SENT: Starting Where People Are (Derik Fuller)

Paul’s engagement with the people of Athens gives us some very helpful principles for how to engage people with the gospel. One of the key skills we need to learn if we are going to be effective witnesses for Christ is that we have to meet people where they are. Paul contextualized his message to the people he was dealing with and the questions they were asking. In Acts 17:2 we see Paul addressing Jews by appealing to scripture. Here, in dealing with Greek Philosophers who had a different source of authority and different questions they were asking, he changes his approach while keeping his message. As we engage with people who don’t know Jesus we, like Paul, ought to be grieved by their lostness, look for points of agreement, expose the weakness of their answers/solutions, proclaim God’s greatness and point them to Jesus and His resurrection.