Live Q&A | What Is the Most Biblical Method of Evangelism?

Live Q&A Introduction and Channel Updates

Tip of the tongue. Tip of the tongue. Are we live I? Believe we are. I love these. This is so cold and awkward and weird. Are we live. Is this happening? Welcome welcome. Thanks very much for watching this video.

It's Friday. It's time to party. I'm your excellent host Nate Sala. Okay, all right. I'm the president of wise disciple and I highly encourage you to avail yourself of the materials and resources through my Ministry.

Check out our website wise disciple org for blogs and articles related to theology apologetics and engage in the culture for Christ effectively. Check out our audio podcast new episodes every Thursday.

You can find them on All the podcast apps. I imagine Spotify iTunes. Other things I don't know about pod pod bean. Is that a thing? As a matter of fact, I've been filling in for the regular podcast host and I recorded a few podcasts over the last few weeks.

Yesterday's episode was all about the importance of Peace in your life, you know as Christians. Do we have peace? Do we pass on that peace to others? I strongly encourage you to check it out because I think it'll help you figure out a way to be Christian right now that is very winsome and stands out in today's culture.

For those of you that are joining. Thank you for joining me. Come on in. Come on in. Join me here. Join me here. Finally, we have a store. Did you know that where you can purchase wise disciple gear? I know how to do this.

I'm on camera. We have t-shirts. We got mugs. Do we have socks? Does anybody? Do we no answer? We should have socks. Check out the store and represent wise disciple wherever you are go to wise disciple store for more Alrighty, come on in everyone.

I can see you what your pastor didn't tell you. Kevin Deepane. I like that name. I want to change my name to deep pain moving forward church hymns and psalms. Thank you everybody. Welcome. Come on in just checking in with the community.

Here is the deal I said at the end of last year in Celebration of hitting 3k subs that we should do a live Q &A where I answer your questions. Now it looks like we're gonna hit 4k subs in like five minutes.

So again Thank you so much for subscribing and continuing to come back to the channel Without further ado. I shall belly flop right into these questions if you're wondering if this is live, this is totally live.

Let's do it Warts and all let's let's go ahead and here's the first question and that is from Kevin. Oh, thanks for you're with me here Kevin good. So the question is is there a debate curriculum that you would recommend for homeschool families?

Alternatively.

What components and structure would you advise if not able to say this is top-notch curriculum? Yeah. Thanks for the question Kevin.

Debate Curriculum for Homeschool Families

Boy.

This is not the first time somebody has asked me this question.

I.

Should be totally upfront with you Kevin. My focus in ministry and my heart's desire is in the area of evangelism and discipleship. I do not consider myself to be an apologist. I'm not sure anybody does.

But.

But I'm definitely a teacher and a pastor. Years ago my team and I made a YouTube channel and We never did anything substantial with it until like I don't know end of 2019 beginning of 2020. You know or thereabouts.

So when I started putting thoughts into the YouTube channel, I Thought up a gimmick just to get more folks aware of our ministry and it really felt like I pulled it out of thin air. Okay, but the thought came to me, you know, what if I just kind of like smooshed together?

Like regular apologetics debates which are much more Informal they much more like town hall discussions a lot of them are. What if I smoosh that together with the formal rules of debate that really belong more with like public forum?

Lincoln Douglas, you know policy style debates. I mean, you know, we're talking about topics that sound a lot more like Increased sanctions to China would improve America's global foreign policy. You know, I mean like not Is it reasonable to believe in the resurrection.

So what I'm getting at is I never thought that this debate series would be as popular as it is. And it's not right like it's still small potatoes. We're not hitting millions of views. I'm just saying so to answer your question When I taught debate it was years and years ago.

I.

Would have to go back into my old files and really search through my old lesson plans. But even then like knowing me I'd probably have to like Systematize the information in order to create something that is useful for somebody else to use, you know.

There are no great books in my opinion in the area of debate. Well, no, I take that back. If Kevin if you mean debate in the area of like public form, you know, there is actually a book that's helpful.

I think I have it on Kindle. It's it's called beyond resolved. Alright, I think it's written by a former debater she's a coach now and What I like about the book is that there is a bit of strategy throughout the entire thing.

