A Secular Creed (Part 4)
In my fourth and final post in this Secular Creed series, I conclude with three more practical ways to effectively share the gospel in your daily life. Remember to start with prayer and an honest self-assessment of the gospel’s importance in your own life. Review Part 3, which explained how to make small talk and pay attention to where God is working. The last three strategies follow:
#5 Be more conversational and less confrontational by listening and asking probing questions
Back to my yard signs: how can we take these statements and other talking points as a basis for conversation? By listening to understand and asking probing questions.
A Secular Creed
Jesus carried on such a conversation with the woman at the well in John 4:7-26. The apostle Paul had a give-and-take with the Athenians in Acts 17:16-34 and his fellow Jews at the synagogue in Rome in Acts 28:23-31.
Conversation doesn't skirt the hard questions. It does mean we sincerely try to hear and understand where people are coming from. There may come a time to ask probing questions like, "How do you know this to be true?" and "What kind of evidence are you willing to accept?"
I was once in an Alaska fishing camp having a conversation about religion. Someone blurted out, "All religions are the same anyway." I couldn't let that pass without comment. I said, "That's just not true. Jesus won't allow it." I then quoted John 14:6 about Jesus being the only way to God. It had a chilling effect on the conversation, but I felt it had to be said.
Especially in today's contentious social climate, let's strive for healthy give and take without compromising the truth.
#6 Clear the ground of objections and presuppositions
It's pretty easy to get lost in the weeds these days with all the problems going on around us: COVID, the election, social issues, not to mention if there are dinosaurs in the Bible or what happens to those who haven't heard of Jesus!
While we must be prepared to "give a defense for the hope that is in us" (1 Peter 3:15), we shouldn't allow these issues to divert from Jesus. Certainly, people have had bad experiences with Christians and ask genuine questions that trouble them. It may take years to earn the right to be heard from all the hurts they've received, perceived or otherwise.
#7 Preach Jesus
We're not trying to convert people to our political persuasion or moral stand on social issues. We're here to preach Jesus and him crucified. Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 4:5, "For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake."
Evangelist Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship quipped: "God cleans his fish after he catches them." In other words, God first saves people and then works on them to make them more like Christ. The gospel of Jesus takes us where we are not where we aren't.
Don't go away with the impression I'm some sort of hotshot evangelist. At best, I feel like an armchair evangelist. To use a golfing term, I'm a duffer.
In his book Finding God in Unexpected Places, Christian author Philip Yancey relates the story of a South African woman named Joanna who for years protested apartheid, the official policy of racism in her country. Miraculously, she saw the peaceful dismantling of this evil system.
Joanna then began alone a ministry in the violent prison that once held Nelson Mandela. Preaching a simple message of forgiveness and reconciliation, she saw the violence among prisoners drop dramatically.
When Yancey asked Joanna the specifics of the ministry, she replied, "Well, of course, Philip, God was already present in the prison. I just had to make him visible."
That's our mission too: to make Christ visible in a secular age which believes in a secular creed and an invisible God if they believe in one at all.