How the Church Can Reach Skeptics
By Pastor Gary Comer
It was a beautiful morning for a hike in sunny southern California. Blessed by living close to a 3000 acre lay of land called Daley Ranch, I often went hiking by myself. My companions were sagebrush, coyotes and rattlesnakes, but today it was my non-Christian friend named Bill, who met me for a six-mile trek. We engaged in conversation about his biking hobby, family, and eventually church. As Bill moved into his mid life years, he was becoming more interested in spiritual things. Arriving at the rest stop, we began a conversation about faith and science. Bill clearly was hung up over the perceived irreconcilable differences between scientific teaching and the Bible. I tried to reframe his thinking on the subject. “It is possible to be a Christian and believe God created people through evolution,” I said, “but there are so many reasons to believe in creation.” I began to walk him through some of those reasons, and within a thirty-minute talk his whole view of faith-science divide changed. I eventually asked if there was anything else he needed answers on. Suddenly he was at a place where nothing stood in the way of him becoming a Christian. So right there in the middle of our day hike, Bill accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior! Later I was at his fortieth birthday party, where he shared about his new faith to his friends. What an awesome moment of testimony that was!
Don had other barriers. He was hung up on the unfairness of the Christian message. He just couldn’t get past the notion that according to Christian teaching some would miss out on heaven because they didn’t have the same chance as others. I reasoned with him about judging God on these things. God is infinitely wiser than us. How much do we even know? Of all the knowledge that exists in the world, what percentage do we possess? Are we to think that with our little pea brains we know better than God? In God’s infinite wisdom he chose that people would come to know him through faith in his Son. We need to trust his wisdom. Not only do we lack the brains, we lack the heart. We question God’s compassion, yet we care mostly for our family, a few friends, and ourselves. How much have we really done for others in this world? God has infinitely more compassion than we do. How can we sit in judgment, when he sent his own Son to suffer the cross for us? In about twenty-minute conversation, Don was able to put aside these objections. He also accepted Christ and went on to be one of the leaders in our church.
What I have seen is when we help people over the question hurdles they have, they come to faith! Once the barrier is removed they come to the place where they are at peace with the decision to follow Christ. I write this book to better equip Christians and churches in the ministry of evangelism. Allow me to clarify the three barriers that exist. For some people, the barrier is merely an understanding of the gospel. They need someone to follow-up with them and explain what Christ did for them, and how they need to respond. By the way, in many churches there are people who need more than an invitation from the front. They need a person to sit down and talk it through. If we follow-up, God will bring the understanding they need, and save them! For others like Bill and Don, they need someone to help them over hurdles that are keeping them back. So the evangelist takes the role of the apologist and defends the Christian faith. Finally, others are what we might call serious skeptics; they need something much more than the people in these first two barrier categories. They need someone to help them build an entire rational foundation for belief. You might picture getting wood, hammer and nail and constructing a large platform to stand on. Secondly, they need a new way of thinking that will free them from their prison of doubt, and release them into faith. We need to help retrain the way they think and make decisions. That may sound intimidating, but it’s more doable than you think. I want to show you how.
So the challenge in reaching skeptics is they have a much bigger hurdle to get over. These are staunch card-carrying agnostics and atheists. Because the barrier to faith is bigger, the effort to reach them must rise. I want to ring the mission bell for the skeptics! Just as we are called to love the “hard to love” people, so we also must stretch ourselves to reach, “the hard to reach.” I see the need for every church to have a ministry for questioning people. These “Thomas-like” analytical, doubt-driven individuals exist in numbers in every church. They are the tag-a-long spouse who shows up to church every once in a while. Their mate has invested much prayer for them already. He or she is desperate for someone committed enough to reach them and bring spiritual alignment to their family. Sometimes skeptics come regularly to church, but are not moving anywhere spiritually. Why? Because they aren’t convinced there’s reason to believe. Not that they don’t want to. They just can’t reconcile their thinking with the proposed truths of the Christian faith. Most of them haven’t taken the time to read the great apologetic books available, and wouldn’t know where to start. If they only had someone to guide them, a friend to walk along side helping to dig deeper into the questions they have, and to question the conclusions they have made.
The Benefits to Reaching Skeptics
First off, let us begin by acknowledging that these people are reachable. In this writing I will share with you about the atheist who came to faith through a nine-month process of weekly one on one meetings. On learning that he asked Christ in his life, his wife broke down in tears! She could hardly believe that he now was a believer! He had transitioned from atheist to agnostic, and from agnostic to Christian. She has thanked me often for what I did, which was a labor of love for me. I was grateful to have the opportunity to show love to him in this way. It helped me to fathom his life condition without Christ, and to partner with God in his “hound of heaven” seeking love. You will grow to be more like Christ as you show love to “the hard to reach” people.
Additionally, it will sharpen you! One of my buddies used to joke about how he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the woodshed. Friends, lets be honest. Many of us are dull instruments for God’s use. Sorry to be so direct. We haven’t done our homework, and haven’t practiced talking with others about spiritual things enough to be effective. If you apply yourself to reaching a skeptical friend, it will multiply your harvest potential one hundred fold in this life. You will get “street” equipped. God will use you to not only reach the hard to reach, but ALSO others in the first two barrier categories I mentioned. You will become a sharp instrument for the Lord’s use.
Finally, if you have the heart and willingness to reach skeptics, you will be multiplying God’s mission to this growing segment of our culture. Converted skeptics are powerful apologists. Like an alcoholic’s unique ability to help another alcoholic, these people understand what it is like to be lost in unbelief, and doubt. They have a story about getting out from there and finding faith. One of the things that has made Lee Strobel’s ministry to skeptics so fruitful, is that he was one of them for so long. He was the card-carrying atheist journalist at the Chicago Tribune. Fortunately, a church in Chicago had the heart for the skeptical questioners like Lee. Not only was he reached, but a massive ministry to the church and to skeptics was birthed as evidenced by his many excellent books. Think also of C.S. Lewis, the one time professed atheist devotes his great intellectual mind to explaining and defending the Christian faith to a skeptical world. Bringing it down to the street level consider the day my atheist friend came to faith, he was better equipped to defend his faith than most decade long Christians. Nine months of investigation and discovery, had given him solid rational footing for his faith, and tools to share effectively with his skeptic pals.
Let us sharpen ourselves by learning a process to reach our skeptical friends, and in time we’ll experience a movement of God!