Okay, and the strategy that that she provides could be translated into other contexts like even Apologetics or theological debates. All right, if that's more along the lines of what you were thinking.

That's about all I got for you Kevin. I Will say generally speaking There are a few principles to to keep in mind. You know like in my opinion, it's important to get your kids writing a lot. Processing their thoughts on paper a lot, you know.

There there's way more into debate than just getting up and arguing with folks in crossfire. Students should be practicing writing monologues. They should be practicing writing speeches. They should be writing a lot of essays.

Why because well they need to be able to articulate themselves clearly when they get up to Communicate their opening statements, you know when they when they try to write their rebuttals, you know I don't think that a lot of people realize that those who write well speak well.

You know, I mean those who? Read a lot speak better than those who don't read as much. Now there's always exceptions to the rule. But generally speaking this is true. And so the way you start your kids off to greatness in terms of debate is just getting them to practice and hone their writing abilities.

And.

Then it's important that your students have a strong foundation in in like basic logic in logical fallacies. So, you know in in that kind of category of of teaching. I mean, there's a lot of books for that.

There's a lot of great books. I Think I still have One of my books here. This is totally professional. Hold on one second. I'm a just trust me. Right on my bookshelf here, it's a you know Shome's textbook on logic.

Okay, this is something that I actually did use. Can you see that? This is something that I actually did use and I relied on This book for exercises and drills with my students in the classroom, you know I still have it on my bookshelf over here, you know, so.

You know your students they should be able to pinpoint errors that their opponents have made like in their own opening statements or rebuttals. It's also important that students take exemplars of debate transcripts so you got to find like the best of the best examples of Debates out there and annotate the debates, you know, like have your students identify where the claims are.

You know where the evidence is that supports the claims where the warrant is all that stuff. And you know kind of break them down and analyze them and perhaps along those lines. You take debates that are not great.

You know that that Maybe need a lot of improvement and ask your students to critique those debates maybe improve upon Those debates if at all possible, so, you know, these are all things just to increase their skills.

Students need to learn how to develop their contentions, you know in clear language and be able to support themselves and and like I said provide good warrant in the you know, the the warrant is the Explanation for how the data supports the claim and this all just begins with writing out arguments first.

Before your students can get up and verbalize these things more on the fly, you know I keep saying warrant by the way warrants. I'm referring to a term that goes along with the Tolman model of argumentation.

Tolman t-o-u-l-m-i-n Model of argumentation, which is what I used in the classroom. It's a lot of debate teachers use in the classroom. And then of course, there's you know at the end of the day, it's just practice practice practice lots of drills.

Lots of mock debates, you know if you're up for the stress level. Mock tournaments, you know. How's that we good we back on. Okay, we'll have to tweak some of these things later, but hopefully you can see the camera and I will move on it's a little dark.

There we go. All right, so question number two also from Kevin what denominations in your view currently hold to the highest standard of Theology boy.

Which Denominations Hold the Highest Standard of Theology?

Yeah.

That is. That's tough Kevin, I don't know I Don't know if I know all denominations well enough to be able to speak knowledgeably about that, you know. This is where you know, all the Catholics in the room heard the word denomination and they take a quick bathroom break.

You know what? I mean? I will say this Kevin and and I Think this is all I got for this question. I can't imagine that the answer is There is only one denomination that is handling theology to the highest standard.

That there is only one denomination that is the most sound and All the others are deficient, you know, I think what this comes down to is Whichever church is handling the scriptures in the way that it should be properly understood that church is doing what they're supposed to be doing.

You know that church is probably the most sound.

Right.

The reason I say that is because it seems to me that even within denominations. You've got some churches Handling the Word of God really well. And then you got others that are out there doing some weird wild wacky stuff.

You know, I'm thinking of the Presbyterians right now. You know, so I mean in my own lifetime. I'm 43. I remember when there became two distinct designations there was the. Yeah, how does this go? I always screw this up.

There was the PCA and then there's the PC USA. You remember this you guys with me and the PCA stayed more traditional. Arguably, they were like handling the Word of God as it should be properly understood and the PC USA Went more liberal went more.

Well, I was gonna say woke. I don't know if I can get away with the word woke because it seems like that would be like in anachronism. For what? Happened to the Presbyterians all those decades ago, but you get my my meaning right?

