Curious Christian

When someone challenges your understanding of Christ and Christianity, what do you do?

There’s a lot of talk in emergent circles in doing mission in third places. This is a good thing. But there’s a thorny issue I would like to raise today, and that is, what do you do when someone challenges your understanding of Christ? What happens when, for all your great work in reframing church and worship and discipleship, someone says, “I just don’t buy that Jesus is God and others are not” or something along those lines?

Do you say, “oh, I don’t like to enter into those sort of arguments because we’re only into the embodied apologetics of being a community of love” and leave the person unanswered? Hmmm.

Alternatively, do you fall back, consciously or otherwise, on what you learned about apologetics in institutional churches and Christendom focussed seminaries? Hmmm. Hmmm.

If your answer is yes to either of those, I would ask you to consider this: for all your work in missional approaches to ecclesiology could you still be stuck in attractional approaches to apologetics, in either your dependence on them or reaction against them?

You see, if there is one thing I have learned from doing mission in mind body spirit festivals, its that, its one thing to missionally meet another in their personal space, its another thing entirely to missionally meet another in their head space. And sometimes the latter is just as  hard a task.

So, with that in mind I thought it was about time I shared something I put together on missional apologetics some years ago. It’s an adaption of material from John Stackhouse’s book “Humble Apologetics” which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone as one of my favourite books on doing mission in post-modernity.

Guidelines for answering questions about Christ

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 15)

First, listen and understand. In a rapidly pluralizing and already widely diverse society, we must speak to people as they are, in their variety, not just trot out our “20 surefire answers to 20 common questions”. To do so will mean listening and learning so that we can truly understand people’s needs and pressure points, and the common ground on which we can then communicate what we have to give them in Christ’s name.

Offer, don’t demand. No human being knows anything for certain. So we don’t argue with our neighbours as if we have “evidence that demands a verdict” so to speak. Instead we simply offer what reasons and stories and aspirations we have. But just because we cannot know everything or prove our case with absolute certainty does not mean we can be content to know little and demonstrate even less. All this means is that we are called to do the best we can given the actual limitations of the situation, including our own.

Take it seriously. If we are going to discuss fundamental questions of existence, it is worth being clear with our neighbours that we should do so seriously. This is especially important in this cultural moment that prizes ironic, self-possessed distance over genuine, vulnerable engagement. Cut through intellectual swordplay. Agree to concentrate on one matter at a time, avoiding the tactic of shifting ground as an attempt to avoid any sort of decision. Be honest about the strengths and limitations of your own arguments. Show genuine appreciation for the other person’s good points. Practice sincere modesty to the extent that you are willing to say “I don’t know”.

Teach first; preach second. The task of informing our neighbours about the basics of Christianity is necessary before we undertake the task of persuading them about Christianity’s virtues. It is foolish to try to convince people of the truth and importance of something they don’t first recognize or understand. So we need to make sure we are talking about the same things when we are discussing sure loaded and variously understood terms as religion, spirituality, God, Jesus, Christianity, faith, and so on.

Do as little as possible. A crucial mistake is to distract and confuse a listener with arguments that are either not central to the issue at hand or somehow inappropriate to the listener’s interests and limitations.

Offer as much as possible. The corollary to the previous principle is to offer all the points you think may interest your friend. Who knows what might speak to the central issue in her heart?

Clarify what are the most important questions. To arrive at questions that matter most, it is crucial that you understand two sets of questions and then balance them proportionately: what our neighbours are asking and what the gospel asks of them.

Focus on Jesus. People should become Christians primarily because they want to follow Jesus as the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). So leave aside secondary matters if you can. To put this another way, avoid the popular apologetic zones located at the beginning and end of the Bible. And avoid airy abstractions about “religion-in-general” if we can move to consider the specific and supremely important person of Jesus Christ. Various apologetic problems change when referred to the subject of Jesus. The problem of God and evil, for one, changes dramatically when the discussion changes to God-as-presented-in-Jesus and evil.

Read the Bible. If we can invite our friend to read the Bible – read it alone, read it with us, read it at church – then we should.

Pray without ceasing. If we agree that the Spirit of God is the primary agent of conversion; if we agree that his guidance is essential to us as we question, listen to, and care for our neighbour; if we agree that our neighbours will receive the gifts we offer only as their hearts are drawn by the Spirit; and if we agree therefore that apologetics can be useful only if it is undertaken with these principles in mind; then we must pray.

Remember process as well as crisis. Don’t try to overwhelm; take the opportunity you’re given. We should not feel it is imperative to share some sort of gospel abstract in every conversation that touches on spiritual things.

Worship God. Fundamentally, worship is giving God his due. So we should recognize the limited place our efforts have in God’s great program of conversion, and as we act accordingly, we give God worship. When we treat another person respectfully as someone who God loves, even if he happens to annoy us of challenge us, we worship God. When we hesitate before we reply, pausing to collect ourselves before God and to affirm our trust in him to help us, we worship God.

Try the side door.  If we cannot come in the front door, we should explore for other entrances. Some side doors we might try are: symbolism, literature, practical wisdom, power events, justice and charity, Christian community.

Final words

Now, you’ll see that this model incorporates the embodied apologetic of loving Christian community, it just isn’t limited to it. Likewise, while it acknowledges the limits to logic, it is not anti-intellectual to the point the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. Of course, there is a whole lot more in the book, including discussions of the nature of truth in post-modernity but you’ll have to read more for yourself. But if you learn one thing from this post, learn step one, first listen and understand.