Seeing that this
month’s FX was focussed on evangelism, I decided to review the book, “Tactics:
A game plan for discussing your Christian convictions”, written by Gregory
Koukl. I didn’t really know what to expect when I first read it a few weeks
ago, but since picking it up I’ve found out that it’s one of those “must have” books for any Christian who wants
to be serious about being able to engage in productive dialogue with
non-Christians.
Why? Lee Strobel,
who wrote the foreword to this book, explains it well: “There are plenty of resources that help Christians understand what they
believe and why they believe it – and certainly those are vitally important.
But it’s equally crucial to know how to engage in a meaningful dialogue with a
sceptic or a person from another religious viewpoint…”
Simply put, often
when we get taught about evangelism, we get taught a lot about why evangelism is important and what to say, but we don’t get taught how to say it. It is one thing to know the
Kalam Cosmological argument off by heart, but quite another to know just how to graciously respond to a friend who
says, “well there’s no evidence that God exists.”
Through this book,
Greg teaches us how to be better Ambassadors for Christ, how to shrewdly, yet
graciously, maximise on opportunities to promote the cause of Christ in our
conversations. Greg gives us incredibly simple
but extremely powerful techniques to
help us engage better with non-believers, whether they are earnest seekers
wanting to know more or combative aggressors who are only interested in
skewering a Christian with their words.
And these techniques
aren’t mere gimmicks or tricks of manipulation! These are effective tools that
help open eyes and clear minds if used honestly and appropriately. It’s not
about just “dressing up the facts” or “talking it up”, but about taking away the
trash and clearing the mist from people’s eyes.
Despite its
aggressive-sounding title, Greg consistently focusses us on the gracious use of these techniques. Because
these techniques are so powerful, they
can be easily abused and misused to push people into a defensive corner. In
picking up this book, be very careful
about how you use what you learn from it: We are here to be Ambassadors of Christ, to win people to Christ, not to merely win
arguments.
Although the points
made in this book are incredibly powerful and useful, the book itself is
surprisingly easy to read. It took me 2-3 weeks to read, in a time when I was
quite busy with other things in my life, which is amazing for me since I
haven’t finished a non-fiction Christian book for maybe the last 2 years! It is
very compelling to read and if you sit
down to read it you may be tempted to devour it in one sitting. Greg skilfully
distils complicated philosophical concepts into simple, easy-to-understand
bites, so that a reader with high-school level English will be able to easily
read and learn from his book.
Another thing I
found amazing about this book was how practically instructive it was. It felt
like I was doing mental martial arts practice with Greg while I was reading
this book! After going through the theory of a concept, Greg would bring out
real and practical examples from his life about how these concepts could be
applied, and gives you a ste-by-step, move-by-move, guide on how to address
people’s questions and challenges appropriately. Each chapter has a very useful
“What we learned” summary at the end to make sure you know what you have gone
through in the chapter you have just read.
So have I enticed
you enough to read this book yet?
Well, because I know
most of you won’t be picking up this book, I will share with you a few of the
key points that I have learnt from this book:
- If in doubt, ask. Too often, non-Christians go on the offensive and make aggressive claims against Christianity and demand that we answer for our belief. But what we often forget is that it’s not only we who have to answer for our beliefs; THEY have to too! Christians are often much more well-versed in the reasons for their faith than non-Christians simply because non-Christians aren’t often asked to figure out why they believe what they believe! And when these non-Christians are asked, they find that they actually haven’t fully thought through the implications and reasons for their belief! It is amazing how far the simple questions of, “What do you mean by that” and “How did you arrive at that conclusion?” can get you.
- Practice makes perfect. As with any human task, the more practice we have at being Ambassadors, the better we get at it. We can’t expect to be experts without having ever answered a question under pressure!
- Irrationality abounds! It is amazing how incoherent and illogical some common ideological slogans/catch-phrases are! If we take a moment to think, you realise that some popular ideas are actually rubbish! For example, think about the phrases “Don’t judge”, or “There is no truth”.
- Pick up the bat. One of my favourite quotes from Greg is this one: “You don’t need to hit home runs. You don’t even need to get on base. Just getting up to bat – engaging others in friendly conversation – will do.” And my question from this quote for you is this: Will you get up to bat?
To finish off, I
want to leave you with more words from Lee Strobel, again, from the foreword of
this book: “We live in a day when militant
atheism is on the march. Christianity is coming under attack, not just from
best-selling books, sceptical college professors, and television documentaries,
but increasingly from neighbours and co-workers… Each day the chances are
increasing that you will find yourself in a conversation with someone who
dismisses Christianity as a mythology-ridden anachronism. What will you do when
they paint you into a rhetorical corner and belittle your beliefs? How will you
persuasively present “the reason for the hope that you have”? How will you
seize opportunities to get into potentially life-changing spiritual discussions
with people you meet?”
I hope you will read
this book.