The bottom line is with the split everyone was Presbyterian everyone's in this denomination, but there's this split. So I'm not sure that the answer can be discovered so easily if we pay attention to denominations.

Exactly, but maybe I'm wrong about that. I haven't given it a whole lot of thought. But anyway, thanks again for the question question number three. Am I still the video still going good question number three, do you plan to feature any political debates?

Political Debates and the Limits of a 501(c)(3)

Particularly those political debates that address our culture. That's a great question. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how could I not in this era of politics? Am I right? I mean, have you seen what the offerings are lately out there on the political front, you know, come on now.

You.

Know what Jason I reacted to the last presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I don't know if you know that You can go back. It's in the series. Like if you I guess break down my channel with playlists.

You'll see on the debate teacher react side if you go back far enough, it's there You can find that reaction video. I thought that was kind of fun and interesting to do. I will say it's a tad harder for me to do videos like that.

Not because You know political debates are all that different. It's because I need to be careful since my organization is a 501c3. So, you know, I mean like I can't be seen endorsing certain candidates, right?

So to say that this candidate one And the other one lost I just it's not impossible. I Just have to be very careful about doing something like that. You know what I mean? But I'm certainly open to doing more Political debates.

I would count the video that I did on all the abortion arguments with like Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder as political debates, you know I'm very open to Doing more Shapiro debates if that's what you're asking.

So yeah, thanks for the question Jason. Let's go to question number four. There's a lot of questions. By the way, it was like 17 questions. Okay, so you forgive me if I'm kind of moving along here. Question number four from.

Delacue I.

Like it. I like it. Do you hold to a specific theological framework Delacue? Is that your given name?

Delacue I I I do.

Hold to a specific theological framework. Okay, I feel like Nacho Libre ages now. I bet you think I don't know a buttload about the gospel, but I do you know. No, no, I'm sorry, here's the thing Delacue I like saying your name.

This question is kind of vague. So, you know, I mean like I hold to a biblical framework when it comes to God the gospel sin heaven hell Evangelism discipleship. In other words, I let the Bible define these things for me.

I guess my question is which specific area did you want me to discuss? You know is Delacue here. Delacue are you in the chat there? No. So, you know, I mean like I'm a Protestant with Orthodox views on biblical doctrine.

I.

Could say more if I knew what you wanted me to talk about specifically. I will say this. Because of what I do particularly with like the debates and stuff I don't think it's appropriate for me to be very specific about some of my views.

Especially like those related to soteriology perhaps eschatology.

You know.

But you know what if I ever stop doing debate reaction videos like I'll be way more upfront about all of those things. I Can tell you this like my theological framework is a lot more apparent if you watch my sermons.

So shameless plug, right? If you're down to do some homework and you're not tired of the sound of my voice after this video You can check out my sermons over at Life Baptist Church's YouTube channel. So Delacue.

Thank you for the question. Let's move on question number five. Where we at here. Question number five from Alyssa Scott Alyssa or Elisa.

Hmm.

I'll say Alyssa. What are your three simple steps to? Formulating leading questions, it's a great question Alyssa. And You know what the timing of it couldn't be any better, okay. Because I have plans hopefully very soon to continue the first state evangelism series that I started where I will you know break down the three steps to leading questions and Provide examples and other supporting pieces.

So if you just be a little bit more patient with the video, hopefully it'll be coming out Very very soon. But here's what I'll do for you right now though, Alyssa. Okay, I'm not sure if you're with me now, but here's what I'll do.

I'll give you an overview of the three steps right now, and then I'll briefly explain how it works and That'll have to suffice until I make the video. So for those of you that are not familiar I have a a signature method of communicating the Christian faith.

It's called first state evangelism and it trades on the teaching methodology of Jesus in the Gospels. Okay, it also trades on some of the principles of debate. The bottom line is the method entails putting the focus on the person that you're talking to letting them do a lot of the talking and Asking them the right kinds of questions so that you can communicate your Christian faith.

The reason why I advocate for this is because there is a proper order of persuasion. All right, and the proper order if followed. Overcomes the barriers and emotional obstacles that people typically have in regular conversations.

So if you can overcome these things when you finally say what it is that you want to say from your Christian convictions, your message will be well received and You know, I'm sort of derived to this originally when I was very frustrated.

