I’m a big Tim Keller fan. His book The Prodigal God was a game changer for me when it came to the famous parable of Jesus. Keller’s small book carries a big punch and presents the Gospel in a fresh and powerful way.
That’s exactly what we need to do to reach this generation with the gospel.
Here’s what Pastor Keller had to say about evangelism in the 21st Century as he addressed Exponential West via video, “Paul didn’t just beat people over the head with the Gospel. He crawled up inside people’s belief, found something they believed that he could affirm and used those beliefs against them…That’s the difference between beating a person and telling them they’re wrong and having them glaze their eyes and walking away from you or making them feel like you have some force in your argument.”
This takes prayer, wisdom and strategy.
That’s one of the reasons I “Ask, Admire and Admit” when I’m sharing the gospel. What is this approach all about? Check out this short clip from our Dare 2 Share app,
Asking great questions, admiring what you can about what they believe and admitting the reason you’re a Christian is that you’re so messed up you need Jesus to save you allows you to break down walls through listening and find common ground to begin humble gospel conversations.
We need to heed Tim Keller’s advice and learn to “crawl up inside people’s belief” to find areas of agreement which we can admire. Then we can gently guide them through the Gospel message to the blood-stained cross, the empty tomb and the open hands of Jesus.
As we get more and more strategic in our evangelistic approach in this culture we will see much more spiritual fruit.
