Thursday, May 30, 2019

My thoughts on Sam Chan, "Evangelism in a Skeptical World"


Sam Chan, Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News about Jesus More Believable. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018. 288 pp.

Last fall I had the privilege of serving on Christianity Today's adjudication panel for the book of the year in the category of Apologetics & Evangelism.  All four finalists were excellent (not perfect, but excellent) works, with different strengths.  I'd like to take a couple of posts to share some of my thoughts on the four finalists:

Sam Chan, Evangelism in a Skeptical World (Zondervan)
David & Marybeth Baggett, The Morals of the Story (IVP Academic)
Alan Noble, Disruptive Witness (IVP)
Joshua Chartraw & Mark Allen, Apologetics at the Cross (Zondervan)

Chan’s Evangelism in a Skeptical World (ESW) is an excellent theoretical and practical guide to sharing the Gospel in the contemporary Western world.  He accurately diagnoses the condition of our culture, noting that traditional (4 Spiritual Laws, Two Ways) evangelistic approaches may no longer be effective in reaching a changed demographic.  At the heart of Chan’s advice to the contemporary Christian is story: recognizing that the majority of our audience will be “concrete-relational” learners (Chapter 7) who resonate more naturally with narrative than propositions, and emphasizing the storied nature of our experience with Christ (Chapter 2) when we bring the Gospel to bear in our relationships with non-Christians. 

A primary strength of ESW is his practical application for the lay reader.  In Chapter 2 particularly, Chan lays out an achievable means of building evangelistic relationships, with strong focus on the need to build community relationships (“Get your friends to become their friends”) of mutual love and trust (“Listen to their story”) that deepens over time (“Coffee, dinner, Gospel”).

Another strong aspect of Chan’s model for evangelism is his tri-fold apologetic response to friends’ “defeater beliefs” (Chapter 10): “Resonate – Dismantle – Gospel.”  Building on biblical examples (particularly Paul’s Mars Hill address in Acts 17), Chan advocates identifying common ground, affirming and restating (in stronger terms, if possible) what is good and biblically-consonant (Resonate), then demonstrating a deficiency or dissonance within their presuppositions (Dismantle), before demonstrating how the Gospel of Jesus Christ serves as the “best completion to their storyline” (Gospel).  Chan’s Resonate – Dismantle – Gospel model also serves well in his suggested outlines for biblical storytelling (Chapter 7), topical addresses (Chapter 8), and expository talks (Chapter 9).

Furthermore, Chan does exemplary work on Gospel contextualization, first by identifying markers of postmodernism in the West (Chapter 4), then by outlining the need for and means of contextualizing the Gospel to our situation/audience (Chapter 5).  As an added bonus, the Concluding chapter (Moving People from Hostile to Loyal) outlines various stages of people’s faith journeys.

The primary shortcoming of Evangelism in a Skeptical World is the lack of a clear potential audience.  In my estimation, the proper target audience for ESW should be the faithful layperson in the church who desires to become more openly and effectively evangelistic.  The practical advice given in Chapters 2 (Everyday Evangelism), 3 (How to Craft a Gospel Presentation), 5 (Contextualization for Evangelism), and 10 (Religious Epistemology, Apologetics, and Defeater Beliefs) is outstanding, and has the potential to transform believers’ day-to-day walk and mission.  

The book seems, however, to bounce between aiming for that faithful layperson and aiming instead for an academic/professional audience of Christian scholars, pastors, and speakers.  Chapter 1 (A Theology of Evangelism) is a tad heavy for the layperson (though arguably necessary groundwork for the practical advice that follows).  Chapters 8 (How to Give Evangelistic Topical Talks) and 9 (How to Give Evangelistic Expository Talks), however, are more clearly applicable only to a narrower audience.  Chan could have worked around this difficulty in one of two ways.  First, he could have written ESW for the broad lay audience, in which case he would have shortened and simplified Chapter 1, entirely omitted Chapters 8 and 9, and reconsidered Chapters 6 (Gospel-Cultural Hermeneutics) and 7 (Storytelling the Gospel), either eliminating them or recasting them in lay terms.  Second, Chan could have provided a brief Introduction which articulated his desire to reach a dual audience (lay Christian and academic/professional minister), and pointed the respective audiences to the most applicable chapters (and which each audience might avoid).

Overall, however, ESW is a tremendous tool for the believer who desires to deepen their walk with Christ in the realm of personal evangelism.

Monday, May 27, 2019

Top 5 Reads of 2018

I had the opportunity to read 28 books in 2018 - a couple of repeats, but the vast majority new books to me.  Here, in no particular order, were my favorite new books last year.