After my first year of teaching in the classroom because I had lessons that I wanted my students to engage with. But they didn't care, you know a lot of kids walk in on the first day of school. Especially with like literature, you know what I mean?

And they're like well, I got to study English, right? So I had to figure out a way to get my students to want to learn what I wanted them to learn and Let's face it. Like we have Christians. Excuse me.

We as Christians have the same struggle. You know what I mean? Like we want to share the gospel a lot of people don't want to hear the gospel, right? So I had to figure this out and now that's all expressed through first aid evangelism.

So now the great thing is there's already an awesome book out there called tactics where Greg Coco the author gives you specific questions to ask folks to share your Christian convictions, and I was telling Greg this when I was chatting with him on his radio show a couple years ago, but If Greg had run the football down to the 50-yard line.

Let's say all I'm trying to do is I'm trying to take the ball and run it even further down the field. You know what? I mean? So in other words I'm trying to give more information that Totally is in line with Greg's framework and give you more of a window into why it's effective to ask the right questions.

And I'm giving you principles to formulate your own questions so that you can have effective conversations with basically anyone anywhere at any time. All right. So again, if you haven't seen those videos on first aid evangelism, I have like three of them so far.

You need to check those out. But let's talk about leading questions. All right, I have three steps that are very very simple and You'll hear this for the first time and you'll go wow, this is so elementary, right?

But what these steps will do is they're gonna set you up to cross-examine the person that you're talking to. But with a lot of care and respect for them. Okay, here's the three steps. You ready? Number one the point number two the big idea and number three the question.

All right. I'm gonna say that one more time because I don't have any graphics. I got nothing right number one step one the point number two the big idea and Number three the question. Okay, so here's how it works.

All right. Let's say you're you're following the first aid evangelism method and you're putting the focus on the person you're talking to and you're building trust and You're building an emotional connection by letting them talk about themselves, right?

But you're really listening. Okay, you're not trying to Sharpshoot anybody and and win a conversation you care about the person who's speaking, okay but as they open up they start to share a belief that they have with you and You hear that belief and it's like a bell goes off right you realize in your mind ding-ding-ding-ding.

Wait a sec. That's not true. Okay, that's your point. All right, that's step number one identify the point that you want to make to the person that you're talking to and Often the point is what I just described you you see something that the other person doesn't they've made an error.

And you realize it but they don't know it. You have to identify what that is and hold that point clearly in your mind. So for example Let's say You're talking to somebody and they say to you. You know what Alyssa?

I don't need God to be moral, right? You heard this one before.

Now.

Well, arguably the first thing you should do is ask some clarification questions, right? Like like what do you mean by that? You know and very often what they mean is well I can help a little old lady across the street and I don't need God to do that.

You know, like I can be moral I can do moral things without God. Okay fair enough but there's something that this person is missing and you need to Identify that particular thing that point that you want to make right?

So you have to ask yourself like what is the thing that you want to communicate back to them right then now a lot of Christians along these lines will say something like this. No, no, no. No, you don't understand God is the source of objective morality.

Okay, or or or something along those lines? All right but let's say that's the point that you want to make God is the ground or the source of objective morality. Once you have that point in your mind.

And now, you know, I suggest for folks who are new to this kind of thing to like write these things down. You know write these things down get the practice of writing them down so that later on. You can do it on the fly.

You don't need to write it down. You know what I mean? It's kind of like an art, right? But once you have that point down then you zoom in on some of the big ideas within that point. Okay, this is gonna be way better when I create the video and the graphics are up.

Okay. It pains me to kind of just say this verbally. So again, the point is God is the source of objective morality. Well, there are a couple of big ideas there right number one objective morality okay, and number two the source.

Right the the concept of a source for morality, right? So again, all I did was I just I took that statement. And I zoomed in on some big ideas there are some key concepts within that greater statement.

All right now. Let's just say you zoom in on objective morality and the source in your point now step number three. You're gonna want to take each big idea and turn them into a question okay, so There's the the first potential question about objective morality and it's very very basic question and it goes something like this.

Do you think morality is objective? Okay, and you have to you have to wait and listen to what they have to say. All right, if you're just waiting for your turn to speak, this is not gonna go. Well, you really do have to care about what the other person is saying to you.

