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Theology and Practice of Evangelism - Lesson 18

Action Evangelism (Part 2/2)

George Callendine continues by asking the question, "What’s going on with my relationship to God, the environment and this person?" We are trying to understand human actions so we can act as Christians and mobilize our lives to touch others. Vision is your idea of the future and mission is what you are doing everyday to get to your vision. The diagnostic wheel to which Mr. Callendine refers is not available at this time. We hope to make it available in the future.

Robert Tuttle, Jr.
Theology and Practice of Evangelism
Lesson 18
Watching Now
Action Evangelism (Part 2/2)

I. Introduction to Action Evangelism

A. Definition and Importance

B. Biblical Examples

II. Principles for Effective Action Evangelism

A. Prayer and Dependence on the Holy Spirit

B. Building Relationships

C. Contextualization

D. Collaboration

III. Methods and Models of Action Evangelism

A. Personal Evangelism

1. Testimonies

2. Gospel Presentations

B. Group Evangelism

1. Small Groups

2. Outreach Events

C. Media and Technology

IV. Overcoming Obstacles and Encouraging Participation

A. Addressing Common Fears

B. Equipping and Training Believers

C. Celebrating and Sharing Success Stories


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Transcript
  • In order to share the Gospel, you must know what it meant, and how people are understanding what you are saying. The gospel core is the least you can believe and still be a Christian. If the least you can believe is sufficient to get you saved, then the least you can believe is the most you can require of anyone.
  • Christianity is the only world religion with an understanding of grace. Your most important ministry will be helping people understand how much God loves them. The heart of the gospel is that God loves you. Sin happens when we attempt to live as if there is no God. God, since the fall has done everything he can to establish relationship. God wants to make himself known to you in a way that you can understand.
  • At the Fall, Satan gained control of the world. Jesus takes it back in Revelation 5 because he meets the qualifications. The core elements of the sermons of the apostles are authoritative proofs, prophecies fulfilled, God’s activities described, apostolic eyewitnesses and miracles proclaimed. You will be heard with authority to the degree you are willing to put your life on the line. You die spiritually when you rationalize sin. Wind moves from high pressure to low pressure. We access the power of the Spirit by repenting and believing. Two sins mentioned throughout scripture are self-reliance and oppressing the poor.
  • The lesson tells the story of a professor who faces personal struggles and overcomes them with the help of faith, healing, and learning to overcome sin, ultimately showing that it's possible to prevail over life's challenges with God's guidance.
  • Through this lesson, you learn the core components of the gospel message, its theological themes, and how to effectively communicate it for evangelism purposes.
  • In this lesson, you gain insight into leveraging your personal, church, and wider spheres of influence to effectively share the Gospel, overcome challenges, and expand your evangelistic reach.
  • Gain insights into ministry experiences and the power of faith, prayer, personal testimony, and baptism stories to navigate emergency situations that are bigger than yourself.
  • You will learn from this lesson that you are uniquely equipped to minister to those in your sphere of influence and that the church is indispensable for your survival. By treating others with respect and recognizing each person's importance, the church can become the living, breathing body of Jesus Christ.
  • In this lesson, you will learn that people are often hurting, angry, lonely, or tired, ministry requires dependence on God and rejection is important, preaching the text is key, our weaknesses can be our strengths, and close community is crucial for doing the work of the kingdom, while leading someone to Christ without providing ample opportunity for growth and nurture is a mistake.
  • In this lesson, you will learn about Charlie Haley, a man with a pastoral background who is currently involved in retreat ministry and considering going into the mission field abroad. The lesson covers topics related to evangelism and ministry, including tract ministry, follow-up and discipleship, and the importance of love and forgiveness within one's sphere of influence. The lesson also discusses the importance of building relationships and addressing felt needs with spiritual solutions.
  • This lecture begins as Dr. Tuttle is relating a story about a lady he met on an airplane. Jesus chose people as disciples that he could demonstrate by showing and telling them, and then depend on them to reproduce what they had been shown and taught. When Jesus gets too close, we raise the religious question to change the subject. As a result of the sin in the garden, we lost our ability to perceive reality beyond the senses. The Holy Spirit came, not to compensate for the absence of Jesus, but to guarantee his presence. We hold the truth, but the world sets the agenda and has the right to ask its own questions.
  • Often, it is implied that once you commit your life to Christ, all your problems are solved. The Hebrew concept of soul is body, mind and spirit. The Greek concept is that soul and body are separate, and that soul is good and body is evil. Prophecy and spiritual gifts are essential for the body of Christ to function. In the teaching in mainline churches, there is sometimes a disconnect between faith and life.
  • Trusting the Spirit of God is the key in this lesson. By remembering and trusting the Spirit, one can be utterly dependent upon God and do the hard work in preaching. Dr. Tuttle shares his personal experience of trusting the Spirit and provides context for Paul's second missionary journey, including Paul's conversion and early ministry, Peter's vision, and the conversion of Gentiles. The Spirit of God also taught Saul how Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.
  • Through a deep exploration of Wesley's Methodism and Calvin's Reformed tradition, you gain an understanding of their respective theological frameworks, evangelistic strategies, and lasting influences on modern evangelism.
  • Through this lesson, you grasp the significance of Wesley's Societies, their organizational structure, theological practices, and the lasting impact on modern church practices.
  • By exploring the Ethiopian Eunuch story, you gain insights on divine guidance, Scripture's role in evangelism, and early church inclusivity, while learning to apply practical evangelistic lessons.
  • Through this lesson, you learn to effectively share the gospel through action evangelism by understanding its theological basis, applying key principles, employing various methods, and overcoming common obstacles.
  • You gain insights into action evangelism's importance, principles, and various methods, while learning to overcome fears and obstacles, and equipping others for effective Gospel sharing.

