Principles for Humble Evangelism (Blake Long on "Gospel Smugness")

ThinkSquad, have you ever had one of those moments where you wrap up a conversation with someone, and then you get back to your car and reflect back on it, and you think, "Man, I regret just about everything I just said. I think I came off like a royal jerk. Not good." I've been there. Many, many times. Maybe you have too. And one of the worst times to feel that way is after you've just shared the Gospel with someone. When you're evangelizing is one time when you especially don't want to come off like a douche. So how do you avoid this? How do we avoid being smug, yet without being so "humble" that we water down the message?  And as dads, how do we help our families not to fall into the smugness trap?

To answer this question I brought on author and blogger Blake Long. Blake is a young dad himself. He and I discuss his book Gospel Smugness, in which he argues that the Gospel is offensive enough without us unnecessarily adding to the offense. We discuss 

  • The importance of "reading the room" when sharing the Gospel

  • How empathy factors in to evangelism (and why it's not a sin)

  • What it really means to speak the truth in love 

  • Why "arrogant Calvinist" should be an oxymoron

Don't miss this entertaining and informative conversation that will give you some solid principles for humble evangelism, with this up-and-coming Christian thinker, Blake Long.

Get more from Blake: http://theology-and-life.com/

Get Blake’s book, Gospel Smugness: https://theology-and-life.com/book/

Follow us!

http://facebook.com/thethinkinstitute 

http://twitter.com/thinkinst

http://mewe.com/i/thinkinstitute 

http://gab.com/thinkinstitute

Support the Settecase Family & Think Institute: 

https://give.cru.org/1018841

Listen to the Think Podcast on 11 podcast platforms: 

https://anchor.fm/the-think-podcast

Get a free catechism, slide presentations and books: 

http://thethink.institute/catakids.

Bring the Think Institute to your church, group or event:

https://thethink.institute/booking

Get more from the Think Institute: 

Search the Think Institute site for worldview, evangelism, apologetics, discipleship, theology and strategic engagement content: https://thethink.institute/search.

Get tools and tips sent to your inbox: http://thethink.institute/think-updates

Learn more about our intensive study cohorts at http://thethink.institute/hammerandanvil 

Music Credits: 

Apologetics of Jesus & Paul Intro Music:

Synthwave Intro 03 by TaigaSoundProd
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/7299-synthwave-intro-03
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Driving to the Night by Frank Schröter
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/8085-driving-to-the-night
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license