At long last, I’m restarting my blog. After taking almost a year to focus on writing a book (more details about that to come), I’ve reentered the blogosphere. And I could use some help.
I’m hoping many of my blogposts will provide answers to questions non-Christians ask about our faith.
I do realize many other blogs and online resources provide such answers already. The contribution I hope to add lies more in how we deliver our answer than just on the content of our answer.
In other words, I’m proposing a three stage process of response to questions people pose. First, we need to know, as certainly as we can, that we understand the question. We need to interact with people enough to know which aspect of a question they’re raising. For example, when someone asks, “Why does a good God allow evil and suffering?” they may be asking a philosophical question but this is rarely the case. More often, they’re wrestling with internal pain or disappointment or hopelessness. Some are angry. These call for rather different responses than the theoretical arguments Christians often offer.
We need to heed the warning of Proverbs 18:13: “He who answers before listening – that is his folly and his shame.”
Second, we need to know the answer to the question. We should study the Scriptures well to know what God has said about what our inquirers ask. Most apologetics resources focus here. And they often do the job quite well.
But I’m hoping to post blogs that highlight the third stage of the process – where we consider how to say what we say. I want to consider delivering gradually the pieces of information rather than dumping all our content at once. I’ll offer suggestions for sequence of delivery of parts of our answer. In many cases, people need to absorb or digest certain ideas before they can handle other ideas.
Like following a recipe, sometimes we need to prepare certain ingredients, allow them to sit or marinate, and only then combine them with other ingredients before producing a completed dish.
Now, here is my request: Please email me or send me (through this website) questions you hear from non-believers that you’d like me to write about. Perhaps you know the “right” answer but haven’t been able to present it in ways that helped your skeptical friend. Or perhaps you have too many parts of an answer and need help in deciding what to say first.
I look forward to seeing how God uses these upcoming blogs for his glory and the advance of his kingdom.