Dr. Tuttle teaches three critical points around evangelism: how to share your faith story, what evangelism is and how to approach it, and that God has more invested in evangelism than we do – He is in control. God is at work. He wants us to, "show up and pay attention [to the Spirit]," and to care about people enough to "press" them by asking probing questions about what they think and what's going on in their lives.

Evangelism is essentially about the core of the Gospel, ministering in your sphere of influence and sustaining those you reach.

Recommended Books

Can We Talk: Sharing Your Faith in a Pre-Christian World

Can We Talk: Sharing Your Faith in a Pre-Christian World

Those who serve on mission fields in areas where Christian faith is not the dominant religion quickly come to understand a central truth: when one is sharing the gospel, one...

Can We Talk: Sharing Your Faith in a Pre-Christian World

Dr. Robert Tuttle, Jr.
Theology and Practice of Evangelism
th610-18
Action Evangelism (Part 2/2)
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:00] The following lectures provided by biblical training. The speaker is Dr. Robert Tuttle. For more information, go to WW dot Biblical training dot org. Okay. Welcome back. The evangelism question is not George, What do I do? It's what's going on. What's going on? What's going on? What's going on with my relationship with God? What's going on with my understanding of the environment? What's going on with this precious person God has put me alongside? Got to pay attention to what's going on. We had you come up with four cases. Great cases, by the way. I'm really looking forward to diving into those. Now we're going to come back. Action! Evangelism. To understand Action. Evangelism. We have to understand. As far as I know, only humans evangelize. No animals that I know of. So we have to understand human action better. And to understand human action better. There are two ways we could do that. We could look at the similarities of all action, which would just take us forever. We couldn't do it, or we could look at the features of action. That all acts have in common. All acts for all of time. Have seven features. That's what we're going to look at now. The simplest act. Taking a drink of water. To solving a big, complex problem in a church. To reaching out to our dear friends. In Jesus name. All those acts have seven features. Generic features of action. All acts have fulfillment. It's the into which of the act and it answers the question what's the completed act? So watch me. What's the completed act? What I just do. I was. And so I just I've just completed that act. I just completed drinking a taking a sip of water. I completed the act.

[00:02:15] The act is done. Now all act has a meaning. It's the for which of action. Why is this action taking place? It answers the question Why is the action taking place? It's the reasons. It's why it's the principles, the excuses, the explanations, the values, the rationale, the justifications. So why? Why? Could be a lot of things. I'll tell you why. For me, I love to drink water. In part, it's for me to be healthy. I drink a lot of water, I get up in the morning, I drink about six glasses of water right out the gate. And I probably put away 15 to 20 glasses in a day. I love water. And so for me, it's about being healthy. That's the meaning of an act. All act has a mission, the torch of action. So we've got into it. For which? Toward which? Where is the action headed? What's the goal? The desire, the hope, the purpose, the direction, the objective. I hope to be healthy. I'm drinking less water today. I can already feel it. I like to be healthy. For me, that's part of my goal. Part of my goal is, is the is. I'm moving toward health. I'm moving in the direction of health. All action has power. The by which of the act? Who or what energizes the action? It's the energy, the motivation, the morale, the spirit. The capacity, the momentum, the will, the desire, the drive. All action has energy. So what's what's the deal here? Thirst. Yeah. Versus big. Sure. Fact, I'm thirsty now. That's why I'm drinking. Not just because of this exercise, but really, I really am thirsty. It's the force of water. It's the way gravity makes water run to the lowest point of resistance that's.

[00:04:15] That's involved in. In water drinking. Structure. All. All action has a structure. The through which of the act. This answers the question How is the action organized? It's the org chart for your church. Your ministry. It's the processes, it's the systems, it's the rules, it's the policies, it's the procedures. It's the laws. It's the hoops. It's the through which of the act. So what are the structures involved here? Well, there's a whole system in this city. That works pretty well. So all I got to do is walk that way a few feet and press a button, and I've got water. That's the whole big system that gets clean water into this church, that drinking fountains so I can fill my cup up. There's the system of how my body works to take water in and process it and hydrate my body with the cup as the cup as a system in and of itself. It's a structure. Sure. It's part of that system. The different levels of structure. Absolutely. Remember, all act has all all actions have all seven. Next. We have resources though, with which of the act. This answers the question what resources are needed? It's people money. Information land, ideas, time. Here's how you tell building materials. Here's how you tell if you have a resource. If you can have more of it, less of it. Or move it around. Anything you can have more of, less remove around is a resource. That's the that's the fundamental criteria for a resource. More of it, less of it, Move it around. So what are the resources? Hydrogen. Oxygen. Structure is how hydrogen oxygen fit together. God's design, hydrogen oxygen, when they come together in a certain quantity to make water. So hydrogen, oxygen, the resource of water and how available it is, all the pipes.

