[Music] this is the session for religions and cults general principles for approaching them the session does not contain all of the religions that you're going to encounter there are way too many religions for that so rather we're going to learn the principles here and you're gonna learn to adopt them and adapt them to your local region so when sharing the gospel with anyone not only should we be ready to have an answer as dr. Miller's talking about in first Peter but we also have to share the truth in love from Ephesians 4:15 while yelling at people on the street may lead to the salvation of some we believe that it is better and a way more effective to build relationships with people that we share the gospel with at the University of Washington we have this guy who comes to school almost every day who has about a 15-foot tall sign it's like pretty much like a Turner burn and it's got all the sins listed and it says you're gonna go to hell and he'll preach out of the King James Bible and yell at people and so one day he'll go to the LGBT clubs and say you're going to hell for everything that you believe and then he'll go to the clubs and tell them the same thing and it's gotten to the point where you know people in Washington are pretty passive but it's gotten to the point where he's had to wear a body camera because of the violence against him his pretty ridiculous nor do we want to stray into the the ditch of friendship evangelism because that connotes an ulterior motive for the friendship but rather we want to genuinely care for the people that we are sharing the gospel with because we want to share our hope for them we want to shower hope for the world with them so this is effective not only for the immediate relationship but establishes a pattern of discipleship for if the one that we are sharing the gospel with is saved then their next step would be to probably follow your example so you have to look to the future keep that in mind because that your next step with someone may be how they model their next steps when they're preaching the gospel to someone else so another way to think of worldviews as dr. Miller said is through frames frame of references because they give context or references to everything we see this includes historical tradition this is their ultimate narrative of reality how they make sense of everything this includes their heroes of thought this includes their cultural references you know pop culture as well and so when we as Christians look at the world we see this picture of a broken world framed by God's plan for redemption and restoration and our frame of reference is in his hope for justice and mercy for this world for the world ultimate narratives standards of reality and here as a thought are going to differ from city to city they've adopted different worldview frames that give context to their understanding and sometimes they think that that's the only frame that's available to them so when sharing the gospel with them what we're actually trying to do is to reframe how they see themselves how they see the world in light of the gospel this is part of being an ambassador however not all people are open or able to see life through the frame of the gospel this is best illustrated when one says you should believe in Jesus because the Bible says so and then the listener rejects that you know wonderful wisdom the speaker can then get baffled or angry that you know their listeners rejecting them and then they start trying to push harder and then it gets like that example where they just push back and it ends up really not great and the whole time the speaker is typically unaware of the frame of reference of the listener so sometimes they'll think that oh maybe the Bible is outdated maybe Jesus actually wasn't real and we have to get to those underlying assumptions before trying to present the gospel so the challenge in sharing the gospel is the reframing the worldview in a way that they'll understand because every context of sharing the gospel is different these principles have to be adapted to the culture if you begin to think of framing and reframing it'll be easier for applying each of these principles to your specific frame so we begin with trust and empathy from the beginning of the relationship to wherever you are with the person right now the most important relation skill to master is empathy the best way to establish their trust and help them overcome fear and the ability to empathize is to step into their frame so to speak and show them that you can understand the world from the way that they see it you can do this when you do this you can build a clear path from their frame to your frame because sometimes if they're so myopically focused and then you build that bridge for them that might open the way for understanding so when you're inside their frame you can validate their fears and concerns about their frame or your frame right of Christianity back to them and that is massively powerful because they see that you're not just blindingly accepting blind you're not blindly accepting your own frame and in their eyes it gives you authority to speak truth and love to them so an example for this would be if you're speaking to someone from a Hindu background and they share with you that they're considering to follow Jesus but are unsure because they're afraid of how their parents would react validating them to step into their frame would look like yeah that is certainly a scary place to be in especially since you value your parents affirmation so much right I understand that that's super important to you what are you hoping for in this situation how can I help you how can we brainstorm this and problem shoot this together this actually happened to me with a student from Japan because their parents were from a Buddhist atheist background and he I met with him for over six months and I just told him the gospel every way shape or form and he was getting it he got the life he got the death he got the whole idea of what choosing Jesus meant versus not choosing and for an entire month straight