I have been slowly been making my way through Got Style by Jeffrey Johnson. Similarly to the "Contagious Christian" model from Willow Creek, he focuses on differing evangelism styles based upon personalities.
An analytical style seeks to lead people to Christ by reasoning with them. Insightfully, Johnson says this, "the assertive personality tends to operate under the assumption that the gospel...without debate, the analytical personality...believes that because the gospel is true,it should be questioned, tested,and debated" (p. 42).
This style has both its strengths and weaknesses. An analytical person can have a hard time not understand how other people don't reason themselves to faith the way that they did. They can often come across as cold-hearted and insensitive. They tend to underestimate the emotional reasons people do the things that they do. And all of these weaknesses can hinder their evangelistic effort.
But analyticals also have a way of explaining faith in Christ in a way that seems intelligent and reasonable. With the many objections people have to faith based on its percieved irrationality and incoherence, analyticals can calmly and rationally refute these claims.
Analyticals have a way of commending and explaining the Christian faith that makes sense. They are often good disciplers as well.
Johnson commends well-known conservative Christian leaders in apologetics as resources for analytical evangelists. I think that these resources are helpful, but hardly exhaustive for strong analytical thinkers. Many analytical thinkers are like Paul in Acts 17, and able to exegete culture and speak God's truth in a way that makes sense within that cultural context. Also, there are more ways to intellectually embrace the faith than a rigidly foundational philosophy.
Like all of the other styles, the anayltical style is important to the body, and needs to be supported and encouraged within the Christian community.
No comments:
Post a Comment