[00:06:33] So we got a lot of pipes that have been laid out to get us water, but all those pipes laid out separately, not connected, not in their structure. Those are resources. It's the resources we organize in the structure. So when you take the structure apart, what do you have left? Those are your resources, more of them, less of a move them around and all action springs from existence. Existence is the from which of the act? What is the past and present setting of the act? Because I'm in Vineyard Church right now in Columbus. Pretty easy to get water if I'm standing out in the middle of a desert. My existence limits me. So existence is both a springboard of possibility, and it limits my ability to act. Any questions about this? All acts have all seven of these all acts for all of time have all seven. There's not eight. There's only seven. If there's eight, we need to talk because I need to adjust this model. But I think there's only seven. This is, again, the work of Dr. Robert Terry, 77, features every human act. So we're trying to understand human action so we can act as Christians. And mobilize our life to touch others, or will we fall under the mission? Or will your desire could be, yes. It could be also power. I'm going to take this activity that was going to be in teams and we'll just do it as a large group. We'll do this together. Just to give you a flavor for how this works. If you church is doing anything with your facility, remodeling additions, building new, whatever, let's just talk about what's needed and then let's frame that. Here's how we'll do this over here. Let's go back.

[00:08:31] What do you need when you're doing a building? How many have done building projects? Remodel, remodeling with a church? Two of you. You survived it. Yeah. Nothing worse than a home remodel is a church remodel. More committees. One of my clients builds churches all over the all over the country. And they. They understand they're in the business of mobilizing resources for ministry. And it's, you know, it's the real work. There is sometimes not the tangible. It's the intangible. But when we're going to build a church or remodel a church, what do we need? Money. Money. What's money? Okay, What else do we need? Time. What's time? What else do we need? Design. What's design? Remember everything has all seven. So actually money could be all seven. Money. Money has seven things when you mobilize it especially. But we're just going for primarily what are the top two, but what else would design, put, design relate to? The meeting would have to be. Consideration to do the design and the design is going to help organize what? It's going to help organize the resources. Sure. What else do we need? Equipment. Equipment and what's equipment? Resource contractor. I need a completed building at of last year. Just run down this road. Don't really think about that part. I was going to say you're. You should have a need, huh? I mean, a lot of churches don't ask that either. Forgive me. Not your church. Really? No. But listen, listen, This is. This is key. This intangible stuff is really key. What's the real need here? I mean, that's how you know how to design. Exactly. And what's neat. Why are we doing this? And by the way, do we agree on it? And do we figure out on the front end that we agree on it? Or do we wait till we start to raise money and we find out? Hmm.

[00:10:40] I'm not sure if we agree on this because for some reason, the money's not flowing for this project. Right. Okay. So that's meaning you're saying it when you're asking the question, why are we doing this? And do we buy into that? Why? Or does only a few people buy into that? Why? And everybody else is silent. But if we don't have that conversation in a serious way. With God and each other. It can kill. It can kill a project. It can really hamstring the process. What else do we need that theme? We also need a vision to see beyond what's currently running and where. Tell me about where that falls. Mm hmm. What's it look like if we fulfill our vision in light of this building? What else? You're onto something. Absolutely. Where are we headed? And why the general discussion is here. The deep quite the deep purpose falls it meaning when you talk about deep purpose, you're in meaning to use the word vision. Vision is the future, which is where are we moving toward? Right. But it also, of course, encompasses meaning. Churches sometimes use those permission and meaning mission and vision interchangeably. Yes, they do. In the vision statement and the mission statement. Vision statement usually is the direction you take. Mission statement. Well, the if you have if you line up 100 consultants and ask them what you do, what's vision and mission, you'll get 100 answers, I think. But let me let me address the question without the jargon. I think you need a clear picture of where you're headed. I call that vision picture of the future. What you're becoming together or you're creating together, you're not yet there. It should pull you and reach you. I also believe when I do mission statements, I always make them seven words or less.

