The following is an excerpt from Seeing Jesus from the East by Ravi Zaharias and Abdu Murray, reprinted with permission from Zondervan.
From his parables to his conversations, Jesus sought to gently open up the heart of the listener. He knew how to pinpoint the real hunger in every life. Jesus’ message was for the whole world, but his method was clearly Eastern.
When we look at Jesus’ message, we must consider his method, which is part of the gospel story. He appealed to reason, to prophecy, and to testimonials. But the centerpiece of his method was how he told stories.
In my travels around the world, I sometimes speak to the same audiences more than once. Without fail, people tell me that they remember my stories most clearly. The illustrations seal the argument.
But it is more than that with Jesus: he knows my story. And, he knows me.
An African American apologist, Lisa Fields, says that Christians need to fashion their arguments for the faith with the diverse histories of their listeners in mind. Fields believes her ministry is filling a gap. “‘I realized that [most] of the apologetics books I was reading were written by white men,’” she told Christianity Today. “I thought, ‘A lot of this material wouldn’t appeal to a lot of people in black churches because the illustrations aren’t relevant, and some of the issues aren’t as relevant. There needs to be a bridge builder.’”1
That interview suddenly turned on a light for me. African American history is a story that has birthed the arguments and questions of African Americans, not the other way around. That is why I believe a typical apologetic text doesn’t appeal to many in wounded or subdued cultures.
Suppose I were to…
… Read More
—
Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Denison Forum.