This is my third and final article on engaging the skeptic in our preaching. Let’s take a second to review:
First, why do we need to engage the skeptic in our preaching? It’s because skepticism about Christianity is rising both inside and outside the church. That was Part 1.
Second, what works and doesn’t work in engaging the skeptic in our preaching? It doesn’t work to make church a place where we keep everybody happy or a place where we make everybody believe. What might work is when we show the skeptic how tough issues that seem inexplicable on their own fit well when you look at the bigger picture of the gospel story. That was Part 2.
Finally, let’s explore how. Practically, how might we engage the skeptic in our preaching?
For a number of years, I have studied skepticism of Christianity, whether by atheists or other religions or progressive ideology. In these same years, I have preached in local churches. As I reflected on how I have engaged the skeptic in my preaching, I realized that I have been using a three-step process, which for the sake of memorability, I’ll call “sit, walk, kneel.” How do we engage the skeptic in our preaching? First sit, then walk, then kneel.
#1 – Sit
First, I try to sit with them as they sit with it. “Sit with them” means I empathize where I can. In my sermon, I’ll say, “This is a tough question,” and “I’ve had to wrestle with this.”
How do we sit with them as they sit with it? As I understand it, “sit with it” is a term psychologists will use to basically say, when you experience anxiety, don’t try to run away from the fear. Don’t immediately rush to do whatever gives you relief from the anxiety. Don’t try to distract yourself from the fear.
Instead, sit with it. Let it be there.
So, I sit with them as they sit with it. I give some space to say, “That’s a good question. Let’s sit with it for a minute.”
“I sit with them as they sit with it.”
Here’s an example. I was preaching through Colossians 2, and much of the language Paul uses in Colossians 2 is the language of war. Jesus disarms the authorities. Jesus makes a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Don’t let deceptive philosophies take you captive.
As I prepared the sermon, I realized that many people might think, Hey, I thought Christianity is a religion of peace. Yet that sounds a lot like the language of war. So, in the sermon, I said,
“The relationship between us and people needs to be one of peace. As Romans 12:18 says, ‘If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.’ But the relationship between Christianity and other belief systems looks a whole lot more like war. Listen to the language: Don’t let that belief system ‘take you captive.’ Perhaps you read that and think, ‘Look—I believe in Jesus and everything, but maybe their path, their religion, works for them? Maybe Buddhism is their path, and it will lead them to nirvana. Maybe Islam is their path, and it will lead them to paradise. Look—I believe in Jesus, but I don’t want to see my religion as at war with other belief systems. Can’t our belief systems just all get along? I’ll just believe my thing, you believe yours, and hopefully in the end we’re all right.’ And I just want to say, if you want peace with God, then be a Christian. And if you want to learn how to be at peace with everybody, even your enemies, then be a Christian. But if you want all the religions to be basically true, then that’s not being a Christian.”
“If you want all the religions to be basically true, then that’s not being a Christian.”
I went on to explain that it’s actually not possible, logically, for Christianity and Islam to both be true, or for Christianity and Buddhism to both be true. It would involve thousands of contradictions. Yet before explaining that this view is contradictory, I wanted to give space to sit with them as they sit with it.
#2 – Walk
After you’ve sat with them as they sat with it, then it’s time to walk them through some helpful answers—or sometimes even just some possible answers, if it’s an especially difficult question.
Vince Antonucci wrote a helpful article called “Preaching to Reach People Who Do Not Yet Trust and Follow Jesus.” He gives an example from his own preaching about how he walked his audience through a helpful answer to a very tough question: How could a God of love command his people in the Old Testament to destroy a community known as the Amalekites? Here’s what he said when preaching through 1 Samuel 15:
“A little background: The Amalekites were evil. They had been an evil presence in the world throughout their entire history. They were so evil that God decides they’ve lost their right to live. They need to be removed—for the good of humanity. Now I know that sounds really harsh. But there’s a lot of background here, and God in His wisdom knows what’s best. You may be asking, ‘This is the God of love you guys talk about? How is this love?’ But couldn’t this be love, or at least the most loving option available? Think about it this way: What if you could go back before the Nazis started annihilating millions and millions of innocent people, or even while they were doing it, and wipe the Nazis off the face of the earth? Don’t you think that might be the most loving thing you could do? To save the 60ish million people who died in World War 2 and the Holocaust? . . . Well, regardless, God in His wisdom, and in His love, knows what’s best, and He decides what’s best is to remove the Amalekites.”
“After you’ve sat with them as they sat with it, then it’s time to walk them through some helpful answers.”
Antonucci continues, “That may not be the best way to explain it, but it was the best way I could come up with. And it may not completely satisfy the unchurched person, but it might, and at least I anticipated and tried to answer the objection.”
So, how might we engage the skeptic in our preaching? First, sit with them as they sit with it. Second, walk them through some helpful answers. And thirdly, kneel.
#3 – Kneel
When I help somebody get answers to their tough theology questions, I hope it helps. I hope they come away saying, “I hadn’t thought about it that way. That was really helpful. That removed an obstacle between me and Jesus.” I hope that sitting with them and walking with them through answers helps.
What if it doesn’t?
My experience is that sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the answers I give are compelling to me, not always to them.
Well, whether our attempt at an answer helps or not, we need to keep in mind that the point of our faith isn’t to know all the answers. The point is to trust and follow Jesus. And if the point is to trust and follow Jesus, then doubt, and even unresolved doubt, can be an opportunity to reaffirm our faith in Jesus.
What makes the beginning of the book of Job so powerful is that Job responds to all that loss with “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21b, NASB). What makes Horatio Spafford’s song “It Is Well with My Soul” so beautiful is that Spafford wrote it in agony after finding out that his daughters had drowned at sea.
Doubt can be that opportunity to say, “You know what, I don’t have all the answers. I struggle sometimes. Sometimes my doubts are met with a silent sky. And yet, I will trust and follow Jesus.”
“If the point is to trust and follow Jesus, then doubt, and even unresolved doubt, can be an opportunity to reaffirm our faith in Jesus.”
Wrestling with tough questions can be an opportunity to reaffirm what matters more than anything else, and that’s trusting and following Jesus. Unresolved uncertainties present an opportunity for us to kneel and to acknowledge that even if my mind is confused, and even if my faith isn’t always clear, one thing is clear: Jesus is King.
How can you engage with the skeptic in your preaching?
Sit with them as they sit with it, walk them through some helpful answers, and then kneel. Help them to reaffirm that, even if they don’t get all their questions answered, Jesus is worthy of being followed. And doubt is an opportunity to kneel before him and reaffirm that he is King.