G. K. Chesterton, Four Faultless Felons.  A collection of four delightful short stories - "The Honest Quack," "The Moderate Murderer," "The Ecstatic Thief," and "The Loyal Traitor."  Each of the 4 short stories features a criminal who is yet blameless in their transgression.  The "moderate murderer" is accused of attempted murder for shooting the governor of British India.  Yet the shooter, an expert marksman, deliberately shot to injure, not kill - and only shot in order to save the governor from a successful assassination around the next bend in the path.  Chesterton's whimsical stories are individually engaging and collectively captivating - a thorough pleasure!

Geraint Lewis and Luke Barnes, A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos (Cambridge University Press, 2016).  Lewis and Barnes are both professional academic physicists, who explore the apparent fine-tuning of our universe.  They walk through numerous elements of the natural world that have to be precisely what they are in order for life to be possible anywhere in the universe.  After analyzing several elements of fine-tuning is great detail, Lewis and Barnes then consider the possible sources of cosmic fine-tuning.  Lewis, an atheist, contends for multiverse (the existence of a plethora of independently existing universes, each with different constants and laws) as the best explanation for our universe's fine tuning - after all, he reasons, if there are billions of universes, one of them is liable to have the right conditions for life: we just happen to find ourselves in that universe.  Barnes, a Christian, argues for divine design as the source of our universe's fine-tuning - God desires to (and successfully does) create a world in which complex creatures can arise and learn to love Him.  The deep beauty of A Fortunate Universe is the charitable dialogue between believer and skeptic on the undeniable fine-tuning that we see in the universe.  A difficult but richly rewarding read.

Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery (HarperCollins, 2007).  I have long admired the life and career of William Wilberforce, one of the pivotal figures in the English abolitionist movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  After his conversion to evangelical Christianity, Wilberforce tirelessly pursued abolition of the slave trade and emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire.  Metaxas is certainly guilty of hero-worship in Amazing Grace, but he nonetheless does a credible job of presenting the contours of Wilberforce's life - familial, personal, political, and religious.  Other figures crucial to abolition are given adequate light of day, but the spotlight shines brightest of Wilberforce.  His biography inspires contemporary Christians to pursue God's calling and purpose in their lives as well - who knows where the next Wilberforce will come from!

Nancy Pearcey, Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Baker, 2017).  I have admired Pearcey's work since her inaugural How Now Shall We Live? and was eager to work through her magisterial volume on contemporary issues in gender and sexuality.  Many commentators today contend that post-Christian sexual ethics are rooted in a deep physicality - a love for the human body and its physical pleasures.  Pearcey's primary contention in Love Thy Body is the opposite - that the move toward the normalization of homosexuality and the affirmation of gender fluidity marks an abhorrence of man's physical form.  The sexual revolution has seen man exert pre-eminent control over the laws of nature plain in physical order, rejecting his created physicality in favor of self-chosen identities.  Pearcey is always thoughtful and articulate, and clearly has her finger on the pulse of contemporary society.  Another difficult but tremendously fascinating venture.

J. B. Stump, ed., Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (Zondervan, 2017).  Stump draws together spokespersons for young-earth creation (Ken Ham), old-earth (or progressive) creation (Hugh Ross), evolutionary creationism (Deborah Haarsma), and intelligent design (Stephen Meyer).  The four authors set forth arguments and evidence in favor of their own positions, and charitably (for the most part) pose objections to the others.  Christians all affirm the doctrine of Creation - it is the how and when of creation that are matters of dispute, and that dispute is nicely encapsulated in Zondervan's new counterpoint book.  It is worth every Christian's time to investigate the reasoning behind the positions that they do not personally embrace.

There is much of worth to read, and insufficient time to indulge it all.  I am thankful for all I learned from my literary adventures last year, and hope for more of the same this!

Friday, May 24, 2019

2018 Reading List

Like a lot of nerds and philosophers (not necessarily the same thing!), I love to read.  I do not always get the time to read as broadly and deeply as I would like to; but I love to read.  I like a wide variety of literary genres - mysteries, novels, apologetics, theology, philosophy, history, science, and travel among them.

The past 20 months of my life has been exceptionally busy, which has robbed me of the time to blog as frequently as I would like.  But I did have the opportunity in 2018, not just to engage in some awesome travel explorations (the Grand Canyon tour, western Canada [twice - June & December], and the United Kingdom of England and Scotland), but also to read some fascinating books.