Found People Find People: Tips for Finding a Hearing (Part I)

Under the Big Top on Sunday Mornings, our Sunrise Fellowship is working through a series entitled - Answers without Compromise: Sharing the Gospel in ways that answer people's most immediate needs without compromising its message. The goal is to, as best as possible in sermon format, to share how one might use the gospel message to answer very relevant, contemporary questions of friends, neighbors, co-workers in a conversational setting. People are rarely bringing up God anymore with their questions (even to question his existence or character) - but that doesn't mean their question does not relate to God. In fact, I believe that the handful of main questions/life obstacles people seem to mention are directly addressed by the God's gospel message.

My hope with the blog is, following each message, to provide a few tips for creatively yet boldly and accurately sharing the gospel as presented the previous Sunday. So for example, this past Sunday's message explored the question of suffering: Why is my life so hard? And even harder for others? I intentionally utilized certain strategies and wisdom when approaching this question. 

Tip #1: Be Prepared to Cross the Border. The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the World are different. But Christians often talk to people as if they speak the language of God's Kingdom. Even though Jesus used analogies about His own Kingdom that were agriculturally-relevant to the time (see Mustard seed, different types soils, Fig Tree), relationally-relevant to the time(see Prodigal Son, the persistent friend) and economically-relevant to the time (see Shrewd manager, Tenants). 

To cross the border into another's world you must speak seeker-sensibly. Our Sunday Morning services are not seeker-driven or even seeker-sensitive in priority because the primary purpose of corporate gatherings, as modeled in Acts, is for the strengthening and equipping of believers. So even this series is primarily for equipping believers to go out and share their faith. But while not seeker-driven or seeker-sensitive, as a church we need to be seeker-sensible. We must be thinking about how to explain truth from the Bible in ways that make sense to someone who has never read one. 

Let me give you a few examples from Sunday that I would suggest using in real conversations. I talked about both the act and disease of sin as two of the three reasons that the Bible gives for why life is hard. It's okay to use "sin" and we should as it is the chief reason Jesus needed to die. However, we need to define it. So I define sin as "that Big "No" in our heart that says: I will do a better job running my own life than any authority, especially God" and then connected that back to Genesis 3 where the key idea that Eve (and then Adam) bought into was being her own god. Instead of using the "sinful nature" as a concept, I used a "hereditary disease" that is passed down through a kind of spiritual DNA. Still accurate, but people understand the concept - its danger and pervasiveness - of a hereditary disease like alcoholism better than they do "the sin nature" or "original sin." People will graciously shake their heads but even I still barely understand it and I've got some sort of diploma.  A second example is instead of saying "salvation" or inviting people to "get saved," I termed it this way: "You can trust Jesus to make you right again with God and to run your life." I do this because people understand alienation in relationships and usually have bosses. Only if someone nearly drowned will they immediately relate to any kind of life "saver" or "getting saved."

Consider preparing for a couple more: How would you explain the term "resurrection" or "rose from the dead"? What about "church"? Take time to consider and define for people who don't know the Bible.

To cross the border you have to know what's on the other side. I do not mean that you need to indulge in the ways of the world (does planning to watch Anchorman 2 count?). Only that we should be relating with enough lost people to understand the culture and life in which they live. The Apostle Paul did this. Just a couple weeks ago we looked at Paul's sharing the gospel message in a culturally-relevant way with the people of Athens (Acts 17:16-34). While doing so he quotes a pop song and then a popular local poet to get across a spiritually relevant and still truthful point (v.28). My attempt to do this on Sunday was explain a few typical responses to the hardness of life: (1) "Stuff" Happens (usually using a different word); (2) At least my life isn't as bad as _______; (3) I try not to think about it -- and then proceeded to talk about the advantages but ultimate failings of each approach to the hardness of life. This is how real people talk. Likewise before we sang for worship, I tried to be cognizant of the fact that people brought folks to church who may have never been to church before, especially this past Sunday. So I simply said: "For many of you, the only time you get to sing in public as an adult is a "Happy Birthday to you" for an office birthday party or at a drunken Karaoke Bar. But when you trust Jesus, we are told we get to sing to Him. It's an awesome privilege and sounds far better than a Karaoke Bar." Now we've reached over into their world and invited them into the Kingdom of God.

Tip #2: Take time to read the Bible with them. This will require asking their permission for some extended time, as I attempted to demonstrate on Sunday: "Would you mind if we take a few minutes to read about this in the Bible?" But opening the Bible does a few things: (1) Exposes them to words that are more certain and powerful than your own (see the promise of Isaiah 55:10-11); (2) Demonstrates that the changes, the love, and "something different" about your life is caused not by a philosophy or set of ideas but some objective standard outside of yourself. I find people actually walk away with more respect for what you've said when you take time to show its origins in the Bible; (3) Bible Words usually stick with people AND they can later look up or Google a Bible passage online (and they can't always later find or Google you when they have questions...unless you are famous...or have your own youtube channel).

Tip #3: Be prepared to pop the question. Be ready to ask them if they want to respond by trusting their life to Jesus. Don't anxiously qualify it, wait for their answer. If they say, "no" or "not right now," you can follow-up tactfully and ask if you can speak again at a later point. But the answer is always "No" if you never ask. I'll never forget asking this of a student I had just met, he responded yes, and is still walking with the Lord today. You never know!

All of this, it goes without saying, should be done in the context of a building a relationship of love so that you are sharing with a lost person the love of Christ in both word and deed.