Gospel Conversations Reimagined: A Series of Stories
Preface
As 2020 hangs in the balance, I am looking forward to a fresh start to a new year. I am sobered by the fact that we enter into 2021 in a very different place than where we started—a very different place than we ever imagined. My hope is that the forthcoming “series of stories” will provide you with a sense of hope and expectation because they are grounded in the timeless story of the gospel—The True Story of the Whole World. I am compelled to share the ways God has met and encouraged me to live into the call to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
The following paragraphs are meant to preface this series with a brief overview of the motivation behind my research on evangelism and to set the stage for the story that will unfold over the course of the next weeks and months. I want to be clear, I am not an evangelist by gifting but I am a very well-trained evangelist. I became a follower of Jesus 40 years ago, and as a brand-new believer I was trained by the best to share my faith in an area of the country that was not always receptive to the Christian gospel. Since then, I have always loved sharing my faith and training others to do the same.
In the early 2000s I was volunteering my time at Portland State University where I trained students to share their faith. I remember a very poignant moment when I became aware of a seismic cultural shift that was taking place in what once seemed to be a familiar and even stable environment.
One fall quarter a friend and I began a conversation with a freshman who had recently moved to downtown Portland from the central Oregon farm where she had been raised. She agreed to participate in a religious survey—one I had used for over twenty years, a survey that was developed within a very particular twentieth century context. The first question was met with this girl’s blank stare. “Who in your opinion is Jesus Christ?” She had no idea what or who we were talking about.
How was it possible that a young girl from America’s heartland had never heard of Jesus?
Over the next several years, time and time again, my routine questions were met with unexpected answers, and the more conversations I had, the more obvious the cultural changes became, and consequently, the more inadequate I felt. Sometimes my training and experience prevented me from having any kind of a conversation, let alone a meaningful gospel conversation.
To be honest, I felt lost and was seriously tempted to stop sharing my faith all together.
You see, during my early years as a believer the tools I used were developed within a mid-twentieth century context, and prepared me with the skills to share my faith with Protestants, Catholics, and very occasionally, an Atheist or Agnostic. Yet, as I persevered in evangelism in a twenty-first century context, I found things had changed. I found myself conversing with Pentecostals turned Wiccan, self-described Socialist Revolutionaries and Marijuana Magnates, with Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, with Nihilists and New Atheists. In addition, I found that not everyone understood the once familiar terms like, God, sin, guilt, or salvation, OR, they loaded those words with meaning I never intended.
As I prayed (and prayed) for wisdom and courage, as I kept reading my Bible, God’s Spirit compelled me to pay close attention to these seismic shifts, to lean in and listen to the people with whom I was conversing. As I followed the Spirit’s lead, I started on a journey that has deeply challenged my faith, has refreshed my perspective on evangelism, and has broadened my understanding of what it means to proclaim the excellencies of God in a culture that continues to shift.
On December 11, 2020 I received a PhD in Applied Theology and North American Missiology, which has served to lay the foundation for this series of stories. I hope you will join me here and learn with me as we reimagine gospel conversations in a twenty-first century crazy context.
