Speaking the Gospel into Their Hearts

"The young couple looked to be in their late twenties, very well dressed, happy, and confident. “May we take one of these Bibles?” they asked. 'Absolutely,' was my reply.

'We’ve never had one. Are they free?' Those words struck my heart like a knife… ”we’ve never had one!” I didn’t expect to hear these words in this context. You may think this conversation happened in some far away land with someone from an entirely different background. Not so. This young couple’s family had been in the U.S. for generations and had grown up in the heart of the upper mid-west in Minnesota. They had never been to church, never owned a Bible, and had never heard the gospel in their life. To say the least, they looked at things from an entirely different perspective from me. Their worldview was entirely different from the biblical worldview and mine.

If you are endeavoring to take the gospel to the lost of North America this scenario is no surprise to you at all. You have probably had numerous encounters similar to this one. The realities of immigration, the absence of a Christian witness for generations in many parts of North America, and other factors have drastically changed the landscape into which we seek to take the gospel.

We tend to expect a different culture when we venture into another country and seek to contextualize the message of the gospel so that the likelihood of the hearer understanding and accepting the message of the gospel will be greater. Yet, for many years, in North America the approach has largely been more of a one-size-fits-all when it comes to sharing the message of salvation. Current reality in North America screams to the would-be evangelist that many different approaches are necessary to reach the masses of unreached and under-reached peoples, who now call the U.S. and Canada home. Consider the different ways in which Jesus approached the Samaritan woman (John 4) and the rich young ruler (Mark10:17-22). He understood the way they looked at the world and spoke to them accordingly. Paul used many different approaches to speak into the hearts of his hearers (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

One of the keys to developing more contextualized approaches to sharing the gospel is the understanding of worldview and those elements in their worldview that cause them to be positive toward Christianity (bridges) and those beliefs and practices that are contrary to biblical teachings (barriers). Worldview has been defined in a number of ways, however the heart of the meaning is the overall perspective from which we view and interpret the world. Worldview is the heart of what we believe, value, and do. We often try to change behavior or beliefs but even when change occurs it will only be short-lived at best, if there has been no change at the core level (worldview). This kind of change only comes about through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As discipleship takes place in the life of a believer, their core beliefs are transformed into the image of Christ. The more we understand their perspective at the core level the better able we are to share elements from Scripture that will speak into and replace their worldview with a biblical worldview. This is the heart of real discipleship."

To read the entire article, which is posted on the Church Planting Village website, click here.