[00:12:56] Why? Because you can't remember eight. I was working with a group. They said we got we just did our mission statement. I said, Craig, tell me what it is. They said, We have to go get it. If you have to go get your mission statement, folks, you don't have one. Mission tells me what I do every day to build the vision. What am I do in every day to move toward the vision? It's action oriented and vision is more stated. BE Well, I don't want to get off on that. But but clearly, having this sense of the future and what are we doing together that's pulling us in and why is that and what are we are we really dialed into that? And by the way, you can have a vision, but it's not owned. And you don't find that out till it's time to write the check. To be a commentator. You got to have a sense up front. We really are in this. We really are. Yes. Do you think existence plays into that as well? Actually, having a clear picture of where we are now, big time limited to do. I mean, I think you need to know that because sometimes sometimes you may know you may have what it takes to move towards another goal without doing a building project. But existence is also the. Absolutely. And do we are we willing to move are we willing to sell this building and move to another location to a new existence? And because of our vision or as part of our identity, we're a downtown church. We're called we're called to be in the downtown. So we're really not really open to changing our dress. It's also the past. It's the history.

[00:14:37] That you bring to the the process if you've had some failed or bad building campaigns in the past. Talk about baggage. I think you're getting a feel for this. I don't want to spend more time than we need to. I want to spend enough time. You get a flavor for this that's not just about drinking water. Okay? Next is how do we how do these relate to each other? First of all, there are seven generic features for all of time. For every act, they relate to each other in a universal way. These seven features. This is called the diagnostic wheel. How do they relate to each other? Existence. Start here. Both limits, resources and makes them possible. If I'm in the desert, it's tough to get water if I'm staying in this room. Pretty easy. It also provides the foundation and context for meaning. Resources spring from existence. And are organized into structure. Structures. Organize the resources. And they sustained power. Power has got to be contained in something. Also, missions have to have missions in power. Both have to be sustained in a structure. You have to have something to carry the mission. So that's what structures do. Structures are the container. We organize, the resources, the power in the mission, get contained in them. Power quickens the mission, and it energizes the structure. Nothing worse than a dead structure can have real life in it. Mission gives focus and direction to power. Power without direction is dangerous. Power's got to be moving. With a you know, with a purpose, with in the direction missions find their context in meaning. Why are we going there? Because of this. Meaning gives purpose to the mission. And finds its cultural justification in setting in existence. All of these together work toward fulfillment.

[00:17:12] So. Existence includes my. Today I'm drinking this water. It's great. And includes a time in India where I drank water and I didn't drink much else for about three days. So it's all my history. It's the history of water gathering, the history of hydration in health. And out of that water comes my resources. In the structures where I can go get a cup of water. My thirst is satisfied. My goal of being healthy. And moving toward that. And the meaning that brings my life comes into fulfillment. Boom. That's how it all relates to each other. What the heck does this have to do with actual evangelism? I thought we started on action Evangelism. Is this clear The roads a relationship clear of the features. Features are clear. Is the relationship clear? Any questions? I want to keep movin. But I don't want to leave you. I've got a question. I want to hear it. Okay. You said power quickens the measure and mission of meaning. Meaning is justified or fine. It legitimates, legitimates and orients the mission. And it provides a cultural justification for actions. And for me, it provides a cultural justification for action. It's rooted. Your meaning is rooted in existence. Your meaning is always rooted in existence. There's a setting. If you've got a core value, a deep belief, I guarantee I guarantee you it's tied to your existence and existence gives possibility for and limits resources, resources spring from existence and become organized into structure structures. Organize resources. And contain power. And they are the vehicle through which mission gets carried forward. Fulfillment is the reason it's in the middle because all six of them work together. Toward completion. Good question. Any other questions? Okay, so now we're coming back to action evangelism, right? And so here's here's where the rubber starts to meet the road for us, where our goal what's the leader? What's the evangelism question? Not what do I do, but what's what's going on? When people talk about issues and problems in reality, if you listen carefully.

[00:19:48] They talk about. In six basic frames. Here's how this works. We're paying attention. We're listening. When people talk about mission issues, they'll say missions can be conflicting. You can have two conflicting missions. You can have a mission, but it's not real clear. Emission can be non-existent. She's not even there. People know where they're going. They're going somewhere, but they have no, it just doesn't exist. Power. Power comes in basically two forms. Think of power up and power down. Power up is power abuse. Too much power. It's not controlled or too little. No energy. No excitement, no motivation, no juice, no nothing. It's just lack of. Those are the two big categories of power issues. Structures tend to be too tight or too loose when they're too tight. It's too much red tape, too restrictive. Two antiquated. It kills power when it's too loose. It's chaos. To lose. It's chaos. In general. So people will say, you know, what's the deal with the rules around this place? Why don't we have to go through all these hoops and steps and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? Or they'll say, Can we get this organized? For crying out loud, Our pastor can organize a two car funeral. You know, why isn't there some organization around here? They'll talk about the you know, things are just too loosey goosey is kind of how resources remember, too. You can have more of it, less of it, move it around. So you've either got too much of it, not enough or in the wrong place. Too many people on this committee, not enough money. Too many people on this committee are too many people in the kitchen, too many people, whatever, or what. We've got it, but it's in the wrong place.

