the lack of what they knew [of the Bible],” Mr. Robertson explained. “A lot of people had the desire to share their faith or talk to other people, or even the desire to have a conversation. They just didn’t know what to say. I was giving them a lot of stories and a lot of the scriptures that I’ve learned and started there.”
What Mr. Robertson experienced in his ministry is no doubt part of a larger issue currently facing the church in terms of discipleship. Too often, churches are full of believers who are not actively growing in their faith and don’t feel confident about sharing it with others, and in turn are missing their calling to be a disciple of Christ.
“No one’s ever challenged them to go share their faith with someone else,” Mr. Robertson noted. “I find that over and over in the New Testament. It’s not, when you get salvation, that’s awesome for you, but it’s all about sharing it with others. Jesus, I think He was clear on that, saying, ‘Go make disciples, go baptize people, go teach people.”
No matter what, Mr. Robertson says everyone who believes in Jesus is called to “fish for other people.” And if the “Duck Dynasty” star has learned anything in his life, it’s that talking to people about Jesus doesn’t have to be complicated to be life-changing. It can happen anywhere, anytime, and it all starts with a conversation.
“To realize that had someone not shared with Phil [about Jesus], had someone not been intentional and done that, then you know [our lives would be very different],” Mr. Robertson concluded. “And so, what it reminds me to do is talk to other people because I never know what kind of legacy or generational change may happen just from that one conversation.”
“Gospeler: Turning Darkness into Light One Conversation at a Time” is now available for purchase everywhere books are sold.
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Marissa Mayer is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her work has been featured in Christian Post, The Daily Signal, and Intellectual Takeout. Mayer has a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.