Finding Common Ground: How to Communicate With Those Outside the Christian Community ... While We Still Can

Rating:
Summary: Read this once a year!
Review: Go with me on a little imaginary journey. Imagine you've decided to "bite the bullet" and join a friend for some street-corner evangelism. Close your eyes. What do you imagine? Are you clutching your pamphlet-of-choice with sweating, trembling hands? Muttering an incoherent prayer to the Holy Spirit to "be with you" as you walk out your door, as your stomach tries to reject the notion that it's responsible for your digestion? Breaking out into a cold sweat as you approach your first person?
When author Tim Downs was in college, he had this experience ... and worse. He and a friend approached a young man on campus, who listened to their opening line, averted his eyes, and began walking away. They dogged him all the way to his dormitory, all three now at a dead run, trying to get through The Four Spiritual Laws while in breathless pursuit. In for a dime, in for a dollar! Needless to say, the door was slammed and the young man's impression of Christians was not improved.
In Finding Common Ground, Downs bucks standard evangelical thinking. He believes we are so certain we are living in the end times, that we are trying to "harvest" without first "sowing". When we rush evangelism, we are engaging with others in such a way that it's really more about us than about them. And in the process, we are needlessly driving others away from engagement in issues of faith.
He argues that recent growth in the numbers of people coming to faith are the result of those in previous generations who created a culture where faith was possible. They were sowers. And if we don't learn to sow, we will be like farmers gathering all the harvest without doing any planting. There will be no harvest for future generations.
In talking about what it means to be a sower, Downs gives many examples from his own life and others, which I always find so helpful. One section that I especially appreciated was the one where he described a day in the life of a sower, all the folks he made contact with who are in varying places spiritually, and how he interacted with each of them. A notion he holds very strongly is that talented, devoted individuals in the workplace who ask the question "should I be doing full-time ministry?" are too often encouraged to come out of the workplace, get some seminary training, and then return to try to leverage their contacts in their former workplace. His contention is that they are most valuable where they are, and most credible without the specialized training.
Downs also lays down some helpful fundamental principles, such as asking good questions that provoke thought rather than defensiveness, hearing the underlying world view in a person's statements so that you can respond to that rather than the statement itself, finding points of agreement as a means of lowering walls, balancing love and justice (love: only telling them the truth when I feel they're ready to hear it [Jn 16;12]; justice: the times when it's just important to tell the truth, whether we feel they're ready to accept it or not), recognizing the value of indirect communication, and more.
I found this to be one of those books with such a rich "harvest" of thoughtful ideas that I had to go back and highlight it and read it through several times. I just may make it the first book ever on my "Read Every Year" list.

Rating:
Summary: Read this once a year!
Review: Go with me on a little imaginary journey. Imagine you've decided to "bite the bullet" and join a friend for some street-corner evangelism. Close your eyes. What do you imagine? Are you clutching your pamphlet-of-choice with sweating, trembling hands? Muttering an incoherent prayer to the Holy Spirit to "be with you" as you walk out your door, as your stomach tries to reject the notion that it's responsible for your digestion? Breaking out into a cold sweat as you approach your first person?
When author Tim Downs was in college, he had this experience ... and worse. He and a friend approached a young man on campus, who listened to their opening line, averted his eyes, and began walking away. They dogged him all the way to his dormitory, all three now at a dead run, trying to get through The Four Spiritual Laws while in breathless pursuit. In for a dime, in for a dollar! Needless to say, the door was slammed and the young man's impression of Christians was not improved.
In Finding Common Ground, Downs bucks standard evangelical thinking. He believes we are so certain we are living in the end times, that we are trying to "harvest" without first "sowing". When we rush evangelism, we are engaging with others in such a way that it's really more about us than about them. And in the process, we are needlessly driving others away from engagement in issues of faith.
He argues that recent growth in the numbers of people coming to faith are the result of those in previous generations who created a culture where faith was possible. They were sowers. And if we don't learn to sow, we will be like farmers gathering all the harvest without doing any planting. There will be no harvest for future generations.
In talking about what it means to be a sower, Downs gives many examples from his own life and others, which I always find so helpful. One section that I especially appreciated was the one where he described a day in the life of a sower, all the folks he made contact with who are in varying places spiritually, and how he interacted with each of them. A notion he holds very strongly is that talented, devoted individuals in the workplace who ask the question "should I be doing full-time ministry?" are too often encouraged to come out of the workplace, get some seminary training, and then return to try to leverage their contacts in their former workplace. His contention is that they are most valuable where they are, and most credible without the specialized training.
Downs also lays down some helpful fundamental principles, such as asking good questions that provoke thought rather than defensiveness, hearing the underlying world view in a person's statements so that you can respond to that rather than the statement itself, finding points of agreement as a means of lowering walls, balancing love and justice (love: only telling them the truth when I feel they're ready to hear it [Jn 16;12]; justice: the times when it's just important to tell the truth, whether we feel they're ready to accept it or not), recognizing the value of indirect communication, and more.
I found this to be one of those books with such a rich "harvest" of thoughtful ideas that I had to go back and highlight it and read it through several times. I just may make it the first book ever on my "Read Every Year" list.