every Wednesday that I'd meet with him I would say are you ready to commit to following Jesus and he would say no because I'm scared of what my parents are gonna say to me if I go back to Japan and they find out that I'm Christian I don't know if I'm going to be part of the family anymore then I go man that is definitely a valid fear why why do you think your parents would do that and then we talked for an hour about that and I go well this is a really big problem how are we gonna get through these crossroads and he said I just don't know I have no ideas and I go well well what does the gospel say about choosing Jesus and he goes well choosing Jesus means choosing life okay and what does that mean if you're going to put your parents affirmation next to Jesus's affirmation and he goes oh if Jesus affirms me I have life but if Jesus doesn't affirm me then that's death and it just sank in and he sat there for about ten minutes just thinking about that and he goes I hate how much you challenge me but I see the truth in what you're saying and I will definitely take take this to heart every Wednesday that you challenge me is every it's the hardest day of my life because you're putting life and death in front of me but it's also my favorite day of the week because I feel like I'm receiving the words of life when I listen to you so amazing the Holy Spirit is working through that but just validating that fear like man I don't know what to do with your parents I don't know but what choice are you gonna make right are you gonna follow Jesus are you gonna follow your parents and I could only do that because of that six months of trust that I developed with him you can't just do that with someone like you're meeting like five minutes in he trusted me and he showed that he saw that I loved him and that I valued him so if you feel like you lack empathy a simple skill to practice is while listening to someone ask them for an opportunity to summarize what they said to confirm if you understood them so they're talking for an hour and this has happened and I go okay hold up can you can I just repeat back early cook what you've been saying to me and then I'll summarize what they've said the last hour and like three key points this means being a very good listener right this means not getting distracted by you know what you're gonna have for lunch or whatever you're actively listening to them and then I'll repeat it and they go no no that's not quite what I said and sometimes that's actually I repeated back to the MiGs actly what they said and so that gives them a chance to clarify and so well then when they clarify and then I clarify what they said they're like okay yeah now I feel like you really understand me and all of a sudden it's like this this barrier just goes down and then I can preach the gospel to them just that easily five minutes ago nope five minutes later absolutely I think Jesus might be something worth considering so at the very least it shows them effort on your part to care so understanding their frame when studying religions cults and sects it is important to understand that this knowledge is not for you to show off to the person how much you know I've fallen into that pit way too much rather this knowledge should be building how you understand their frames you should be able to empathize more with the people that you talk to understand their motives and their hindrances for example I do a lot of work in Nepal I've been to Nepal like seven times and I love working with the students there and one thing that I know in particular is that the eldest child is responsible for lighter lighting the funeral pyres for their parents to be ushered into the next stage of life if the eldest child does not do that that's pretty much like saying forget you mom and dad I don't care about you you can go to hell for all I care that's the equivalent of what's being said so if the eldest child converts out of their religion to another religion what does that say to their family right so when I work with them and I know that they're an eldest child or when I usually ask them I say so are you uh you know are you the eldest in your family just an innocuous question and sometimes they say yes and if they say yes okay now I know what I'm dealing with I don't have to tell them that I know that but now I have a better idea of how to approach sharing the gospel I'm going to be sharing it in light of okay what's more important is is Jesus's words more important or is family more important and that's that's a really challenging place to be so context from there we can discern what's shared and then you know lead us into the next questions to ask another good example would be the whole Trinity in Islam so in the Quran it says that if you believe in the Trinity you're going to hell and so when I engage with Islam's on at University of Washington I already know this going in and so one of the points of tensions that I bring up once we establish trust is okay so how do you deal with the Trinity or and this usually is most helpful when they say oh yeah I believe that you know Allah and your God can be the same God and I go oh okay that's an interesting idea where do you get that from lead more into conversation and then I bring up okay well how do you know what the idea of the Trinity and then that gets into a bunch load of fun conversations and questions which I love I love this kind of stuff but they can see that I trust them they can see that I care to understand where they're coming from and I'm not just trying to be like Jesus and hit them with a Bible or whatever so when you take time to understand that it shows them that you're investing in them and they begin to trust you so all people regardless of their frame they need to be seen heard and respected and a great way to do that is to try and discern what their core values are so talking over them or arguing with them in order to show how you're correct is the best way to ignore them and it shows them that you don't care so instead learn to discern their values through what they're saying