Rule #5: Find Common Ground!

If we want to change the hearts and minds of people outside the church, we need to find common ground. We spend so much time focusing on our disagreements that we miss a huge opportunity.

These innate feelings are often the driving force behind all of our ideas, politics, and worldviews.

We are forced to reckon with these powerful instincts whether we acknowledge the source of them or not.

As Christians, we need to have the patience and perspective to identify and address the foundation of a person's beliefs. Because at this level, you will discover you have far more in common with someone than you first might realize.

One of the tools we use in Steiger to start Gospel conversations is an old-school typewriter with a sign above it that says, "if you could say anything to the world, what would it be?"

As people walk by, we invite them to type out a message, and many do. They will usually write things like, "Be kind to one another" or "treat each other with respect." In almost all cases, the messages powerfully reflect the heart and attitude of Jesus.

This simple tool leads to great conversations and provides further evidence of the abundant common ground between all people regardless of beliefs.

Finding these in-roads for the Gospel is far more effective than focusing on all the disagreements you may have with those outside the church.

It's easy to expose the inconsistency of the person who, in absolute terms, demands that no absolutes exist. It's more difficult, and a lot more like Jesus, to find the heart behind the demand. In the eyes of many, harsh religious rules marginalize and oppress vulnerable people.

Their solution is to eliminate truth, which is naive—but caring for the vulnerable? That should be apparent common ground. Too often, we focus on the inconsistency and miss the heart. Jesus went after the heart first, knowing the rest would follow.