Right because you want to know what they think, you know, and and maybe at this point you have to define objective.

Okay.

Do you think that morality is a standard that transcends humanity or is morality derived from? Human beings, okay. Now maybe they'll say well, you know what Alyssa morality is not objective it is subjective.

In which case now you can have a conversation about the potential pitfalls and problems with Subjective morality. Sort of like what follows logically from subjective morality, which is one of the things is Actions are not good or evil in and of themselves if subjective morality is true.

Okay, that's just what follows from this the most evil of actions things that people consider to be evil Now are amoral in and of themselves if morality is subjective. Is the person you're talking to cool was swallowing that pill so to speak.

Right.

But.

But maybe though, you know, they'll come back and say well, I think that morality is objective. Okay, in which case you can ask about the second big idea, you know the source right and so. Along those lines.

Here's the potential question for that. And again, it's a very very basic question. All right, it's not too complicated if Morality is objective, right? In other words, it transcends people it sort of stands above all of them and applies to everybody.

Where does it come from? Right. What is the source of that? Okay, you see how this works now. You already are doing this right Alyssa? Okay, and I'm assuming everybody else right like a lot of you are tremendously smart.

That's why you're here. Okay, and so you already know how this functions and how this works. All I'm do is I'm showing you the formula of how it works so that when you get to a more complicated subject matter.

Because what I just used was a very basic example. You can do the same thing. You can use the three steps and it can guide you to ask the right leading questions under lots of different kinds of conversations.

You know just have to have those steps in the old noggin and you got to practice practice practice. So you can be ready and do it real quick on the fly. All right. But anyway, thanks for the question Alyssa and stay tuned for the actual video on that.

It's gonna be a lot better than what I just did. All right question number six. Believe it or not. We're not even halfway through. All right, whatever. It's Friday. Let's party question number six from Roberto.

Recorded Debates and Debate Reactions

Have you done any debates that have been recorded on video? If so, would you be willing to share? Where we could watch? No, Roberto, there are no videos. There are no debates. I'm so sorry. Want want I have mentioned that should my schedule change and By the way, it would have to radically change at this point, but I am opening to Considering participating in debates in the future.

But right now that is just not a reality at all. So anyway, thanks Roberto question number seven moving right along from Wilson. Wilson asks what literature Both theological and otherwise has been most influential on you.

Wow that yeah. That is a great question, you know and You know, you have to understand Wilson. I'm a pastor. Okay. I'm a pastor at my local church and I'm exploring more and more of what that means for my life as time goes on, you know.

Which goes back to what I just said to Roberto like my time is really largely spent along those lines so what I'm getting at is. Lately I've been reading a lot of commentaries. Okay I read a lot of books on counseling on management on church planting.

And developing intimacy with God, okay. So, um, you know along those lines There are some books that really stand out to me. One of them is preachers and preaching by D. Martin Lloyd-jones. Okay, probably the best book I've ever read on preaching ever.

Lots of pearls of wisdom very insightful. The preaching pastor needs to read this book one of the concepts that kind of sticks out from the book, you know to me and this is for all you pastors out there, which is let's face it probably not a huge part of my demographic right now, but uh.

Something that really stuck out with me when I heard it was our job in preaching is not to make the truth clear. It's to make the truth real.

Okay.

100 Amen could not agree more. All right, so preachers and preaching is a great book. Related to that is teaching to change lives by Howard Hendricks. Okay, teaching to change lives was a lifesaver for me at a time when I felt like I I wasn't learning a single thing in grad school and I was about to be launched out to a classroom for the very first time so.

That's one of those books that I returned to and I reread every couple of years. Another book along these lines. I don't agree with every single thing in this book, but definitely like the vast majority of what it says.

But the book is the green letters by Miles Stanford. All right. The book is a collection of like biblical passages that reveal a concept that is Underdeveloped and not very well Communicated at all in church, which is the Christians union with Christ.

Okay.

The reality of Galatians 2 20, for example, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. You know, what does that mean? Christ is in me, you know, I think a lot of Christians they don't. They don't dwell on this concept.

And.