Rating:
Summary: Evangelising that would make Jesus proud!
Review: I really like this book. I would consider myself a "harvester" but I see the importance of sowing the seeds of the gospel. Before I came to believe in Christ, there were many seeds planted in my life, from the campus pastor who came around our dorm to the little relgious things my girlfriend would write in her letters. We can plant seeds anytime we interact with people. This can be someone we are hoping to share the gospel with or someone you may talk with for 2 minutes in line at the grocery store and never see again. We are called to be ambassadors for Christ and planting seeds of the gospel is part of being an ambassador. Read this book and find out how to plant seeds AND to become a harvester of the spiritual fruit.

Rating:
Summary: An evangelism must read
Review: If you are an evangelical Christian, this is a book that comes highly recommended.

I purchased this book at a conference after a friend of mine (who hadn't even read it!) suggested it to me. It is perhaps the best book on evangelism that I have read (with Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels a close second). Any Christian could share with you the importance of evangelism, and most could probably offer a suggestion of "how to". But this book breaks out of the box that so often limits our evangelism efforts.

As someone trained and practiced in the use of the Four Spiritual Laws (a gospel presentation frequently used by Campus Crusade for Christ, the organization of which Tim Downs is a part), I am relatively comfortable in "random" evangelism. But I have often struggled with reconciling such evangelistic attempts with being a "real" person. This book has helped me (and continues to, along with prayer and Scripture) to bridge that gap. Mr. Downs goes far beyond just a gospel presentation, but instead points readers in the direction of allowing their Christianity to spill over into every area of their life, thereby breaking the limits we so often place on our own evangelism efforts.

But beyond that, he also focuses on how to communicate with those who don't share the same worldview that we have become indoctrinated in. Many times, I've found that outreaches offered around me have been appealing to those who have grown up in the Bible belt and share this worldview, though don't actually consider themselves believers. But these often don't appeal to people who specifically disagree with elements of my worldview. How, then, do we reach out to these people?

This book is full of relevant, scriptural insight. It is worth every dollar you spend.

Rating:
Summary: An evangelism must read
Review: If you are an evangelical Christian, this is a book that comes highly recommended.

I purchased this book at a conference after a friend of mine (who hadn't even read it!) suggested it to me. It is perhaps the best book on evangelism that I have read (with Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels a close second). Any Christian could share with you the importance of evangelism, and most could probably offer a suggestion of "how to". But this book breaks out of the box that so often limits our evangelism efforts.

As someone trained and practiced in the use of the Four Spiritual Laws (a gospel presentation frequently used by Campus Crusade for Christ, the organization of which Tim Downs is a part), I am relatively comfortable in "random" evangelism. But I have often struggled with reconciling such evangelistic attempts with being a "real" person. This book has helped me (and continues to, along with prayer and Scripture) to bridge that gap. Mr. Downs goes far beyond just a gospel presentation, but instead points readers in the direction of allowing their Christianity to spill over into every area of their life, thereby breaking the limits we so often place on our own evangelism efforts.

But beyond that, he also focuses on how to communicate with those who don't share the same worldview that we have become indoctrinated in. Many times, I've found that outreaches offered around me have been appealing to those who have grown up in the Bible belt and share this worldview, though don't actually consider themselves believers. But these often don't appeal to people who specifically disagree with elements of my worldview. How, then, do we reach out to these people?

This book is full of relevant, scriptural insight. It is worth every dollar you spend.

Rating:
Summary: Best book on the subject
Review: This book approaches the issue of Christians reaching out to people in the Western culture in ways that are both helpful and meaningful. It is the best book on this topic and avoids the many dangers and failures of a book which seeks to speak a foreign set of values (Christianity) in an increasingly materialistic and relativistic culture. Tim is an excellent writer. His life bears out his writings.

Rating:
Summary: Changed the way I live my daily life!
Review: This book is the best book i have ever read on how to share your faith in a real, relavent, non threatening way with the people you work and live around that are not open to the Gospel of Jesus Christ! This is a must have for any believer who is serious about their faith.

Rating:
Summary: Sowing in the workplace
Review: Tim Downs new book breathes new life into an old idea, namely sowing the seeds of the gospel. Mr. Downs reminds us that proclaiming the gospel is not always about going for the hard sell, but also can and must include dropping a seed here and there. Sowing is a matter of being subtle, even hinting at one's faith. While some hard line "harvesters" may find Mr. Downs' suggestions to be too soft and insist that the times require that Christians be courageously outspoken, I believe his arguments are right on target. I see them as especially on target for two groups: those who work in environments that either constrain or prohibit expressions of faith and those Christians who simply may not be as outspoken as others. While only some may harvest, all can sow. The only reservation I have about Mr. Downs' book is that he is a little too nervous about post-modernism and a little too dismissive of efforts to address diversity issues. However, those are only small points along the way. I highly recommend the book!