Unlocking the mind of the unbeliever

The Clerkenwell Symposium was a gathering of UK evangelists with Tim Keller earlier this year to discuss how to unlock the mind of the unbeliever.

The group sought to develop ways of evangelism which:

* start by understanding where the unbeliever is at;
* identify what locks them away from investigating Christ further;
* select gospel keys to unlock the unbeliever and begin a gospel conversation.

One issue raised at the start was the way evangelistic conversations become a point by point battle where our point of view is put in opposition to someone else’s point of view until one or other prevails! There are several problems with that way of doing evangelism:

1. It can discourage Christians from getting involved in evangelistic conversations in the first place if they think they need to have an argument-winning form of words.

2. It tends to establish evangelistic conversations as a battle of propositional claims rather than a discussion which helps another person discover for themselves Christ’s life changing truth.

3. It seems to ignore Christ’s role in every evangelistic conversation as the one who enlightens darkened minds so that they can see his point of view with conviction from the Holy Spirit (1Thessalonians 1.5).

The Clerkenwell Symposium focused on evangelism as a conversation where the aim is to help people move forward on a journey of gospel discovery — evangelism as helping people fathom the eternity set in their hearts (Ecclesiastes 3.11), but suppressed by an overload of misinformation and spin:

* unlocking the truths of Christ that they cannot yet see (John 1.5,10);
* removing barriers stopping them from investigating the truths of Christ further (Mark 8.17-21);
* opening up a renewed perspective on the life changing implications of the truths of Christ (John 3.3).

In what’s sometimes called ‘Socratic evangelism’, the evangelist helps the unbeliever move nearer to discovering and receiving the gospel of grace through the use of questions and two-way discussion. The evangelist asks questions that challenge the consistency and logic of the unbeliever’s argument rather than just saying you’re wrong I’m right. This method allows people to grapple with truths by reasoning with them (Acts 17.2,17) and walking with them on a journey to God’s point of view.

The Clerkenwell Symposium therefore aimed to deconstruct the barriers to that conversation with an unbeliever starting or continuing. Tim Keller presented ideas on ‘defeater beliefs’ which people hold strongly and cause them to switch off from listening any longer whenever the topic is raised.

The following is a summary of what was discussed under four stages of the journey of faith:

* relationship building (going to people as an ambassador of Christ’s compassion and good news);
* respect building (serving people and leading a distinct life as salt and light which others notice);
* relevance building (helping people see the ‘so what’ of Christ to life now);
* response building (exhorting people to repent and believe the good news of the kingdom).

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Adopt a go mentality

Lock 1: Truth suppressed by wickedness (Romans 1.18)

Unbelievers avoid Christians when they know they will be challenged about their lifestyle.

Lock 2: Suspicion of any free offer (Galatians 3.3)

We have a strong inbuilt suspicion of any sales pitch where it looks too good to be true. A Christian talking about grace not works therefore is threatening to someone who has been spending their whole life trying to self justify based on performance.

Lock 3: Privatisation of faith (John 18.38)

‘We don’t do God.’
‘Lovely for you but not for me.’

Lock 4: Cultural differences of relating and learning (1Corinthians 1.22, 9.19-23)

Evangelism based on coming to an evening class with food, a lecture and discussion is very alienating to people not from an educated book culture or dinner party social culture.

Keys to locks 1-4

1. Invest time strategically in relationships with unbelievers — share your life, not just the gospel (1Thessalonians 2.8).

2. Encourage prayer triplets and other regular prayer for unbeliever contacts.

3. Seek the ‘person of peace’ God is working in and making open to the gospel (Matthew 10.11; Luke 10.6; Acts 16.14).)

4. Cancel internal meetings so Christians have more time to get to know unbelievers.

5. Establish a 50:50 culture where social events at church and in homes always have a mix of believers and unbelievers — i.e. if you’re having a party make sure 50% of the invites go to unbelievers and that when church members are at a social function together they spend 50% of their time talking to the unbelievers and including them rather than sticking to their Christian clique (Matthew 9.35-38; Romans 10.14-15)!

6. Use a website and quality advertising / fliers, etc. to increase awareness of the church in a local area as a ‘local service provider’ providing courses, children’s groups, Sunday services, etc., which are fully accessible to all (‘no experience necessary’).

RESPECT BUILDING

Model servant beliefs

Lock 5: Perception that church is not concerned about justice

* power hungry and imperialistic;
* morally weak / morally restrictive;
* politically silent on important issues;
* not concerned with social justice.

Lock 6: Experience of church as unfriendly

* interested in numbers not people’s lives;
* only interested in right kind of people / full of cliques;
* unfriendly and unwelcoming.

Lock 7: Perception of Christians as hypocrites

* protected from the community, not serving the community;
* isolated and out-of-touch;
* hypocritical.

Lock 8: Experience of Christians as Bible bashers

* Not interested in a dialogue — don’t listen.

Keys to locks 5-8

1. Seek to serve your local community. Think through how to explain the hope in us so actions don’t come across as preachy morality which others watch us fail to keep. Show that Christians are ‘investors in creation renewal’ always remembering that ‘people matter more than plants’ (Genesis 1.28, 12.3; Jeremiah 29.4-7)!