They do that to the detriment of their own spiritual walk. Okay. Speaking of Jesus, I'm a huge fan of reading up on the historical Jesus, you know to better understand who he was. Situated in his historical context and what he said and what it really means, you know.

And so sitting at the feet of rabbi. Jesus is an excellent book that I usually recommend to other Christians to read. The forgotten Jesus by Robbie gala D is a great book along those lines. Both are by no means like seminary level texts, so Written at the popular level very readable in the area of apologetics.

The sort of seminal books that really shaped me immensely. Were well Francis Schaeffer. So the Francis Schaeffer trilogy, you know, what is it the God who is there? Escaped from reason and he is there and he is not silent.

That is a phenomenal trilogy, you know a Schaeffer was a brilliant brilliant man. Tactics by Greg Hockel, it's an awesome book. I mentioned that already. Something that I came across a little bit later on, you know, not in my formative Years as a Christian, but I read it thoroughly valued what it said was I?

Think it's called return to reason. And I think the author's last name is Kelly. But that's a really great book along the lines of epistemology, you know I mean this could go on and on, you know in the area of politics and sociology.

I like Jonathan Haidt quite a bit. He's a great read. I remember reading in college The closing of the American mind anybody read that book anybody out there. That book has got to be one of the one of my all-time like most important Books like tremendous classic of the 20th century.

It was way ahead of its time. You know great great book that's for sure. Those are some of the books that have been very influential. Thanks for the question Wilson. Let's go to the next one question number eight.

Hopefully so it looks like we're having some issues here with Internet. Hopefully this is going through.

Responding to Sound-Bite Criticisms

Wow.

Question number eight. Let's keep going. How should one deal with soundbite?

Ie.

Reductionistic criticisms of a position in situations where it would be impractical to fully explain why the criticism is wrong. Yeah, great question. You know, we do live in a in a soundbite society these days, don't we?

And so the problem is if the answer is that we give is longer than a soundbite How do we get people to listen to us? Right, I would say that.

Well.

We have to get rid of the typical paradigm of communication. All right, we just have to throw it away. You know, we have to we have to put it in the dumpster and then set the dumpster on fire. I think it's in our DNA to want to correct people with well-thought-out speeches and just Hope that they sit back shut their mouth and listen to what we have to say, right?

You know and. But that's the problem. Because the problem is people are not listening in this paradigm, okay, so what I'm getting at is instead of responding to the criticism and. And now I'm talking about like in person right you're in conversation with someone you're looking at them face to face.

Instead of responding by making some kind of elaborate speech. Just cross-examine their criticism. You know, I mean like ask them questions to expose their flaws and their misconceptions. Okay. Now there there's a downside to this and I think I think it's worse for us.

Guys, okay. So let's just talk as men here for a split second. And actually it's especially worse for us guys on social media. That is that we can be very cold. Very clinical we can text dry if you know what that means, you know.

We can be very choppy in our response. Like if we were doctors our bedside manner. Kind of sucks, you know with a lot of us, right? Like we need a lot of work on our bedside manner. Why because well being cold and and like emotionally cold and overly concise.

It's just not as persuasive or winsome as being more verbal and saying a few more words as you ask questions, right? So let me give you an example. You could say Well, you know what? That's an interesting criticism.

I'm not sure I've heard that before. Do you mind if I ask you this? Do you have any sources that I could take a look at right? You see all those words that I threw out there. It provides a better bridge.

Emotionally speaking right? That's a lot better than simply saying got sources.

Right, right.

You see what I'm you see what I'm saying? You you you're communicating the same message either way. It's just very stylistically different. You say more words. You build a better bridge, right? You have to remember Ryan like.

Why are you responding in the first place? You know, what's your goal and you have to ask this question, you know in the area of intentionality as a Christian. You have to ask this question. Are you responding to speak your mind?

Right, you just need to get something off your chest and feel better about yourself. Or are you responding to? Try to persuade the person and right in front of you to change their mind.

You know.

If it's the latter then definitely do what I'm suggesting, you know. Ask questions gently cross-examine their criticism and. Remember you always try to respect and affirm the person you're talking to that goes a really long way In having productive conversations, you know.

Nobody likes disingenuous people. Well the majority of people that's the number one thing. They don't like is disingenuousness and it's also the number one thing that people can identify is Being disingenuous being fake, you know.