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How providential that I read this article the week I was preparing a sermon on Genesis 28 and Jacob's ladder. What a great illustration of another way to envision God coming to earth/us. It was appreciated by many who heard it. Great thought!

Edited by author 07-09-2005 01:04 PM
The Scriptures are full of them, of course. But beyond the Scriptures there are many. I especially like the Hound of Heaven (God as persistent hound on our trail)poem by Francis Thompson. While not especially warm and personal, it does capture God's initiative.

God as jilted/wounded lover is another. He is jilted enough to cry over us as Jesus did over Jerusalem.

There is God/Jesus as EMT (emergency medical technician). He has come to our house to save us from a medical condition that warrants immediate aid. He knocks on the door but won't kick it in, he patiently waits for a response.

Metaphorical thinking is essential to a contentualized Gospel. Sometimes the best way to train in evangelism is not to train in technique, but rather in thinking, metaphorcial thinking. Once a person knows how to recognize and develop metaphors, he or she can adapt the message to any culture or person (see Don Richhardson's Redemptive Analogues).

Randy D. Raysbrook
RRaysbrook@adelphia.net

Any other metaphors you find helpful for communicating about God to biblically unknowledgeable people?

While certainly God can use the Scriptures to confront people with the reality of their own sin, Scriptures are not the only meas God uses. If creation shouts his glory, then there are other means besides the Bible God can use to reveal himself. I think that the family and relationships are the essential metaphors God uses to express his personality. So if we talk about God as grieving father or party giver, people instinctively comprehend what those images represent. So, just appeal to that knowledge in a yet to be believer.

In other words, rather than trying to persuade someone to accept doctrinal truth (and that is not entirely bad)invite them into a relationship. Evangelism should be more invitation than persuasion. I can tell others that God is hurt, as any parent might be, when his children resist his care and provision and even use them as weapons against him. He runs after them as a wounded parent desperate for them to stop long enough for him to embrace them. They must stop running and admit the error of it for him to clutch them. They respond to his pursuit in honesty by saying to him that they were wrong and they need him.

Great - question Zellie

Any answers?

How do you reason with someone for whom the bible is just another spiritual book?

Saying "because" is not an acceptable answer...

I believe certainly that God can reach us wherever we are. In the valley or on the mountain. Every place is an opportunity to meet God.
I have used the Bridge illustration so many times, as well as the Plan Of Salvation, and the 4 Spiritual Laws and many other ways to try to reach people and communicate the Good News of Jesus. I think the U Illustration and its relation to Psalm 23 gives us an interesting view.
But how can we share about Jesus to others without using the Scripture or mentioning the Bible in everything we say? There are lots of people outside that do not believe in the Bible. How can we reach to them?

Am I nuts to think that sometimes God DOES jump over chaos? Not necessarily the norm...but on occasion...I'm a big fan of Senge and what he says makes sense, as does your cross reference with the dark night and valley of the shadow...and so what I'm seeing is a cross that perhaps resembles those I've seen (but can't name at the moment--I think it's Eastern!) where there are two horizontal arms (one and the top and one at the bottom)illustrating that our reconciliation can occur both above and within the chaos...that both are in some way normative experience, and yet we don't get to choose the path.

Edited by author 07-01-2005 11:01 PM
Dwight,

Thanks for your provocative thoughts concerning the Bridge illustration. We need new models, both conceptual and graphic, to explain Christ's work. I'm convinced that the best “methods” for evangelism have yet to be developed. As evangelicals, we are habituated on a linear-sequential-logical model of evangelism that is often incomplete and perceived as irrelevant.

I have been on staff with The Navigators for almost 25 years now. Some time ago, a pastor friend and I developed a version of the bridge illustration (One Verse Evangelism) that has been translated into almost 15 languages and is in use throughout the world. I am ambivalent about the illustration I helped develop. It has limited utility. Some people present the illustration graciously as a gift, others wield it as a spiritual bludgeon. I don't think the problem is with the illustration, it is with the heart of the person sharing.

You assert that the Bridge illustration has been "mishandled." I agree. But think of the logic of your argument. If something is misused, does that make the object the problem? Obviously, the problem is in the person or the style in which the truth is communicated. We can all cite instances where a good thing has been misused. Church is a great example. The church is not a bad thing just because others have ill-defined it.

Does the Bridge illustration suggest, "that Christ bridges over the chaos?" I guess I don't see that anywhere in the illustration. In other words, the issue of chaos is just absent. It's not so much that the illustration glosses over chaos, it's just that it focuses on the personality of Jesus (if presented properly), not on the context he redeems from. That may seem like a subtle difference, but I think it's important. It almost seems as if you are reading something into the illustration that is not there.

I do like your idea of merging the Bridge with Psalm 23. One of the things I am thinking through is communicating Christ through non-evangelistic passages, especially the Old Testament. I think we can explain the work of Christ through many passages that do not overtly describe who Jesus is. That may be a discussion for another time.

Thanks for invigorating the conversation about evangelism. May your words and thoughts sharpen each of us to become better communicators of the one who calms troubled waters.

Randy D. Raysbrook
RRaysbrook@adelphia.net

I like it, too...of course, I got to see it when it was still in development (yes Dwight - it's one of many things I got out of class <G>). As I was reading through it, I kept thinking about a hammock - which is a good place to rest, but only if you keep most of your weight in the lowest place and don't try to move about a lot.

"Abiding" there, in the place of rest, which is both the valley of the shadow and the place of The Light.

Wandering purposefully in the valley,
Chuck (chucka4@mindspring.com)

I like this. Yes, the bridge illustration is good for some purposes but I'm not sure how experiential it is. The Senge et al model is good, drawing on our experience of change.
I believe that the 'u' model could be useful, especially with those who feel that they are leaving certainty behind.

Thank you for this piece.

Richard (richard@emerging-church.org)