Former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs speaks to a crowd at the AOL campus in Dulles, Virginia about his life, testimony, and new book Game Plan for Life. Gibbs is introduced by former Redskins chaplain Lee Corder. This event was held on Wednesday, July 29, 2009.

I wanted there to be similar training that taught Christians how to naturally discuss spiritual matters with friends, family, coworkers, and even strangers – without being confrontational, rude, or insincere (the typical stereotypes of proselytizing Christians).

Approaching a stranger with the purpose of sharing the Gospel with him or her requires the same skills as the art of picking up a woman at a bar. You need an indirect approach, a casual opener, listening skills, escalation in the conversation, and an eventual statement of interest (or objective). Unlike pickup, I think steering the conversation toward spiritual matters would be easy, as it’s an unexpected goal and not something the recipient is actively defending against. But I digress…

The point is that I had been learning so much about networking and approaching strangers, that I knew there had to be a better use of these skills than simply for my own selfish benefit. I hypothesized what this world would be like, if every Christian had the skills and confidence to approach anyone, anywhere, at anytime with the purpose of evangelism.

Two weeks ago, I attended a workshop on “How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less.” It was a business-networking workshop based on a book of the same name. We basically learned how to give a good first impression through our body language, tone of voice, and attitude. I had already taken the class and read the book three years ago, so it was more of a refresher for me. After the class was over, the teacher asked me if I would like to take over for her as the teacher of the workshop going forward. I thought it’d be fun, so I said yes.

The next day, I signed up for a “How to Share Your Faith” workshop at McLean Bible Church. This was the first time they offered a training workshop on evangelism, so I didn’t know what to expect. The workshop was held yesterday, and I can quite honestly say that it changed my life.

The majority of the workshop was typical stuff… We discussed the reasons why we don’t engage in evangelism (fear of making things socially awkward with friends and coworkers, etc.), what the Bible had to say about the topic, and ways to turn a conversation towards spiritual topics.

They showed this video of Penn (from Penn & Teller), which I found very powerful…

We participated in an activity where we practiced approaching strangers (note: there were a couple hundred people in the room) and bringing up Christianity naturally in our conversations.

I thought it was all very beneficial, but nothing mind-blowing. Then we had a surprise…

It seemed like the workshop was ending about 2 hours early, when the organizers surprised us with instant field missions – tasks for every table to accomplish out “in the field” (i.e., Tyson’s Corner) in the next two hours. As soon as I heard this, I was totally psyched. This workshop just turned into a boot camp (a la the pickup arts boot camps).

My table was assigned the Bed, Bath, and Beyond shopping center on Rt. 7. My teammates seemed anxious on the drive over, but I didn’t. I’d done this kind of thing before, and sharing the Gospel with strangers seemed like a really easy thing to do compared to the other stuff I’ve had to do on boot camps.

When we arrived at BB&B, I took a walk around the store and thought this really wasn’t going to work for me. Some of my tablemates successfully opened folks in the store, including the manager, so I figured they had the place covered. I went next door to Chic’s and Wings for a beer with one of my teammates, Heidi.

When we entered the bar, nobody looked up, so I didn’t have an immediate “in.” Heidi and I sat at the bar and ordered a couple of drinks. We chatted with each other, then I brought the bartender, Jessica, into our conversation. We talked about the NCAA tournament (of which I knew nothing about), but fortunately Heidi and Jessica connected, as their schools were still in the tournament (or had just lost). After a short while of this, I mentioned to Jessica that we were from a church up the road and had a short questionnaire for her, if she had the time to participate. She said she had to take care of some other stuff, but would come back if she could.

After 5-10 minutes, Heidi sighed and supposed that Jessica was not coming back. I said she had to at least give us the check.

Jessica did return and said she could take our survey. I assured her that if she at anytime didn’t feel comfortable answering any of the questions, she didn’t have to (I honestly hadn’t read the 5 questions prior, as this was Heidi’s challenge). As Heidi asked Jessica the very simple, non-confrontational questions, I noticed Jessica’s boss standing about 10 feet away, looking for some sort of signal from Jessica. I figured they worked out a “safety sign” to trigger a rescue prior to coming over. Thankfully, the manager was never signaled to come over, though she never took her eyes off us.

Heidi finished her questionnaire, and we found out that Jessica was a self-proclaimed Christian, but didn’t really know whether or not she would go to Heaven if she died, or by what criteria that could happen. She also told us that she doesn’t go to church, but that was mostly due to the fact that she had just moved here from Michigan not too long ago. I invited her to attend Frontline on a Sunday night, as there were more people like Heidi and I there, and we’d love to have her. I handed her a little Frontline card with basic information on the services (which was my challenge). Jessica thanked us, and I left her a big tip.

As we were leaving, Heidi grabbed some other material she had with her and approached a two-set of guys sitting at the bar. She told them about Frontline, invited them to come, and gave them the info cards. I couldn’t find the correct words to tell Heidi how proud I was of her boldness – as that kind of cold approach can be really intimidating – but I hope she somehow knows.

After leaving the bar, I realized how much more satisfying it was to do these kinds of social “missions,” than the other kind of challenges I’ve been involved with. And how cool it would be to find a partner who had the same calling.

I went home and “cleaned house” literally and figuratively. All of the ambitions and selfish pursuits I’ve been preoccupied with paled in comparison to this new calling. I want to continue developing my social and conversational skills – not for secular ambitions, but rather for spiritual, eternally significant ambitions.

And not only do I want to continue learning these skills, but I want to start teaching them as well. I want to lead evangelism boot camps. I want to train Christians to do this. And I want to spend my time with people who want to do this.

