Those who follow Jesus Christ are called upon to take the Gospel message to "the ends of the earth," according to Matthew 28:19-20. In fact, it seems reasonable to say that the Gospel story has the kind of quality that can reach every human mind that is in a position to grasp what it says. That is to say that the Gospel story, of Christ taking on human nature to represent every human being in his death and resurrection in order to restore mankind's ideal relationship to God, is universal. But this is not to say that the way in which the Gospel story is presented is meant to be universal. This is because God respects every person where they are and uses their understanding of the world and themselves to appropriate this message.

Some of you might quickly object: "Where is that in the Bible? That doesn't sound biblical." I agree that it's not explicitly or directly laid out in the Bible, but it doesn't follow that it is opposed to what the Bible teaches about us and the good news of the Gospel. In fact, there is at least one reason to believe that it is compatible with what the Bible teaches and contains in its pages. In Acts chapter 17, the Apostle Paul traveled to Athens, Greece, which was a major site for trading throughout the Mediterranean world. In his message to the crowd on Mars Hill, which consisted of ordinary folks and intellectuals, Paul utilized a certain practice and alluded to knowledge his hearers would have been familiar with before getting to the crux of the Gospel message.

The practice he used was citing an ancient authority within a certain tradition of respected intellectual figures. This fact is explained in more detail in "The Gospel in the Marketplace of Ideas" by Paul Copan and Kenneth Litwak. This placed Paul in good company because it demonstrated that Paul was not introducing something that had no place in ancient philosophical thought. Otherwise, it would have been almost like making a crazy claim from nowhere!

Rather, Paul appealed to their knowledge about the nature of the world and its dependence on a Divine Being - something they would have agreed with - as a springboard to get further to the Gospel message, which did have a scandalous element to it: the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ancient Greek schools of thought - the Stoics and Epicureans, in Paul's case - did not entirely reject belief in an afterlife but did reject any reviving or resurrection of the body.

For those of us who have read the story, we know that the end has mixed results. Paul did not persuade a lot of people. He only persuaded some. But that is not the point I am making. I am emphasizing that Paul was trying to build bridges to reach a specific kind of audience, and he needed the background knowledge that they also had in order to do that successfully, even if the results were not always ideal.

So how does that look for us? I'd like to suggest that we should think of ways to appropriate or tailor the Gospel message based on who we're interacting with in order to have a better chance of reaching them. I am not talking about changing the essential core of the Gospel (or making a substantial change, for any Aristotle/Aquinas nerds out there) but rather highlighting a certain aspect of the Gospel and using that to make the Gospel message intelligible, persuasive and winsome.

For starters, I'd like to highlight three specific habits that I think should be non-negotiable for believers when wanting to make an impact for Christ in a variety of contexts. First, we as Christians must consistently practice the art of listening well. It can be too easy sometimes to quickly spill the Gospel message without listening carefully to someone's reservations about Christianity and taking those into account. Every unbeliever has obstacles in his or her way, and it is our responsibility as the Church to do our very best to remove those obstacles to Christ.

Second, by learning how to listen well, we must develop the skill of asking good questions. Asking good questions requires paying careful attention to where the other person is coming from and seeing why they might think the way they do. Sometimes the most obvious questions must be put off until a later, more appropriate time. Asking good questions is a way of figuring out why the other person doesn't believe in God or Jesus Christ or why they just don't care. When you first start out, you don't know why they might believe what they do. The only way to understand that is by asking good questions.

Lastly, gently and winsomely engage with them and give them permission to disagree with you. There are fewer things that turn people off - especially me - than not being given an option to not believe what is being told! It's like a salesperson asking you "That's a great deal, right?" In short, he's telling you there's only one acceptable answer: yes. There is nothing wrong with engaging with what people think and raising problems with how they think or what they believe. But you must connect your attitude with the message you're delivering. If you come off as a jerk or refuse to listen to their complaints, it won't matter what you intended to say. People tend to remember the tone of our words more than the words themselves.

So where do you fare in this process? How would you try to be more effective in reaching people for Christ? Stay tuned for the next part!