A short time ago, I wrote about a statue of Baphomet that had been vandalized and destroyed near Christmas time. If you have the desire, you can read it (https://iamgodsservant.com/?p=57). In the post, I posit that the best method is what Saint Paul used when addressing the unknown God as opposed to the methods so often employed. Recently, I and my wife had the opportunity to have a proof of concept moment, oddly enough, with a member of the Satanic Temple. Here is the story. I will inevitably use I throughout this, and it should be understood that when I use “I”, it was my wife and I involved.

Some background first. In December, our car was in an accident. The short story is that it was totaled and, because of an inept repair shop, we were without a car. (Still are for the moment, but that is a different rabbit hole.) Our friend had told us they were going to leave their job and asked if it were possible that they come by to talk about it. Then they went silent for a month. We needed a couple of things from the store, so I suggested that my wife call and see if they could give us a ride. That would also give them a chance to talk and unload whatever they felt like they needed to. It seemed a good idea and I hoped that it would help our friend unload a little bit. I had no idea what was to come.

Our friend is not a Christian. In fact, they are, rather they were, in opposition to the Christian faith. News stories about any number of failings of Christians, combined with bad personal experiences in churches, and our friend’s own beliefs which primarily surround nature and care for creation, mixed in a pot and had our friend convinced that Christianity was not only not for her, but was harmful to people. That is where they were at, but they new us, and knew we were Christians as we do not really try to hide it, so they had questions.

First up was abortion. What do I think? What does my wife think? How does faith play into it? Should that faith be forced upon others? Why do we think the way that we do? This is an immediate opportunity for conflict. Instead I asked where the limits should be. Why would I ask this? It is simple really as most people believe that there should be some limitations on abortion. This is what we have in common, so this is the best place to start. In the end, we found more common ground than disagreement. it was during this part of the conversation that they mentioned that during the run up to Roe V. Wade being overturned, they thought things looked bad and they had read about the Satanic Temple and things they advocated for and had joined.

Our friend mentioned that they don’t even believe in Satan, and then asked who or what Satan actually was. They admitted they did not know a lot about the Bible, or even what most Christians believe, so they did not know. They mentioned that their father was an atheist, and had once took them to church as a joke. Here was another chance to be offended, and another chance for conflict. Instead, I asked if it was a funny experience for here, and they replied it was. I said great, God loves when his creation is joyful, though admitted the circumstances for that joy could have been better. They brought up corruption in the church and the money that goes into the church. I agreed. After all, churches are full of people and people are flawed. I also pointed out that in all of that, Christians, either individually, or through the church, give more money to charitable causes that anyone else. I affirmed that the church isn’t perfect, but also maintained that upon the return of Jesus, it will be made perfect. In the end, they accepted they could take the good with the bad because that is the way of things with anything involving people.

Knowing our friend, we knew that their best life ever would be living naked in the woods somewhere to be with nature. I mentioned that the Bible is very interesting because it begins and ends in the same place-God’s perfect creation as He intended it to be. Just another example of how you can use what is in common to establish more opportunities to continue talking and sharing.

There was a great deal more to the rather long conversation.Pretty much everything that could cause conflict came up including some of the Bible verses that get misunderstood (Judge not, I come not with peace but a sword, etc), but instead of accepting the invitation to conflict, we chose to use that invitation to find common ground where we could explain our faith. The end result is what matters most. First, our friend said that this was the closest they had ever been to “being converted”. Second, they asked if we could make this a weekly occurrence, and even asked if they could maybe bring some others with them.

As Christians, I think that there are are two large mistakes that we to often make, and those mistake hinder our ability to relate to those we most want to get the good news out to. First, we expect people who are not Christians to act like they are Christians. We will make impassioned pleas to our faith and why this or that should be, or should not be, and expect those who do not believe to understand them. The second mistake we often make is that we think that we have to get everyone saved so to speak. Now don’t misunderstand me here, I want all people to come to know the grace and mercy of God through Jesus the Christ, and I believe that evangelism is a vital part of the mission of the church. What I think a lot of us get wrong though is what our job is. It is our job to tell the story and to, in essence, make an introduction to Jesus the Christ through both our words and our deeds. We do not “get anyone saved”, because that is above our pay grade, not to mention ability. Salvation is the work of The Trinity, not of us. Our job is to tell the story, and we can not do that if we are telling it in such a way that no one will listen.