How do we communicate the Gospel in an increasingly anti-Gospel world? One of the leading Christian thinkers of our day has some ideas.<\/p>\n
One of the great things about working for the Colson Center is that each summer we work with outstanding college interns. And our interns aren\u2019t here doing filing and fetching coffee. When they show up, we put their developing skills to productive work: writing for our blog at BreakPoint.org, helping us with social media, and other ways that further our mission. And one of our interns, Leah Hickman, who attends Hillsdale College, beat me to the punch on something I\u2019ve been wanting to do on BreakPoint, and that\u2019s review Os Guinness\u2019s new book: \u201cFool\u2019s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her review at BreakPoint.org, Leah hits on something I think that all of us feel or think with a growing frequency these days. And that\u2019s frustration: Frustration about our inability to communicate the truth and the beauty of the Gospel in this increasingly anti-Christian culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hardly know how to approach apologetics and evangelism anymore,\u201d Leah writes. \u201cNo one seems to really care about truth … and how can you explain the truth of God\u2019s Word with people who think that everything\u201d is a matter of opinion?<\/p>\n
Leah identifies a fear that many of us have: \u201c[H]ow do you tell someone that their beliefs are wrong and that they need Jesus without offending them or scaring them off? And what if I\u2019m an ineffective debater and can\u2019t win the arguments? They\u2019ll never come to Christ that way. It will only drive them away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, happily for Leah, and for us, Os Guinness has written \u201cFool\u2019s Talk\u201d specifically to address these issues and to help us recapture what he calls the art of Christian persuasion.<\/p>\n
Guinness makes it clear from the start his book is not about technique; it\u2019s not a step-by-step guide on \u201capologetics for dummies.\u201d As he asserts, there is no \u201csurefire, foolproof approach to sharing the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Guinness offers us an approach that\u2019s based on and flows from a thoroughly Christian worldview. He writes, \u201cTrue to the biblical understanding of creation, Christian persuasion must always take account of the human capacity for reason and the primacy of the human heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the fall, \u201cChristian persuasion must always take account of the anatomy of an unbelieving mind in its denial of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
And because of the incarnation, \u201cChristian persuasion always has to be primarily person-to-person and face-to-face, and not argument to argument … media to media or methodology to methodology. And true to the Holy Spirit, Christian persuasion must always know and show that the decisive power is not ours but God\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guinness also wants us to understand that the Scriptures themselves use a variety of means to communicate truth \u2014 and so should we. \u201cThe Bible has a high place,\u201d he writes, \u201cfor rational arguments as well as for stories, drama, parables, and poetry. The Bible contains the book of Romans as well as the psalms of David and the parables of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the book, Guinness illustrates how the great persuaders reached their audience: From Jesus, to Socrates, to Augustine, and of course Lewis and Chesterton. But he is also unafraid to use great atheist persuaders as examples, like Nietzsche and even Norman Mailer.<\/p>\n
Now, this is not a book you\u2019ll be able to absorb in one sitting. It\u2019s a book that demands prayerful attention. But it\u2019s also a book that can ease frustrations about communicating the Gospel. That\u2019s because, as Guinness reminds us, in the end, Christian persuasion is \u201cnot for salesmen, propagandists … spin doctors … and the like.\u201d The art of Christian persuasion \u201cis for those who desire to share the way of Jesus because of their love for Jesus, and who know that love is also a key part of any human being\u2019s search for knowledge and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2015 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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