In this guest blog, church leadership expert Dr. Bob Whitesel shares an excerpt from his soon-to-be-released book, Spiritual Waypoints: Helping Others Navigate Their Spiritual Journey.

Here is the first installment, the story of Fuller Seminary professor Richard Peace and his experience with the President of the Atheist Club.  

Waypoint 16
No Awareness of a Supreme Being
(non-edited pre-publication text)

I was at this time living, like so many . . . in a whirlwind of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world. —C. S. Lewis

President of the Atheist Club

Richard was not your typical new seminary student. A former Electrical Engineering major at Yale University, he enrolled at Fuller Theological Seminary in preparation for a career as a missionary. There Richard encountered four students who shared his passion to share the Good News in relevant ways. Together they started an innovative missionary agency they called African Enterprise. And while working in South Africa, they developed a new form of media outreach that combined rock music, multiple slide images and lighting effects into what they called a “light show.” The response was beyond their expectations, as crowds nightly jammed the University of Cape Town auditorium.

The message of the light and media show was twofold. The first half employed dark images and hard-edged rock music to underscore the lack of purpose, confusion and pessimism that modern youth were experiencing. The second half was more hopeful, portraying the selfless and positive message of Christ’s Good News. This juxtaposition of hopelessness with the unconditional love of Christ made a journey changing impression.
 
Many told Richard and his friends that the good news of the second half had changed their outlook and given them hope. But Richard was not prepared when one student responded, “this has really changed my mind. I am president of the Atheist Club of the University of Cape Town.” The student’s subsequent statement initially confounded Richard. “Because of this,” the student continued, “I am no longer an atheist, but now I am an agnostic.”
 
Richard knew that an agnostic had an awareness of a supreme being, while an atheist claims no awareness of God. In other words, the good news of the second half of the show had helped this traveler move from no awareness of a supreme being to an awareness of a supreme being. Yet initially, Richard’s heart sank. Richard had been thinking that this person was ready for the New Birth experience and that this former atheist might give a testimony of his new birth at the following night’s presentation.
 
But then Richard’s disappointment gave way to a more holistic understanding of what God was doing. Richard recognized this person was on a God-ward journey, and the presentation had helped this person move in a positive direction. Richard began to pray for this young man, for he knew the student’s journey was not finished. And Richard knew that he and his friends had helped this wayfarer cross to another waypoint on his spiritual journey. “So my prayer was that other people and other influences over time would help move him along his spiritual journey until he committed his life to Christ,” recalled Richard.

Richard later became professor of evangelism and spiritual formation at the very seminary that had prepared him. And Richard Peace is known today for his research and writings on the journey of evangelism.
 
  

Interview with Richard Peace
Author and the Robert Boyd Munger Professor of Evangelism
and Spiritual Formation Fuller Theological Seminary

Whitesel: You were in South Africa, engaged in an evangelistic ministry in the cities and at the universities. How did you feel when you realized the president of the Atheist Club said he was no longer an atheist, but an agnostic?
 
Peace: At first my heart sank. I was thinking he was going to give his life to Christ right then and there; and then he could give his testimony the next night. But then I realized what had actually happened was powerful. To be an atheist is a faith position, and he had just taken a bold step of faith in a new direction. His faith was moving in a God-ward direction.”
 
Whitesel: What did you do next?
 
Peace: I prayed for him, for I did not know where his journey would take him. So my prayer was that other people and other influences would over time help him move along his spiritual journey until he committed his life to Christ.
 
Whitesel: To most people this is a different understanding of conversion. Most people think of conversion as something that takes place at just one point in a person’s life.
 
Peace: I think we’ve limited our understanding of the unfolding process that conversion often takes. It takes time for people to come to the place where they can recognize who Jesus is and what he has done for them. We need to take seriously where a person is on  his or her faith journey and then help that person take the next step in a God-ward direction.
 
Whitesel: But this requires a clearer understanding of where a person is on his or her journey. We cannot just assume everyone is ready to accept Christ.
 
Peace: That’s right. We must become spiritual diagnosticians. We must travel with them, understand their position on the journey and connect with them to help them on the next segment of the God-ward journey.
 
Whitesel: So, what can a person do to help others navigate these waypoints?
 
Peace: It is a matter of modeling Godly behavior, building a relationship and talking to people about spirituality. It is not about condemning them for where they are on their journey, or using a canned witnessing plan.
 
Whitesel: Then our job is to build relationships and to begin two-way dialogue if we are to help them navigate their journey.
 
Peace: Right. My job is to tell stories of how God loves us and wants a personal relationship with us. That can only come from repentance and faith in Christ. This pattern of reaching out is conversational. The old pattern was confrontational. The new pattern says “here is my story, tell me yours . . . and here is God’s story.” It is more interesting when God is the evangelist.
 
Whitesel: Any final thoughts.
 
Peace. Yes, we’ve just got to let people be who they are and where they are in their spiritual journey. God leads the process. Therefore, a person reaching out should not be leading or manipulating the process. We must understand where they are, be with them there and be sensitive to what they are wrestling with. Then we must model Christian love and share how our story intersects their story. We tend to rush straight to commitment to God. And if we do it too soon it is counterproductive. It can turn people off to the wonderful Good News.



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Bob Whitesel, D. Min., Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Christian Ministry and Missional Leadership at Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana and president of C3 International (Creative Church Consulting). He is a respected voice on the emerging organic church, church management, and church growth. He has written seven books including the companion volume to this book: Waypoint: Navigating Your Spiritual Journey, and Preparing for Change Reaction: How to Introduce Change in Your Church.