Weekly Update: Conviction and Civility

To the Discipleship-First Tribe,

We are witnessing more and more unsettling public conversations today than at any other time in recent history. We see it with politicians, political commentators, social media posts, conversations at work, in coffee shops—and even in the church. People are having a hard time talking to one another in an appropriate manner.

While one group actively states their opinions with gusto, another group, who is mostly quiet, says little or nothing at all.

So how do we as disciple makers engage in conversations?

To answer this question, my mind takes me to a summer night several years ago. I was attending an event for Christian leaders, and the evening was perfectly set for an engaging conversation with a small group of leaders after Dallas Willard had just made a presentation to a group of scholars and seminary students. I had been given the opportunity to join the conversation, too.

We were all relaxing after dinner out on the patio and the conversation was as pleasant and clear as the evening air. The late Willard was even at that time an intellectual giant of the faith and a philosophy professor at the University of Southern California, respected by many secular and Christian leaders.

This circumstance gave me a chance to ask Dallas a question, one that I had wanted to ask him for ten years—a question about the nature of saving faith.

I worded the question in such a way that may have offended many people, but I couldn’t think of a different way to ask it. Dallas listened to me, then responded in a kind and gentle way.

What was most helpful was…

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For King Jesus,