[00:21:57] It needs to be over here. That's how they'll talk too much, not enough in the wrong place existence. Generally. They'll either talk about the past or the present. In the past, they'll talk about the baggage being too heavy. There's too much of it. They feel stuck. They feel trapped by the past, the history. They can't get off of that. They beat that drum. Can't get their heads out of that. All the stuff that's happened. They're paralyzed. Present circumstances too limiting or too overwhelming. You know, it's no secret that this economy, we've got a lot of people whose present circumstances are absolutely overwhelming. The. They feel limited. You know, they feel like they are they are stuck. And then meaning it can be unclear or it can be nonexistent. People lose their sense of identity. They lose their sense of their deep values. They'll. They'll ask the why question. I don't know why I'm in this job anymore. I'm not sure why I'm in this marriage. In my in my in my private moments. I'm not you know, I'm not sure why this church is even not sure. We're I'm not sure why we're doing what we're doing here. At this church with this one particular area or maybe in general, This is this is deep yogurt stuff here, folks. This isn't this is no kidding. This is when people are asking the why question and they can't connect to the meaning. It's tough. It's tough stuff. Now we have diagnostic processes and tools we use to help individuals and groups move through this. My purpose here is to give you a general picture, not in-depth. As you listen, as you show up to pay attention and listen to ask what's going on? How are how are these people talking about what's going on in their lives? What are they talking about? Are they talking about? Their direction.

[00:24:10] Are they talking about being abused, power or lack of motivation? Are they talking about, you know, structures? They're in, systems they're in that are just too restricting or just too chaotic? Or are they talking about resources? I don't have enough time. I don't have enough energy. I don't have enough money. Or I got too much of something. Are they talking about their present circumstances or their past? Are they? Are they secretly and sometimes whispering the why question? Are they are they struggling with meaning? This is where you begin to pay attention. So what I want you to do now in your groups, I want you to go back to your case using their language. Don't go too in-depth in this. Try to stick with their language in the way they describe it, in the way they talk about it. Don't say, well, they say this, but it's really this. Don't go there with me. Just try to stick with paying attention to their world the way they talk about it, what they're experiencing. How they describe it and try to pick one of these places on the wheel for your case. Yeah, try to pick that. You're going to remember all action has all seven, so it's going to touch all seven. But if I force you to pick one. Based on the evidence. Like, if we were to videotape the conversation and we were to hear the words. What would we see? What would we. What? Where would they come out? If you had to pick your top one, you got five. I don't think you need 5 minutes of your time. Who are my time keepers? Raise your hand. Okay. We're going to try to do this in three if you can, but you let me know when your when you're done.

[00:26:06] Timekeepers. Come, let me know. Give me a wave. When you are trying to do this in three. Dig in. Remember? I remember everything has all seven. So you can. You can make it go anywhere. But what's if you have to pick one? What's the majority? Okay. Who wants to go first? Yeah. I don't know if he's laughing and scoffing. I'd say he probably has already made his mind up. It doesn't have any. Value. Is it tense in those moments if I were to videotape? Does it get tense? When this stuff comes up. No, he considers. I sit back and just my outward appearance. He's aloof. My outward appearance is I leave, but I'm not going to let you know what I'm thinking I'm going to address. I'll be a little bit scared. That's why you don't want to talk about. You know, I spent a lot of time. This poor brother was trying to eat lunch, and I'm asking him 100 questions about this. These Ohio State folks. And I picked up on two things. He doesn't like it when kids misbehave. And he doesn't like to talk about anything personal on the faith side. The picture I got. Well, I got I hate to say it, but Control Freak is the term that came to mind. This guy's got a pretty tight control on his world. Because I was trying to think, what pushes this guys button? Little kids push this button and Jesus pushes buttons. Little kids that are behaving right. You know, when I'm out and other kids are not behaving. I'm thinking, thank you, Jesus. Right now, it's not my kids. It's a gut feeling. I could be completely off here, but it seems like this guy's pretty, pretty buttoned up.

[00:27:59] He's got things. He's in control of a lot of his world. Is that accurate or not? I think the perception would be that if he makes room in his life for Jesus, he'd have to put down something he really likes. God. What will he make me give up? Does he let you know? Does he kind of almost do a preemptive strike? We're not going there. Does he kind of send the message on stiff conversations? My gut is we might put this at power. Why is that? Well, he controls everything. He's in control. He got the power. You see, We don't see where I'm going with that. No, I think there might. I'm going to also let you off the hook. I'll give you a second one. I just didn't tell you that because I like to push you to get to the first one. Most of you probably already have a second one, but I think there's probably some stuff here. What does this guy value? Is he going to have to give some of that up? But now she the same way. They like their world. They like to be in control. They've got a lot of control. They got a lot of money, a lot of freedom, A lot of. I think accepting God in their world will require them in their in their view, would require them to put something. They're going to lose. They're going to lose control and lose some. Interesting. Now, I don't want to force this on you. I'm just going back and forth. I sense when we get near these topics, it's not an interesting intellectual back and forth. It's a tense thing. In fact, you don't even go there because it's tense. Right. That was the key for me.