2. Care for the needy in your church community — distinctly love each other (John 13.35).

3. Give up-front profile in services to people of other races and classes represented in the communities you are aiming to reach.

4. Plan a quality of corporate worship which engages people.

5. Assume that guests are present on Sundays and look to ways of them feeling included in what’s being said from the front (i.e. avoid in-language, use of ‘we Christians’, assume a level of biblical illiteracy, etc.).

6. Have opportunities for Q&A after services so people can clarify, disagree and think through implications further.

7. Adopt an open approach in evangelistic groups — read a passage and allow discussion to go wherever it goes / let people see what they think, but intervene to make sure it doesn’t go down completely wrong path. Affirm the truths, don’t dwell on the wrong answers.

RELEVANCE BUILDING

Challenge defeater beliefs and propose distinct beliefs

Lock 9: The defeater off-switch

Defeaters, Tim Keller explains, are ‘common sense’ consensus beliefs that automatically make Christianity seem implausible to people. Defeater beliefs are like automatic locks which are engaged whenever a worldview is challenged. Defeaters include contrary evidence (e.g. suffering and evil), the perception of God as angry, science and actions in the name of religion.

Lock 10: The tolerance off-switch

Tolerance is a different kind of off-switch from defeater beliefs. Rather than people disengaging from Christianity because they think it is implausible, tolerance causes people to switch off because they think Christianity is positively harmful. Tolerance, it seems, is no longer about putting up with views you don’t like (a dictionary definition) but is now a mandate to eradicate views contrary to society’s status quo.

Lock 11: The pragmatic off-switch

Truth is rarely the starting point question for people in a pragmatic culture that wants to know what will work for them whether or not it is good, pleasing or perfect truth. People therefore choose the most convenient and least costly way ‘to get through life’ which tends to mean Christianity gets put low down on their lists of options to investigate.

Lock 12: The self-sufficient off-switch

* self help: I can be and do and have whatever I put my mind to (success, recognition, acceptance);
* self reliance: I alone am responsible for my happiness and I don’t need to rely on anyone else (‘I did it my way’);
* self justification: nobody has the right to tell me what to do or think — I decide what is important and true (don’t need to be rescued);
* self selection: it is only true if it works for me.

Keys to locks 9-12

1. Understand your audience — their hopes, dreams and disappointments.

2. Deconstruct the off-switches.

3. Identify the idols people are clinging to and thus the ‘baseline narrative’ which is playing in their minds. Connect to the baseline narrative and the gospel grace they are forfeiting (Jonah 2.8).

4. Preach to the heart (affections) not just the mind and will.

5. Be willing to push your thinking — ask ‘so what?’ Don’t dumb down or be afraid to interact with anything deeper than just explaining the obvious. Unbelievers want to debate Ð be winsomely ‘in yer face’!

6. Ask the what if question: what if there is a new creation Ð a life after death where people receive new bodies and live on a renewed perfect earth?

7. Be prepared to be honest about how your faith impacts you — know the answer to the question ‘why are you glad you’re a Christian right now?’ and be prepared to give an answer for the hope that’s within you (1 Peter 3.15).

RESPONSE BUILDING

Teach Christ belief

Lock 13: Bible illiteracy (Luke 24.25-27)

People don’t know the narrative of Scripture. Their presupposition of the Bible is of an outdated morality tale. Don’t know who Jesus is, what he said, what he expects, why he matters to my life now.

Lock 14: gospel inoculation (Lk 15: 28-32)

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. The under-researched conclusion that Christianity is a religion based on being good enough for God prevents people from grasping that it’s all about grace. Too light a view of sin prevents people from desiring grace.

Lock 15: carpe diem (Luke 12.13-21)

All that counts is the present. Life is about pleasure now, not future consequences.

Lock 16: counting the cost (Luke 9.57-63, 18.18-30)

Seemingly accept but not continue to follow Christ when the cost and lifestyle changes start to impact (parable of sower, Luke 8).

Keys to locks 13-16

1. Tell people that your biggest longing is for them to be with you in eternity — that puts the here and now in the very different light of the future hope.

2. Understand where the gospel impacts different groups’ baseline narrative — if they are performance driven, then grace is the starting point; if morally driven, then sin is the starting point; if justice driven, then the cross is the starting point; if success and Facebook profile driven, then new creation is a helpful starting point.

3. Go ‘along the grain’ of Scripture and teach the narrative of the whole bible: creation, fall, redemption, restoration

4. Teach Mark’s Gospel narrative of Jesus: identity, mission, call (see Christianity Explored).

5. Plan and communicate a cycle of evangelistic events so that there is an evangelistic course on a regular basis — don’t leave it too long before people can start a course.

6. Have a biblical fear of God — recognise in preaching his holiness and the reality of his absence in hell. Give a call to repentance and faith on Sundays — i.e. don’t just say Christianity relevant but vital. Maintain a gospel urgency and compassion which compels you to persuade by all means possible (2 Corinthians 4.11-21).

Andrew Baughen is Vicar of St. James, Clerkenwell — a church in the centre of London seeking to reach people very unused to Christianity.

He has written The Because Approach (Authentic Media), which aims to help local churches become more intentionally evangelistic.

Andrew Baughen gives an overview of ideas