When was the last time you shared the gospel with an unbeliever?
I know a handful of people who do this well—they can strike up conversations with perfect strangers at the grocery store and effortlessly turn the conversation toward Jesus. Yet for myself (and I suspect most Christians can relate) evangelism can seem bewildering and awkward. This month we look at Street Smarts, where apologist Gregory Koukl explains how to utilize questions to navigate conversations and make people think.
Koukl reminds us that evangelism is, in fact, difficult. Jesus was rejected, misunderstood, and ignored; we should expect nothing less. Indeed, as our society sheds the last remnants of cultural Christianity, it is no longer just the gospel that is a stumbling block, but nearly every aspect of a biblical worldview. Yet this is also an opportunity. Christianity provides the best framework to explain why the world is, and why it is the way it is!
Compared to the Romans Road or other evangelization formulas, Koukl’s method might seem too open-ended. “I do not feel compelled,” he says, “to shoehorn the gospel into my conversations in an odd or artificial way, pushing toward the finish line if the circumstances don’t warrant it” (19). This doesn’t mean that he thinks the gospel is somehow unimportant—it’s just that God often calls us to be gardeners, not harvesters. Instead of trying to bring every conversation around to a decision, we should just aim to make one clear point.
So how do we “put a stone in their shoe” (21), as Koukl calls it? Perhaps surprisingly, by asking questions. Koukl lists several big advantages to using questions. First, questions “generate dialogues instead of monologues” (46). Second, questions “keep you safe.” Instead of making statements you have to defend (“atheism can’t explain good and evil”), questions give the other person the burden of defense (“how does your atheism account for evil?”). Third, questions enlist the other person as a “willing—though unwitting—partner helping me unpack the problems with his view” (45). This isn’t about winning points; instead, it’s about getting the other person to clarify their own beliefs and then gently pointing out the dilemma their worldview creates for them.
Koukl spends most of the book gaming out various conversation scenarios about everything from atheism to abortion. This book isn’t intended to be a comprehensive defense of Christianity. Instead, he gives practical advice for navigating conversations “on the street.” Koukl’s experience as an apologist is particularly helpful with regard to picking your battles and avoiding conversational minefields.
I found Street Smarts to be both accessible and inspiring. You don’t have to be a super-Christian to share and defend your faith; you can start just by asking good questions. Koukl says, “If your goal is to win people, you will frequently be disappointed. If your goal is to . . . be faithful in the moment, then you can be successful in every encounter” (11). Put a stone in someone’s shoe today.