Books
Excerpt

Connecting Christ

How to discuss Jesus in a world of diverse paths.

Connecting Christ

Connecting Christ

Have you ever seen the movie As Good As It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt? Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a man who pursues “Carol the Waitress,” played by Hunt. Until he falls in love, Melvin is rude, insensitive, racially bigoted, homophobic, and severely obsessive-compulsive. As his gay neighbor Simon Bishop explains, so it is: Melvin is the worst kind of human. As difficult as it is to deal with Melvin, it is perhaps even more difficult to imagine that this man is a best-selling author of romance novels. In fact, when a young unknown female fan who is the receptionist at his publishing house asks him how he is able to portray women so accurately in his works, Melvin tells her that women are like men, only without reason and accountability.

Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths

Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths

Thomas Nelson

352 pages

$11.31

But what does all this have to do with apologetics? Everything. Everything, that is, if you want to engage people truthfully and relationally—and not treat them dismissively. So often I am like Melvin. I talk about romance novels—usually God’s love letter to us recorded as the Bible—but I’ll never understand the depth of his love. I talk about relationships with people, but I rarely develop them myself. I lecture on incarnational, life-on-life apologetic engagement, but I often fail to respond to people life-on-life, keeping them at a distance ….

Conservative Christians often approach people as Melvin Udall does. We can wax eloquent on romance and relationships, but we rarely experience them. We approach Mormons, Buddhists, and homosexuals as Melvin does: categorizing and dehumanizing them until we are forced to deal with them face-to-face. Only then do we see that they are humans and not stereotypes …. In other words, we can know about homosexuals or Buddhists or Mormons as groups, but never really know or engage the individuals. Instead we simply lump them all into one category, as Melvin unceremoniously labels Carol as a waitress and Simon as a fag. But it isn’t so easy to label others once we find out who they really are.

People are complex, mysterious, inconsistent, contradictory, wart-infested, and wondrous to behold. In keeping with how Simon views the matter, the longer you gaze at someone … that individual becomes more than just his or her worldview or demographic. Like God, in whose image everyone is created, each human is too complex to be classified. True understanding requires what Atticus Finch says in To Kill a Mockingbird: “… You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2012 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Connecting Christ is available from Christianbook.com and other retailers.

Previous articles by or about Paul Louis Metzger include:

Fraternizing with the Enemy | Paul Louis Metzger engages those outside the faith. (May 13, 2011)

Here We Are to Worship | Six principles that might bring a truce to the age-old tension between tradition and popular culture. (August 21, 2009)

Previous articles on evangelism and other religions include:

Proselytizing in a Multi-Faith World | Why mutual respect and tolerance require us to witness for Christ. (March 28, 2011)

The Son and the Crescent | Bible translations that avoid the phrase “Son of God” are bearing dramatic fruit among Muslims. But that translation has some missionaries and scholars dismayed. (February 4, 2011)

Super Bowl Evangelism | Why Jesus did not say, “Market your neighbor as yourself.” (February 3, 2011)

Putting Evangelism on Hold | Will the Global Faith Forum’s “evangelistic model” of engaging Muslims and Jews catch on? (November 16, 2010)

CT also has more books, film, and music reviews.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

News

Is the Lord's Prayer a Christian Prayer?

News

Nontraditional Believers Recover Christian Community

Defending Scripture. Literally.

News

Violence in Nigeria: Breaking the Country's Fatal Deadlock

Discipling the Eyes Through Art in Worship

Review

Polarizing Politics by Defending the Declaration

Chuck Colson: Evangelicals Should Be Uniters, Not Dividers

'God Is Not a Genie in a Bottle': Ways We Misuse the Bible

My Top 5 Books on Christianity in North Korea

Review

Tolerance—Or Else: Coercive Attempts to Impose Secular Beliefs

Editorial

How Pastors' Ponzis Affect Our Gospel Witness

News

Mass Appeal: Evangelicals Copy More of Catholic Playbook to Oppose Contraception Ruling

Review

Blue Like Jazz

Do Pets Go to Heaven?

Becoming Donald Miller

What Good Grief Looks Like When a Daughter Dies

News

Sex Sect The Family Cleans House

News

Go Figure

Jesus Disappoints Everyone

Proof of a Good God: 'Crucified Under Pontius Pilate'

News

Quotation Marks

News

The Problem 'Son': Debate Continues Over Translating 'Son of God' for Muslims

News

Passages

Letters to the Editor

Journaling Grief: How Web-Based Publishing Is Changing Everything

Jesus Through Jewish Eyes

Books to Note

Wilson's Bookmarks

Employers Can Limit Employees' Speech, TBN’s Lawsuit, Bar Boots Catholic Group, and More News

News

Contract Concern: USAID Policy on Hiring Alarms Charities

Review

October Baby

Jeremy Lin, Tim Tebow, Josh Hamilton: Muscular Christianity's Newest Heroes

Interview: Why Sarah Macintosh Ran Away from CCM and Went Back

Review

Wrecking Ball

Review

The Clearing

Review

Feathers & Twine

Review

Songs of Praise & Scorn

View issue

Our Latest

News

Trump’s Path to Victory Still Runs Through the Church

The former president held on to the white evangelical vote while making gains among Catholics and Hispanic Christians.

What to Do After the Election

Prudence from Ecclesiastes and exhortation from Hebrews for the jubilant and disappointed alike.

The Russell Moore Show

Civility, Calvinism, and the Coming Judgment Day

Richard Mouw still believes in Christian “uncommon decency.” 

Paul’s Prescription for a Polarized Church

The apostle’s ethic of welcome challenges our personal, social, and political instincts.

Spain’s Oldest Protestant Publishing House Began Underground 100 Years Ago

Now Clie celebrates a century of equipping the church through dictatorship and secularization. 

News

Donald Trump Takes the White House Again

In his late-night victory speech, the former president says God gave him a mission to “save our country.”

News

Florida’s Abortion Amendment Becomes the First to Fail Since Roe’s Reversal

On election night, pro-lifers cheered the news that a 6-week ban enacted under Gov. Ron DeSantis will get to stay, with further wins coming in South Dakota and Nebraska.

News

Conservative Anglicans Call for Archbishop to Repent Over Same-Sex Relationships Stance

As the issue continues to divide the Church of England, Justin Welby spoke on a popular podcast about how his views have “evolved.”

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube