In my previous post, we looked at evangelism in two parts: a sign that points people to God, and the message of the gospel. Looking at a handful of Acts narratives in which both elements were present helped illuminate how both pieces were important and how they might work. Here, we will focus on one of those narratives, Paul in Athens, and see what spiritual principles are at work, then consider how those principles might play out today.
Earlier, we noticed how Paul’s encounters in Athens could be described in the same two parts, although the “sign” part was not typically miraculous. Instead, it seems that his statements in the marketplace served to point people to spiritual realities that he presented more fully on Mars Hill. Here, we will focus on that first part, and how non-miraculous pointers can be used to point people to the gospel. In the next essay, we will look at the second part, and how the gospel can be proclaimed in suitable ways.
The goal of this work is to see it applied to a project that I’ve been led to develop.
When Paul was waiting in Athens, he was bothered by the idolatry of the city and responded by presenting the gospel. Although there are few idols in the same sense today, many people still turn away from God and devote themselves elsewhere. For example, Paul describes greed as a form of idolatry, and that is certainly evident today, but that’s not the only option. In a sense, we still live in a society that is saturated with idols.
However, are we as bothered by this as Paul was? I’ve often wondered if I am as disturbed by people’s spiritual state as I am by their physical, social, economic, or political status. To this end, it has proven fruitful to pray for eyes to be open in the same way Paul’s were.
Paul’s reaction to his distraughtness was to preach the gospel. He started in the synagogues but also moved out into the marketplace and into secular contexts, presumably to reach Gentiles who didn’t know about God. This illustrates our previous observation that it’s necessary to go into secular contexts to reach the lost, rather than stay in religious contexts and invite people in.
Those who heard him apparently didn’t understand what he was talking about, but found it interesting enough to want to hear more. Paul followed up with a more effective presentation on Mars Hill. However, it’s interesting to consider this first part as a pointer in the sense of the previous discussion. Although not a miracle, whatever happened served to get people’s attention and engage them.
One of the challenges with sharing the faith today is the nature of our post-Christian society. Even casual mentions of Christianity, or even just Jesus, often evoke negative reactions in unbelievers. Thus, it may be necessary to interest people and engage them in ways that can lead to spiritual discussions, without immediately jumping to the gospel. Paul’s experience seems to validate the importance of appropriately getting people’s attention first, before presenting the gospel.
Now, the approach of intellectual engagement may not work for everyone, but just as it was most effective for some of the thought leaders in Athens, it may be most applicable for reaching them today. The important thing is to be able to lead into spiritual discussions, so identifying and connecting with the “unknown gods” being worshiped is a good start.
There’s a tension between getting people to think beyond the merely natural, while not triggering the anti-spiritual sentiments that are so common. Perhaps, just as people were always interested in hearing new things in Athens, the intellectually curious today can be engaged with novelty. One place where novelty and the realm of ideas often come together is in art, where creativity and metaphor are fundamental.
To me, this suggests that the right kind of creative expression of spiritual ideas could engage people enough to lead to deeper considerations.
The nature of these deeper considerations will be looked at later when we consider Paul’s speech to the Areopagus and the role of “unknown gods”, but for now, this seems to suggest a framework for engaging with many of today’s secular and inquisitive people.
First, we need to pray and open our hearts to the Spirit’s burden for lost people. Such prayer should give us the boldness to go – away from religious contexts and into the secular. As we interact with people there, we need to get their attention and engage them in ways that point to spiritual truths, albeit without being explicitly Christian. Lastly, it may be helpful, especially in today’s rapidly changing world, to use novelty to get and hold their attention.
Now to make this concrete. For years I have tinkered with creating 360 photographs and have found that they can be used to easily get people’s attention. Even more, they are a great metaphor for encouraging people to “see more” in ways that eventually lead to spiritual discussions. I’ve used them to open spiritual doors that other evangelistic efforts have not.
However, most 360 photography is not used to share ideas, symbolize abstract concepts, and so on. Nevertheless, there seems to be a great potential for doing this, for developing this type of photography along the lines of an art rather than a commercial product. As a result, there seems to be opportunity for creativity and innovation – exactly the sort of thing that many inquisitive people find engaging.
For example, they can be used to illustrate the limitations of science and materialist thinking in ways that encourage more open minds. With such open thinking, moving onto specific immaterial concepts, such as the spiritual, becomes more natural.
I plan to build a variety of ways for people to encounter 360 photographs, some in ways that they will not find anywhere else. They can be presented in various secular contexts, both online and physical, illustrating key themes that point to spiritual truths without being explicitly Christian, so that post-Christian hesitation won’t come into play.
As a pointer, this seems like a path worth exploring and is being developed as a work called “Whole Reality”. But since the goal is to get people to the gospel, there needs to be more. This is handled through an apologetic model that I’ve refined over the years that will be worked out in a different work called “Kelvin’s Clouds”. For right now, though, the next post will present the Whole Reality project in more detail.
Exploring Antioch 