so for example when I talk with Muslims one of the most common things that they say is you know they they bring up how much they Revere Muhammad how much they Revere just everything that he did and how much they want to emulate him in their life and one of the things that I do to build rapport as I say man that is I really see that you respect Muhammad and I admire the devotion you have I don't agree that he should be having respect and reverence for Muhammad but that's a good character trait that devotion and so I'm thinking about man how can he apply that devotion to Jesus how can we build a bridge with that devotion all the way to Jesus and so I highlight and I call out man these are good character qualities in you these are good values that you have and that goes a long way to showing them that you're interested in them and so it's a huge step to also not showing them that they're a project to you one of the first encounters in Seattle was I tried to invite someone to church and they're like well I'll only go to church with you if you don't make me your project meaning to say too many people have made me their project before to try and convert me I'm not interested in any of that but I care that you're a friend and that you're inviting me to this so I'll do it because of you and I said that's fine that's that's absolutely fine I'm not trying to make you a project I'm just trying to show you that I care and so through that relationship I was able to reiterate their values to them get to know them a lot more and just build a really powerful relationships with them and humor humor is a great key for persuasion when you feel confident that you know how to discover the frame of context and learn their values don't forget that you can have fun with them especially in conversation certainly no one wants to be boring when talking about the hope of the world right the best way to help someone change their frame is to get them to laugh or have fun when we were doing an outreach to University of Nevada Las Vegas we brought some double dutch ropes out and we were just spinning them and anybody who walked by could come in and have fun and so people would just go and we'd see we try to see how many people we could get in these double dutch ropes and guess how many people we had come join us for lunch to talk about spiritual things we had like 15 and I was like unheard of for me the westcoast 15 people that's so much that's so much fun but they were laughing and it was such a hit and we were just able to share so many you know God conversations and people just started pouring their lives out to us all because we just had fun with them so humor and fun it opens up their frame to being persuaded and so at this point you're no longer pushing against them but you're laughing with them you're walking with them and you're discovering truth together so if you raise a sword against someone what are they going to instinctively do they're gonna raise a shield right so we want to break the frame lower their defenses and humor is a perfect way to do that going back to values when we speak to their values we can show them that sometimes they already agree with what with with what we say and this has to be done gently this is the task of finding a point of contact so for example if you're chatting with an agnostic person who says why are you so just focused on trying to get everyone to believe in your religion all right I get this all the time in Seattle why don't you just let your beliefs be private huh just believe in God whatever that's good for you not good for me and a general but a firm response that I sometimes point out is because I deeply value truth I deeply value belief and it seems to me like you value those things too because you're willing to convince me of your belief that I should keep my faith private so you're doing exactly what I'm doing you're trying to convince me of something and so you could go on to point out that you're not just trying to force something down someone's throat probably something else they value but invite them into a relationship of truth and love so discerning what their main values are could be a huge key to overcoming emotional barriers as well and we'll cover that in the overcoming emotional barrier session these points of contact exist between virtually every religion every belief set in Christianity we just have to find out what they are many people who hold fast to a religion do so because it speaks to a core value or something that satisfies them and so what we have to do is reframe that deep need in light of context of the Bible I have a student that I just met at Seattle Central Community College and his one of his value is actually power struggles and how he sees that well I want power and the only way to get power is to struggle for power and I think that everybody needs to do that too and so I go well why why do you believe that why do you think that that's such a core value to you and I got back into his his family history and wouldn't you know it both of his parents were divorced why because there was constant power struggle and he started emulating that and he's like well everybody's got to do it and so religions have to do it and it's just one big power struggle so then how did I present the gospel well let's talk about this power struggle between this snake trying to deceive the humans and trying to come you know deceive everybody try to bring everything into chaos while God is trying to maintain everything with order talk about one massive you know power struggle for him and all of a sudden he saw this this Christianity and a new light and it really opened up the gospel for him so it showed him that I understood his values it showed him that I understood his needs and I was respecting him and I was able to defuse the tensions with him and then when it comes to points of tension when you feel like you've developed enough rapport or trust with the person that you're reaching out to and you've discovered what some of their values are you'll probably discover their points of tension