CHAD doesn’t like FAITH

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He finds the approach too inauthentic. the people who represent FAITH are just like some old wind up robots… he says.. expressing their rote learning in ways that are offensive to those that hear.

 

 

I like FAITH..  I guess the issue is that  all learning means taking information (in this case either EE or FAITH or 4 spiritual flaws or 2 ways to live) learning it by rote, internalising it,  understanding it, synthesising it and then reproducing it in a  gracious and authentically loving way.
It takes time for the content to be internalised.  It sounds like you had a very “fresh” team approach your door step, folks who had just got to the rote learning stage. You had a great opportunity to have a little fun and enhance their internalisation of the gospel so that they could authentically reproduce it as their own.
Sometimes I have had fun leading people up the garden path for awhile.
With JW’s or Mormons the LAST thing I want to do is tell them I am a pastor.. I just crack open my Greek New Testament and tell them I enjoy reading it.. and could they explain these verses.. and why does their version say x when the Bible actually says Y?  If they ask if I attend a church I’ll say, well at the moment I attend such and such a church, but last week (or whenever ) I attended a church of x denomination …  I leave it vague without telling fibs.. its fun to watch how their approach can lead them right up the garden path, and even into a confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ.
My goal is to avoid a confrontation between me and them, over what knowledge I might or might not have. My goal is to lead them to a confrontation with Christ, and I am just the agent provocateur.

If they know immediately that I am a pastor, we are immediately plunged into an adversarial relationship where our competing theologies depersonalise our relationship and cause us to “seek to win” the front door step joust as we each contend earnestly for our faith.

I would much rather that people got to know me, and got to know that I authentically love and care for them. If they know I do, then they will be much much more likely to listen to me! People really don’t care how much we know, they want to know how much we really care! 

One of the most important ways to get past this whole thing of competing theologies is to allow the person to have opportunity to spend time with you and see that you actually are a loving person who cares for them (Francis Schaeffer’s “Final Apologetic”).

Sometimes it is in “the heat of battle” as our competing theologies are expressed, that we as Christians learn to present the gospel in a loving and personal way in spite of the opposition and bitterness expressed by our opponents. As they see our love and express ourselves respectfully, so they will respond to our graciously presented arguments.  
Likewise, FAITH is a useful gospel presentation. The trainees need to be trained to memorise a gospel presentation of some sort so they can internalise it, and synthesise it. The best way to internalise and synthesise is in the “heat of battle” as their ideas are debated around them.  Its great to see people develop in the “heat of the battle” of ideologies to understanding and respecting the other people that they are engaging. As they see their very poor uncaring and unloving presentations, so they learn to sympathise and empathise with the people they are talking to.
The danger for the FAITH approach is exactly the same problem for EVERY other approach. In fact it is the same problem expressed throughout society and education at large.
It is that  the”knowledge is power” philosophy that is prevalent in our Western society has the outcome of depersonalising the “victim” (the “not-knower”) and making us disrespectful of their lives, their experiences and who they really are, in our approach.
The problem isn’t with the FAITH approach.  The problem is deeper.  it is with the depersonalising approach of Western Education that negates respect for the person who “does not know as we know”.
FAITH or some other approach can only be personalised as people learn to practice sharing their faith as are authentically loving the person they are talking to.
Perhaps the FAITH approach needs to be practiced with family members and friends first, so that we learn to humanise and personalise how we share the gospel, before we share with others who are a little more distant? But then the risks of foulling up the relationships we consider vital while we are learning the “how to” of sharing the gospel, is increased.
Would that we could learn to share the gospel and debate ideas in a closed environment where we cannot do too much harm… ahhh they call that the Adult Sunday School class or small group don’t they? This is so vital to the process.. maybe training there should be extended for a greater period of time .. with practice debates… but would that be authentic?

Steve

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