3 Keys for Fruitful Gospel Conversations

I had the most amazing conversation about Jesus the other day, and it started with an honest question.  The student was very hesitant, expressing that she was afraid that I might be offended.  I assured her that I love questions and see them as extremely important in the journey of faith.  Her question was “how do we know it is true?”  What followed was an amazing time of exploration as we delved into apologetics.

This experience helped me to recognize, and relearn, some invaluable insights about sharing the faith.  Firstly, is the importance of apologetics, secondly, the value of listening and thirdly, the importance of a safe place to ask questions.

Apologetics: Apologetics is not making an apology for the faith (although there are many who think that perhaps it should be).  Wikipedia defines it as “the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information.”  It is making a well reasoned defense, or explanation for the faith.  In a post modern culture like we have here in Canada, it is no longer sufficient to simply say “because the bible says so.”  That will merely beg the question “why should I believe the bible?”  People hold very real concerns that Jesus and scripture are not historical, not accurate and not trustworthy and this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to questions and skepticism over matters of faith and religion.  So the question is, are we prepared to engage with such questions because it is becoming an increasing necessity as we share about Jesus.

Listening: I am also reminded about the real value and necessity of good, honest questions as we discuss and wrestle with issues of faith.  Personally, I have found that it is often questions that lead to the biggest breakthroughs and growth moments in the journey of faith.  Questions also mean that we are addressing thoughts and concerns that people actually have.  In order to hear questions, however, it means that we need to develop good listening skills and along with good listening skills we might actually have to engage with someone outside of the faith community.  It is amazing the things you learn when you engage with people, and you hear what they are thinking, questioning and how they perceive the church.  It is often different from what you thought, or what someone told you people think.  We will never be able to meet people where they are, and we will always be missing the mark if we don’t engage, don’t listen and don’t welcome good, hard, honest questions.

A Safe place:  Along with good listening skills and addressing questions comes perhaps the most important factor for faith conversations, which is creating a safe environment.  Is your environment, and more specifically are you, a safe place to bring questions and have conversations about faith?  This comes down to whether we treat all people with dignity, respect and compassion and, as we seek to serve, be willing to engage with people wherever they are at.  Apologetics and questions can lead to fruitful conversations but can also very quickly degenerate into debates.  If we are interested in winning the battle, proving the faith and beating down questions then we are not creating a safe place for people to engage.   Do we present ourselves, as open, caring and safe?

I admit, I was sad to hear that my friend was hesitant to share her questions because she was afraid of offending me.  It reminded me that I have to be more diligent about  ensuring everyone around me feel comfortable to share honestly and ask questions.  I need to be better at truly listening.  In the past I have been sharing what I thought  people might benefit from knowing when I could have been addressing what they were actually struggling with.  When I did, it gave such a rich opportunity to draw on some of the apologetic  insights that others have shared with me.  When that did happen, it was a rich and fruitful conversation and I long to have more of those in the future.

If you are looking for some apologetic resources below is a short list of resources I have found helpful, some specifically apologic in nature, some not, but all useful:

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
The Reason For God - Timothy Keller
The Case for Christ - Lee Strobel
More than a Carpenter - Josh McDowell

This is a very short limited list and I would love for you to add to the suggestion list.