But I have to be prepared to lose everything else in my life. I’ve spent so much time developing social circles outside of my Christian world… It’ll be hard, but I have to accept the fact that, once I start down this path, I may very likely lose everything else.

With God’s help, and the support of Christian friends and fellow evangelists like Heidi, I’m willing to take that chance.

… Believing in God is not very stylish in mainstream media circles these days.

The question then becomes, is there anything wrong with that? After all, we have freedom from religion in America; the Constitution makes it clear that no power in this country has the right to impose religion on anyone.

So the atheists have clear sailing, and I say: Thank God.

That’s because people of faith should be challenged and think about their beliefs. Critical thinking in all areas makes the mind sharper, your philosophy stronger.

Thus, I was looking forward to debating the most successful of the atheist authors, Richard Dawkins, who wrote the bestseller The God Delusion. Dawkins basically says that science can explain everything on earth and no one has any direct evidence there is a God.

But I stopped him in the fourth round with this right hook: “[The earth] had to come from somewhere, and that is the leap of faith you guys (atheists) make—that it just somehow happened.”

Dawkins replied: “You’re the one who needs a leap of faith. The onus is on you to say why you believe in something … you believe in, presumably, the Christian God Jesus.”

“Jesus is a real guy,” I said. “I know what he did. I’m not positive that Jesus is God, but I’m throwing in with him rather than throwing in with you guys, because you guys can’t tell me how it all got here.”

“We’re working on it,” Dawkins said.

“When you get it,” I shot back, “maybe I’ll listen.”

But the atheists will never get it. The universe and the earth is so complex, so incredibly detailed, that to believe an accidental evolutionary occurrence could have exclusively led to the nature/mankind situation we have now, is some stretch of the imagination. I mean, call me crazy, but the sun always comes up, while man oversleeps all the time.

So bless you, Richard Dawkins, and all the other non-believers. As long as they don’t attack people of faith, I have no problem with them. As my eighth grade teacher Sister Martin once said, “Faith is a gift.”

But not everybody gets to open the box.

Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute
Woman of the Year and National Monitoring Lunch
01/04

“I regret not being more of a Christian sooner. I mean, I was always raised a Christian. I would go to church now and then. But I have become more Christian over the last few years, and it is a shield and a sword. There really is nothing anyone can do to me. It makes you laugh to see some of the things Liberals go through to try to hurt my feelings, or be mean to me, or sneer at me in Vanity Fair. Christ died for my sins, and I have eternal life—and I’m supposed to be concerned what Vanity Fair says about me? And I do think it drives them crazy that they know they can never get to a Christian—which is why they are so dismissive and demeaning towards Christians.”

“That is what Christianity gives you—you are operating with a net. In contradiction to what Ted Turner says about Christians being a bunch of losers, Christians ought to be the bravest, most determined risk-takers in any given situation. You have nothing to lose. You’re operating with a net all the time. You don’t seek the approval of a good obituary in the New York Times.”

“I think that is a problem with Conservatives—with religious people—that you feel like you can just withdraw from the world. Well, that isn’t what the Bible instructs. We, as Christians, are supposed to go out and engage the world and change it for the better.”

I find it hard to believe that those who’ve been vehemently promoting the practice of tolerance in this country have not hesitated in blasting White for expressing his strongly-held beliefs. It’s nothing short of hypocrisy to say, on the one hand, “All views should be respected and treated equally well,” and on the other, “…well, all views except your Christianity, Reggie.”

Remember, Reggie White does not hold the view that “every opinion and preference is right.” He believes in a God that sets rules. Any deviation from these rules White believes to be a sin and is wrong. This is his view. He believes it, so he endorses it. Any logical human being will endorse what he believes to be true.

The tolerance-mongers in the media and in our society, instead of practicing their precious tolerance have said, “You can’t have those views!” For the sake of consistency, I thought their reaction would be, “Well, I don’t agree with you, but that’s OK. Both our views are equally valid.”

The bottom line is: Reggie White practices what he preaches, and the liberal media do not. To me, the only real villain in this story is the hypocrite.

I also wanted to remark specifically on his ethnic “commendations.” Reggie White expressed what he thought were blessings God has bestowed on particular races. He singled out specifics (i.e. Whites are good at organization, Blacks at worship and celebration, Hispanics at family life, Native Americans at spirituality, and Asians at innovation and creativity). When I was listening to this portion of his speech, I couldn’t help but be reminded of all the ethnic celebrations we hold here at GMU.

We have Black History Month, Asian Awareness Week, International Week, and many other celebrations designed to identify and celebrate particular accomplishments, beliefs, and lifestyles of the many different ethnic groups that make up our university. When we watch the International Fashion Show, for instance, we don’t object, “That’s stereotypical! Not all (fill in ethnic group here) dress like that!” Rather, we celebrate our differences and take pride in the fact that “our race” has its own history and list of accomplishments. Differences in abilities and cultures is a good thing. Otherwise, what’s the point in making ethnic distinctions? There are distinctions, so why ignore them? I, for one, would hate it if everybody was exactly like me (what a boring world that would be!).

But whether you take pride in your differences or wish everybody was exactly the same, or whether you think all views are equal or believe your view to be the only correct one, what our society should promote and commend is the consistency between your beliefs and your actions. If you believe one way, be consistent with your belief. If you don’t have integrity, you don’t even have an argument and no one will ever listen to you.

Regardless of my shared religion with Reggie White, I totally respect him for not compromising on what he believes to be true. Integrity is truly a great thing.