right so some of the obviously what some of the obvious ones are in the secular worldview many will often say that there's no such thing as absolute truth because they value the freedom to decide truth for themselves so one way to ask about this tension would whether they claim if that's an absolute truth and we already cover that earlier is their absolute truth because if there is and you've you know you found it if there's not then you've also found it and that just gets into a whole bunch of really fun conversations and this exists as well with Hinduism in Hinduism there isn't a logical basis for social justice because the people who are suffering are required to suffer in order to let their karma be worked out so in Buddhism they have to sever any attachments to the world in order to attain enlightenment so if you're approaching someone from Hinduism and they're trying to fight for social justice you can point out that tension like dr. Miller saying earlier or if you're with Buddhism and they have relationships that they don't want to let go of you can ask them I'm confused it seems like in your doctrine you're you're meant to let go of attachments oh why are you holding on so strong to some of these attachments so you can ask them about these tensions and how to explain it before attempting to offer an explanation for how the gospel understands these tensions and so in all things finally remain relational with them if they invite you to theirs or events art theater performances events that they invest time in there anything of the sort do that with them one of the students that I was reaching out to from Indonesia he was super into theater and well what did he do tons of plays and so I would go to them and then he started going to our church because I showed engagement in him and this is kind of a happy and a sad story because what happened was me and some of our other campus ministers would faithfully show up at his plays and support him and he would go to our church as a result of that and more people at church got to know him and everybody at our church got to know him but then when he finally left for London a few months ago and he had a going-away party at the at the theater that he was in and only five of us from our church showed up and he sat there and he goes well isn't even as anyone else from your church able to make it or like oh no I'm glad the five of us showed up but did anyone else do that how much do we really care and so we we want to do things with them if they if we see them valuing something let's do that stuff with them to incarnate and sometimes their preferred activities may not be the most legal and you're gonna have to ask pastor or wisdom on how to do that because one thing that we struggle with in in Washington is marijuana is legal and so I get a lot of university students that come up to me and they're like dude the thing you said about the gospel is so awesome do you want to go smoke a bunch of pot with me and talk about it more and I'm like well I'd love to talk about this stuff with you more but how about we do something else instead because I don't much care for the smell of it and how about we play pool dude I could totally be down with that and that actually happened to one student and he just loved billiards and he was trying to get better and so pool was just a great alternative to smoking weed yeah so I know that that's not legal in all states but there that's how we do it in Washington spending time with people in incarnated into their worldview shows them that they're valuable to you and that you can build trust with discipleship isn't doesn't always look the most spiritual I played pool with this guy for three months before I was able to share the gospel with him again he told me that he was a Muslim but he like just loved drinking and smoking pot all the time which made no sense to me so I started asking him about these points of tension and it served really great gospel conversation for us so let this class serve as a frame itself for how you present the gospel to people don't just try to push against them however you present the gospel try to frame it in their worldview using language that they understand understand where they're coming from what motivates them and along the way you'll develop respect and authority in their eyes to speak to the areas of their life that sometimes they might be a little bit more hesitant to share with people and that's a great opportunity to bring the light of the gospel through that this process takes time so don't be rushed to clarify this doesn't mean from this doesn't mean stop sharing the gospel but discern ask the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit when is the right time sometimes you just have to share a part of the gospel sometimes you share all of the gospel this guy who was talking about the power struggles I only introduced that part of the power struggles that first three hours you know 15 minutes for the first three hours that we talked then the next week we talked for another three hours and then I talked more about how that power struggle really wasn't much of a power struggle at all because God can just crush this Serpent's head right he is the snake crusher and reframe his entire perspective of what power struggle looks like in this upside down Kingdom where what does it mean to actually be powerful because Jesus said the most powerful of you is the one who dies right if you're in a fight and I asked Ennis if you're in a fight and one person is trying to kill the other person and one person is just trying to merely stop the other person from killing who has the harder fight and all of a sudden he stopped and he realized whoa the gospel is more powerful than this you know black and white power struggle that I thought before and so it's just sometimes the gospel at once sometimes its piecemeal but no matter how you do it remain relational do things with them use humor and water the seeds right it takes eads plants they take time to grow and just be patient with that and don't try to rush it [Music]