[00:29:47] Because I've had friends. We I mean, we love to fight. We disagree. We love the engagement. But it doesn't it's not a it's not a place of difficulty. This sounds like a place of difficulty to even get into the realm, to have a conversation. Yeah, like I should. I should Romans road with them three years ago. Largely because that's how I came to. How'd that go in the moment? What would I if we videotaped it? What would we have seen? It was a very difficult moment. Um, they didn't even want to listen to the rest of it, and they could change the subject. Kind of ruined dinner. You don't even go there and back, because actually, we probably went a year without seeing him. Oh, now you got me. Because you lost, You had community with them, you broke community. They didn't have time for us for a while. Okay, So I'm going to with your permission. Can I put you can we tried putting you here to start with. Okay, So I'm going to put our. Or OSU guy couple here. Any questions on that? How we got there. Remember, also everything has all seven. So it's not that it doesn't have the others, it's just I'm going for the heartbeat. We might we might have a little bit of this with this guy, with this couple, what they value. I put it a little smaller over here. Who's next? Thank you. Let's remind ourselves here, we got this. This couple from China, from Hong Kong. Ten years here. They met in a Christian high school. All they did was memorize a few names. We've got. He's. He's in a design firm. She's working on her Ph.D.. Young family. Very kind and warm. There might be cultural Buddhists.

[00:31:27] They've got a friendship with a preacher. So tell us, where did you come out? This is a really, really difficult one because they're generally quite contented. They live a full life. It seemed like if there was anything at all, it's in the realm of meaning and existence. She's studying the history of design. He's a designer, and they definitely are visionaries for the world. They don't talk about changing the world in a in a charity sort of sense, but I think it's deep in them to make an impact in the world. Designing new things. Understand the history of people who have design. There's an element of beauty and order that goes along with that. And I think existence too. I remembered when we spoke just a few moments ago that they they like American culture more than the culture they came from. Why? I'd forgotten that our first conversation was about that. They they found the culture they came from to be very much about being workaholics and not very relational. And they like that in their culture, especially in friendly Columbus, Ohio. There is a there's an emphasis on not working all the time and taking time out for relationships and that kind of thing. So I don't know if that gives you anything to go on. I it does. It does. Generally quite contented people in a genuine sort of way. Are they looking for meaning? I don't think so. Not that I'm aware of. They change the world. That is, there's a lot of blood in China. What do. Mission has a lot to do. What I just experienced in China. Yeah, they really have a mission. They have a direction. They want to be ahead of us in 50 years. And that timeline.

[00:33:21] But it just. Workaholic. Yes. Tell me about the the relationship they have with with the preacher. It's warm to oldest children, which are exactly the same age as their two children. And it's very warm, very friendly. They'll hold the preacher's infant for hours. Do they go to church to come to her and friends because their their daughters are in the same kindergarten class? Has there ever been any spiritual conversations? Not much other than about that Christian high school and sacred architecture. The architecture of churches. Are they interested in that? Yeah. Yeah. The sacred, sacred side of that. Like they think when the preacher mentioned that, what do I do with the church? And he said, Wow. He said, I love church architecture. I've got a good book about it right here. And just just an interest in the the possibilities of. They lit up when you. Yeah. Bye bye. Bye. Sacred architecture. Where do we put them, folks? Where did you put them? Somewhere here. Some existence. Okay, Texas, if you had to pick one, did you come up with one? If you had to, I'd say meaning, yeah. If I asked you this question spiritually, are they stuck in meaning or existence? What would you say? Probably meaning. Okay, I'm going to put in I want me to put it kind of close to the edge here. Okay. So we've got Texas. Who's next? Talk to us about. Alpha. Well, it is. Its primary challenges have just passed the test that I really felt was seeking an identity. I assess that after a 30 minute conversation that was all about power. And he was looking for the most powerful God in the universe. And that's really what you see. That's good insight. Is he at a place of pain about the past? Well, yeah, I mean, that event was very it's still with him when he talks about it.

[00:35:40] You said you initially put him when you were with him and to him mean talk in this guy. This is about power and probably some power abuse from the past. I don't know about power abuse. He was just, you know, because of the incident and because I believe he was really seeking to determine why he exists. He started looking at all world religions and he had something to say about Christianity. So he was trying to read their viewpoint on Christianity because of the past abuse, most likely. Does he have anger? What makes your job better? Okay. Can I share with you? Yeah. I'm at the baggage claim. It's now 45 minutes later and I just said, well, I said, I know my God is the most powerful guy in the universe, and all their gods are subordinate to this God. So right now, I want you to think about the one thing that you want to have happen in your life. The biggest thing, not about money. Just. I want you to ask for a genuine miracle in your life. And I'm going to pray that my God brings that to you. And when He does, you're going to know that Jesus Christ is what you're looking at. I've heard you say, Well, I know, my God, I believe in my God. You know, it's really I forget exactly what I said, but it's really important to me. I believe, my God, that way he doesn't feel like an idiot if he disagrees with you. Think Very important. But that's great. Did you have contact with him? No. I gave my business cards to wait for an email someday. So let me recap. We're we're talking about. Part of him is here, and part of him is here.

