Often when we’re explaining gospel truth to people, I think we start in the wrong place.
The story of our sinful fall and Jesus’s redemptive sacrifice for us is beautiful, and crucial. But it’s not necessarily a narrative that people connect with on first hearing.
As I discussed in a previous series of blog posts, I think we need to change tack by engaging in the conversations that people are already having. Rather than launching in with narratives that people don’t connect to, we need to find out what they’re already talking about and show them how the truth of the gospel makes sense of that.
I recently read a book that models this well. Have You Ever Wondered? demonstrates how we can lead people to truth by wondering about their big questions with them.1
We make sex the focus, the point, the way to intimacy and joy – but it’s really only a signpost to something greater than itself.
The chapter ‘Have you ever wondered why we treat sex as something sacred?’ by our friend Anne Witton is a great example of this. It starts off talking about our complicated relationship with sex – how we ‘idolise, worship and obsess over sex’ but ‘we also cheapen it by having one-night-stands and meaningless encounters, treating it like a simple bodily function akin to eating a chocolate bar.’2 The journey then undertaken in this chapter helps us understand that sex is important but that we often ask too much of it. We make sex the focus, the point, the way to intimacy and joy – but it’s really only a signpost to something greater than itself.
‘Sex points beyond itself to the exquisite joyful union that we can all experience for ever with the God who made us and loves us intimately.’3 And just like that, we’ve moved from someone’s real questions about and experiences of sex into talking about the gospel.
Similarly, the chapter ‘Have you ever wondered what love is?’ moves from a real question to a gospel answer. We love love, argues author Gareth Black, and ‘the capacity to love and be loved is arguably the most universal human characteristic.’4
But what is love? How do we define it? We use the word so broadly and liberally – when we say we love a sports team, we don’t mean the same thing as when we say we love a spouse.
Gareth’s discussion on the true nature of love leads us to Jesus. He concludes, ‘true love is costly, and the highest form of love is self-sacrifice, love that is willing to expend itself for another, even at the price of one’s own life.’5 The ultimate demonstration of this is the love of God for us – ‘while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).
This kind of conversation still involves sharing the gospel with people who need to hear it. It’s not changing the fundamental truths of Scripture. But it’s enabling us to share them in a way that connects with people – with their real questions and pressing concerns.
Have You Ever Wondered? demonstrates this with so many other topics – music, justice, nature, stories, money, loneliness, history, suffering – even maths! Give it a read to keep wondering about all of these things, and how they point us to Jesus. And begin to wonder aloud with the people around you, too.
- Andy Bannister & Gavin Matthews (ed.), Have You Ever Wondered?: Finding the Everyday Clues to Meaning, Purpose & Spirituality (10Publishing, 2024).
- Anne Witton, ‘Have you ever wondered why we treat sex as something sacred?’ in Have You Ever Wondered?, pp.63-66 (p.63).
- Anne Witton, ‘Have you ever wondered why we treat sex as something sacred?’ in Have You Ever Wondered?, pp.63-66 (p.66).
- Gareth Black, ‘Have you ever wondered what love is?’ in Have You Ever Wondered?, pp.67-70 (p.67).
- Gareth Black, ‘Have you ever wondered what love is?’ in Have You Ever Wondered?, pp.67-70 (p.70).
