“We have been so trained in evangelism methods that we don’t realize how those are sometimes maybe hurting us in our approach to the curious.”
“What a lot of people are looking for in their spiritual pursuits is not answers to their biggest, darkest questions or they’ve got this emptiness inside that they’re trying to plug. They’re looking for an upgrade. They’re trying to figure out, how do I do this thing that I’m feeling deeply about inside more and better?”
“I’m always looking for, where is the image of God trying to get bigger in somebody’s life? And how do I help connect that to Jesus and to Jesus-like qualities and show them that Jesus is the one to follow to do more of that thing?”
“A lot of our evangelism methods were designed to be real efficient so that we could share the gospel with as many people as quickly as possible. And the reality is, while that may have worked in a day when we were kind of in more of a Christian worldview kind of a society, we have to have a lot more patience with people.”
“Most people are open to having a conversation about spiritual things. But they also tell us that they don’t want spiritual conversations that force a conclusion and that are designed to convert them.”
“If our [church] culture has a high need for closure in the way that we’re putting on our programs and everything like that, spiritually curious people are never going to be comfortable or interested in being a part of what it is that we’re doing. And so it’s something to think about.”
“I would much rather journey with somebody in community that’s having questions and doubts than to have them take their faith on the road outside of the church. And we’ve had a lot of that over the last 10 years.”
“We get so obsessed with the truth as an idea that we forget that the truth is a person embodied in Jesus Christ. And so seeking him in every aspect of our life is really important.”
“People don’t get to talk about spiritual things very often. So they’re very open to talking about it most of the time, especially when I’m curious about what they’re interested in, as opposed to telling them what I know.”
“How do we help present truth to people in a way that’s a little bit more like a museum? Because one of the things that our research has shown is that spiritually curious people, they want to have agency in their spiritual discernment process.”
“We give so many manufactured interpretations that we’ve worked through and processed deeply that we forget that other people need some time to also go through that.”
Mentioned in the Show
Acts 17
Genesis
Matthew 19:16-26
“Faith for the Curious: How an Era of Spiritual Openness Shapes the Way We Live and Help Others Follow Jesus” by Mark Matlock
Check out Mark’s website
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Alpha
American Bible Society
Barna
C.S. Lewis
David Kinnaman
The Engel Scale
The Nones
Russell Brand
St. Augustine
Youth for Christ