[00:37:19] So somewhere in here. Okay, We're going to put Alpha. This without telling us. No, I got. I got to keep moving. I to be okay. Okay. All right, let's go fast back here. Okay. Okay. Next. Just this. Because. But she's not she's not philosophically thinking about that. Is she is she in pain? But she heard about this. Is she thinking what that will happen? Is she kind of intellectually thinking through that through, but there's not any more pain connected to it. I think she's healed. I wouldn't say healed, but I just think it's a subject when she brings it up and she doesn't deal with it raw. Like tears. When people are crying and stuff. Sometimes it's because of power. Pain, power, abuse. It does sound like her father has an even bigger church, I'm sure. Like, are you saying that this person experience. When you videotape the conversation, not what you think in your head, but when you're videotape, what do I see when I see people crying or angry? More anger. Because you see that the eyes know. I almost always put them in somewhere in there. And now we're going to I'm going to give her two places as well. We're going to put evangelistic encounters here and I'm going to put you set over here somewhere a little bit. Okay. Now I'm going to fly through this because we're out of time. I'm not going to get you as far as I want to get you today, but I'm going to get you far enough that you'll be able to, with time, figure it out. Okay. I wish we had more time because we're trying to pay attention. It's hard to microwave paying attention. We're telling stories here. It takes time to get this.

[00:39:14] This is an important step, figuring out where we're going to put them initially on the wheel. And we may not have done it perfect, and we probably haven't. But we're going to we're going to get closer. We're going to get you closer. And as you think about this more and as you continue your relationship with these folks. If you keep this in front of you, it will help you. Now, here's what we do. We come in and we put them initially on the wheel. But here's how this works. Wherever you think the problem is, it's not. Wherever you think the problem is. It's like when you go into council and you go in thinking the problems with your mother, it's really with your father and with father. It's really with your mother. You think you don't have a problem where you really do. So, I mean, it's it's always somewhere else. It's always hiding. And so what we do is we come in and we place it initially, but then to find it, to find what's really going on. Because the question actually I. The question isn't. What's going on. The question is, what's really going on? What's really going on? Exactly. We're looking for symptoms. We're listening to their language and watching their behavior to help us frame this symptom. And then we move it to the right one, two or three feet or however many it takes. Now, let's let me talk you through how I would frame these. Initially, let's take who was first OSU. OSU is in. I think there's a piece of OSU that couple, they are in control. They got plenty of money. Don't get your unruly kids. Your kids get out of control. I'm getting nervous. They seem to have a pretty tight grip on their world.

[00:41:00] They get really, the fact that they didn't have dinner for a year. Come on, now. They've known each other. 14, right? 14 years. One bad conversation, and we don't see it for a year. Let me tell you, folks, that's power. That's some power stuff going on there. What's going on with that power? You nailed it. There's some stuff I value I might have to get rid of. In my life. Something might be bigger in my life than what I value, I would suggest. I don't know. When I see people that are that type. It's for reason. There's something in their history, in their story. I would be curious to know. Is there some reason? They can't even talk about it. These are smart people. These are smart people. This consultant doing ISO 9000 transformation in companies. Come on. That's big time. These are very smart people. They can't even have a conversation. So why is that? Where does that come from? I'm curious about that. I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised if if with some. Tom, We would find that out. We would find out there's something going on there. Where else did we put them? Do we? Well, we pretty much put them there, didn't we? Okay, let's take. Who was next? Who was second? Texas. I think you're about right on this one. I think they are kind of just comfortable. In their existence. Their only connection with the church is no connection at all. They don't really have an understanding of that. I think they do want to give something valuable to the world. But what do they need? In my opinion? They need a resource. What's a resource? A resource is a different one. Resources, a different way to see your reality than you, than the way you currently see it.

[00:43:02] They aren't seeing the church. Right. And here's where I think that's going to come from. Community. I think it's already started with the pastor. In relationship. These are relational people, right? So I think what's going to happen is. If we're right that this is about where they are, their answer is a new way to see community, to see the church, to see relationship. And it's going to happen in the context of a of a new way to see in a new way to be in relationship and connected to people. It's my gut. I have a question in terms of we ended up kind of saying existence partially and well, it is. They got a history that doesn't it's not tied to reality. And Drew mentioned one thing would be just remaining in their life solid and consistent for absolutely a time. What I'm wondering is if you do go say three things up to power, there might come a time in their lives. Where they have no power. Bingo. Ah. But what's happened? What's happened in that time period? I'm connected. Right. I've got new resources in my life. I didn't have. I'm in community. I'm not alone. And now I got now I got something that can help to hold me to hold me through that. To walk with me through. Absolutely. So are you saying the stage is always go clockwise, that initially you you come in on the symptom to get what's really going on? You go one or two or three. Generally, this is clockwise. This is a whole foundation of a whole model. And this model has metaphors, ethical frameworks, leadership, schools, church movements that fall out of these seven areas. So there's a whole thing about, for example, if you're building a church in strategic, strategic planning includes all seven people talk about strategic planning, they leave three of the features off.

