Christians in Britain should not be afraid to share their faith, says the Evangelical Alliance's mission director.

Krish Kandiah asked the audience at this year's Keswick Convention why it was that Christians in Britain were so nervous when it came to speaking about Jesus.

"It is very easy for Christians to retreat into a Christian ghetto, for fear. Many are afraid at the moment," he said.

He dismissed the notion that recent equality cases involving Christians were evidence of persecution.

"Some people are even calling this persecution I shared that with a friend of mine from Ethiopia - and he laughed.

"He said: 'You cannot call that persecution, not unless they have changed the dictionary.'

"In one village in Ethiopia, all the Christians had a note pushed under their doors, and it said 'Leave this village tonight or tomorrow you will be dead'. That's persecution."

Instead of worrying about persecution, Kandiah suggested Christians be more concerned about fostering unity and working on their personal relationships with those outside the church.

He said that personal relationships could be the key to evangelism and that Christians could make an impact by caring for the ones they were not expected to care about.

"There should be something different about the kind of people we phone up in the week, to see how they are doing; the kind of people we invite round or to stay over," he said.

"It shouldn't just be our kin, our family, those who fit our demographic group."

When it comes to the call to share the gospel, he added, "Don't think there is nothing that you can do."