Relational Apologetics: Telling Stories - A Simple Faith Special Series

Following Jesus isn't always easy, but it's not complicated. Join us each week as we work to make faith simple. This is simple Faith. Hey, welcome back to Simple Faith. I'm your host, rusty George, and man, I'm excited for where we're going in our mini series on relational apologetics. We've talked about the importance of connection and really honing our empathetic listening skills. If you've missed the previous two episodes, I encourage you to go back and listen to those two first.

But now in episode three, we're diving into a crucial aspect of building those bridges, which is finding common ground in a very diverse world, in a world filled with a huge amount of differences in beliefs and perspectives. The job of just sharing our faith can feel pretty daunting. How do we connect with those who see the world so completely differently? Well, according to relational apologetics, the answer =lies in identifying the shared threads woven through our common humanity.

The longings values and experiences that bind us together regardless of our individual beliefs. That's right. It's easy to get caught up in the differences, isn't it? We can focus so much on the theological distinctions. We forget that we're all just people trying to make sense of this life. Finding that common ground isn't about watering down what we believe. It's about finding a starting point for a real conversation.

One of the most fundamental areas of common ground lies in our universal human longings. Across cultures and belief systems, people are longing for purpose, love, justice, and beauty. These are all the deep seated desires that resonate in everyone's heart. Think about it. Doesn't everyone at some level want to know that their life matters? Don't we all crave connection and love?

Even when people express those needs in different ways or look for fulfillment in different places, the underlying desire is often the same. These shared longings can be powerful bridges in our conversations. In fact, author Todd Rose highlights that many of the perceived polarization in American politics is an illusion. We may sharply disagree on the process, but we're actually sharing the same aspirations.

The American Aspirations Index was populace's effort to understand the private trade off priorities that the public has for the future of the country. We simply asked participants whether they thought we were more divided or united as a country. Not surprisingly, 82% of respondents said we were more divided. And half of those people said we were extremely divided as a country, and yet when we put those same exact people into this private opinion instrument, it tells a different story.

If we take politics out of it and just look at demographics, regardless of your gender, race, geography, income, education level, we share eight of the 10 top priorities we have in common. But the disagreement over what those aspirations mean and how to pursue them is where we spend most of our time. And to be fair, those are pretty big differences. So how do we create connection with someone who thinks so differently?

By keeping a focus on the goals, we're able to more productively disagree on the processes, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control against such things. There is no law. Those who belong to Christ's Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If how we achieve our aspirations is where we are getting divided. Paul's reminder to live out the fruit of the spirit is the remedy.

No one's gonna make a law against faithfulness and gentleness. The hard part of relational apologetics is not sharing the truth. It's really self-control, but this crucifixion of the flesh is a part of all of our sanctification, so let's make it the cornerstone of our evangelism. Not for the sake of unity, but for the sake of unity in Christ. Unity for the sake of unity is false consensus. We don't want to paper over real differences.

What we want is a culture where we treat each other with respect so we can adjudicate those differences in productive ways. The strategy really is bridge building. It really is using unlikely alliances to accomplish amazing things together. And so a call for unity will fall on deaf ears. A call to treat one another with respect and dignity that every human being deserves will actually puncture the illusion of division.

And allow us to accomplish more together as a people than we could possibly imagine. Right now, building bridges just for the sake of having a bridge is a waste of everyone's time. Building a bridge that creates a road to Jesus is an eternal investment. And if it bridges communities, just imagine how many souls might cross that bridge. Okay.

Another effective way to build bridges is by engaging culture relationally. This involves connecting with both current pop culture. And what some call retro cultural apologetics, finding common references in movies, music and shared cultural experiences can open doors for meaningful discussions. I love this idea. We see this with guys like Sean McDowell, who talks about how even Marvel movies can be a starting point for conversations about deeper themes, and even our faith.

It's about meeting people where they are and using what they already understand as a launching pad. Now, captain America famously says, we are not in the business of exchanging lives until the only one in 14 million or so ways to save half the universe is for iron Man to willingly lay down his life. True love willingly lays down one's life, and we all know Jesus said greater love had no man than this, than a man. Lay down his life for a friend. You just think about that.

All the money all the time. MCU trying to tell the most epic story ever. And they can't escape at root the gospel now I don't think they did it intentionally, especially where I see the movies going, I think they can't escape it 'cause it's written on our hearts. We know love is sacrifice. We understand what a real hero is and the MCU is fiction. But in the story of Jesus, that is the greatest story ever told. That's actually true. Exactly.

It's not about forcing a connection, but about recognizing the inherent human themes that often exist in the stories we tell and the entertainment we consume. And this is also a practical and modern way of practicing the Celtic Way of evangelism. What do I mean? Well, St. Patrick, in the early Celtic Church used stories. And metaphors and symbols to illustrate the bigger objective truth to a subjective and pantheistic audience.

These symbols were so effective and so powerful that a lot of them still exist and are used today over 1500 years later. Symbols like Celtic knots and even the Celtic Cross sometimes pre-existed Christianity in Ireland, and they're often used as symbols of pagan religion. But St. Patrick was able to use the symbols to illustrate the truth of the gospel, and to some degree, we do this all the time and naturally without even noticing.