[00:45:00] Like, do people really own this? Do we really know why we're doing this? Thinking and leading happens in this. So, for example, you might have a situation where you get meaning mission clear, then you march back around, empower people through structures and resources. Don't want to do that too much. But in general, here's the principle or I think it is. It's really here. I'm going to work it here and probably come back. The other way. Did I answer your question? Did I go off the tracks? I'm still trying. Is there some point on that circle that you're at your highest? Generally, when you get yes, there is generally a place where you really hit the core need. You get a sense. I've really nailed it. I've really got. Now they bleed into each other a little bit. I'll give you a classic example if our friends here. We might find out that there's something really painful about the church back there somewhere. Who knows? And guess what? You've probably found it. Some abusive church leadership thing or their church was in their family was in a conflict and had to leave or who knows? I mean, it could be 100 things, but if somebody is caught in power, a lot of times there's something in their story. That's driving that. When you get to the story, you found it. Now, you still may need to help them and get them connected and in work and walk with them through that. But generally you find a place where you've kind of reached the the main issue. That's where you live with it. Okay, One more evangelistic encounters. We put them here. And here. That's when I when I was hearing your story, I heard a lot of this group talk about past baggage and pain.

[00:46:54] Her dad was a pastor. I don't know if all that's healed up yet or not, but I'm telling you, it's. I would guess that's a piece of it. She also probably doesn't have any idea. What a healthy church looks like. She probably would. She thinks the church. I'll tell you, she's not thinking about. She. She needs a fresh experience of community. She needs a new reality in her existence that counteracts her only perception, which is a horrible perception, and rightly so. And it's not going to be an intellectual thing. It's going to be an authentic engagement that begins to help her see, Oh, I didn't know church could be like that. That's a resource. Is ending now. I mean, that was a very, very conservative. Now she has completely swung the other way and it's a very, very liberal, um, actually Methodist um, campus and not uncommon by the way in her story, homosexual church and just completely opposite of what she was raised and which is completely understandable. Yeah, I completely get that at first I knew at church she goes to I'm thinking, that's interesting. I wonder if a background the brothers. Uh huh. Has a life partner. Uh huh. Just completely swung to the complete opposite of the way. Mm hmm. So there's a piece of that work in big time. And I think there's probably a piece of this where at some point. She may need a new experience of authentic community. And that's that's moving here more. Now, we've raced fast. I got 3 minutes. I'm really sorry, folks. I don't like to teach this in this way, but I've given you the tools to go back and think about this and what I in general, the way when you're going in to a situation, you step one is you locate the perceived issue on the diagnostic wheel, you locate the real issue on the action wheel, you work it there.

[00:49:10] The only thing I can tell you is that you get a sense from people when you've hit the motherlode issue, when you really nailed it, because it's like authenticity just emerges. I mean, feels. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's. Yeah. You know, your friend, me and I. You talk about that control that he has. There's going to come a time when he's not going be able to control his life. That's an interesting train ride he's on because that's that's going to. We've got a minute. What do you need from for me to. Okay. The. You want the. This one. So you located the perceived issue on the diagnostic wheel, and then you move to the real issue on the action wheel. Now, the other thing this helps you do is. Remember, Bob said, you can't be empathetic to anyone because you don't know their you haven't lived their life, but you can have sympathy. When I'm in a situation, whether it's an executive coaching or working with a pastor or working with a church or I'm always trying to pay attention to what's going on symptomatically and what's really going on. And so in an evangelistic situation, sometimes God will put somebody in my path. And I have a similar sympathetic story I can identify with. And that helps you to be able to say, I don't know what it's like for you, but let me tell you a story. That's something I went through. I was with some really some people who spiritually were just abusive. I got to tell you, I left the church for how many years? And it took me a long time. And when I did, coming back was hard and slow and whatever. I mean, you've got a story. Your story is filled with this kind of stuff.

[00:51:00] And when you can connect authentically your story to their story, the nice thing about you telling your own story, it's not offensive to anybody. You're just telling you. You're just telling your story. Your body can't if you're trying to sell them on the. Something he can push back. But if you're telling your story, let me just tell you my story. You're the story. Here's a time in my life when C.J. Stewart not storytelling is nice because you own it. Cheers. I don't know if you've got any place in your life where you've been. You thought you had it all under control, and that didn't work out so well. I mean, you see where I'm going? I don't want to get too far, but pay attention to your own story on the wheel. Alongside the person story. There's part of your story that might connect to them and make that person say, Oh, wow, this person's paying attention. This person's been a little farther down the road I'm on right now. You do that with great humility and care. All right, we're over. If you want. Look, why don't we do this? Let's stop and have communion. See, anybody has a question I don't need for you to stop. Stay and ask me a question. But let's. Let's bring closure to the class and then if we want to.