When you hear a sermon illustration that illustrates the truth of a Bible passage, you're hearing this type of contextualization. Even the form of the media can be a form of adapting cultural symbols and metaphors. This very podcast series is meant to adapt the form of podcasting that we hear in journalism like news podcasts or documentary series.

Culturally, we know what to expect and we're able to engage with it more than intellectually, but also on a personal level, this is how we like Sean McDowell, are able to adapt things like movies or songs or even memes in order to share the gospel. The power of shared narrative is also a significant tool in relational apologetics.

Sharing our personal stories, our stories of our own faith, the journey of how we came to believe and how our faith impacts our lives can resonate deeply with others at an emotional and existential level. Similarly, sharing the overarching Christian story, I. The big narrative of God's love for all of us, for humanity can connect with those universal longings we talked about earlier. Your story is powerful.

It's unique to you, and it can connect with people in ways that a theological argument alone might not. When you share authentically about your own struggles and doubts and the hope you've found, it creates a space for others to share their own experiences and consider what's possible. The Celts learned well, the lesson that it is the Christian community that witnesses not just individual Christians, and that made a great difference to leading whole countries to coly Christ.

The Celtic Church adapted non-Christian culture to become Christian culture without making any changes that were unnecessary. They used the symbols of non-Christian culture to preach Christ. Instead of fighting the culture around them, the Celts adopted many of the symbols of that culture for Christian purposes. One example of it is the Shamrock, which is of course the national symbol of Ireland. Originally, it was a pagan symbol, used and drew it worship, but St. Patrick took the shamrock.

And used it to teach the doctrine of the Trinity as the Shamrock has three leaves and as one. So Father, son, and Holy Spirit are three, and yet one soon. The pagan roots of the Shamrock were completely forgotten in the Christian community. People took it as a sign of one God with three persons. Another example was a Pagan celebration that was popular in those days called Heim. It was on October 31st. It was a time for celebrating and remembering the dead, the Irish church.

Decided to take that ritual and on November 1st, the next day celebrate All Saints Day, which was a time to commemorate the martyrs of the faith. All Saints Day rec replaced Heim on the calendar and it wasn't in late. It was much later. In modern times when the Pagans reclaimed it by looking at all Hallows are All Saints Eve and calling it Halloween, and that's where we get Halloween. But the church and island is still celebrates it as a, to remember the martyrs for Jesus.

The Celtic Church understood that cultural days and symbols can be redeemed to call people to Christ. Now there's a danger of taking that too far and accepting pagan customs that should be rejected. Okay, so this does bring up the danger of syncretism and syncretism is when two cultures come together and blend to form something else altogether. To avoid this, we need to be rooted in God's truth in the process of translating, and when we do that, we avoid compromising it.

The goal is to share God's truth in a way that someone can understand, not change it to fit into their current beliefs. Again, this is building a bridge for the sake of having a bridge. We need to remember to build a bridge to Jesus instead to effectively find common ground.

It's also crucial to commit to understanding other perspectives. This involves taking the time to learn about different religious and philosophical world views. This means not only listening, but learning from your friend. It doesn't mean you have to be an expert, but you do have to be thoughtful. Dr. Douglas Gruas emphasized the importance of Christians being informed about other belief systems, even atheism.

It's not about agreeing with everything, but about understanding where others are coming from so we can talk with them in a way that makes them feel like we understand what they're thinking, where they're coming from, what they might possibly believe, and then we're able to see and possibly even agree with some of their aspirations, even if we disagree with how they're trying to get there.

Knowing the basics of what someone believes allows us to have a more informed and empathetic conversation, and it helps us identify genuine points of connection as well as potential areas of misunderstanding. I. As we've said, the big objection to this approach is the concern that finding common ground might risk diluting the unique claims of Christianity, and that's a valid concern. We're not suggesting that we compromise our core beliefs to connect with others.

Finding common ground is a starting point for conversation, not a compromise of truth. It's about building a foundation of shared understanding before we address the specific and sometimes challenging aspects of the Christian faith. Focusing on universal human experiences, engaging in culture stories thoughtfully, and sharing our own stories and seeking to understand perspectives. We can begin to build bridges with individuals holding a whole huge variety of worldviews.

These connections are rooted in our shared humanity. They create fertile ground for meaningful deep conversations about our faith. Absolutely. It's about seeing the person first, hearing their heart, understanding their world, and then finding those points where we can connect on a human level. That's where the real dialogue begins.

All right. Let's consider together what are some values or experiences that you believe. Are shared across different cultures and belief systems. How might you be a little more intentional about using these as starting points for conversations about faith in your own life? Take some time this week to think about that. Look for those common threads in your interactions with others. Looking ahead to our next episode, let's consider this.

While finding common ground is crucial for building relationships, how do relational apologists then address the core, often divisive theological differences and truth claims of Christianity in a way that keeps and stays respectful. And maintains the integrity of both the relationship and the message of the gospel. Well, that's the big question we'll be tackling next time on Simple Faith. It's a delicate balance and we'll be exploring how to navigate it.

Thanks for joining me today on the Simple Faith You can find more resource. And ways to connect with us@pastorrustygeorge.com and until next time, keep it.