Martin had worked for an oil company for more than 20 years and was on his way to meet his new boss. He sat across the train from me and talked about his kids. His son was unruly and apparently a disappointment. He liked Donald Trump. He attended church at Christmas and for baptisms but felt guilty that he did not attend more. He liked America, but he loved Scotland.
As far as I could tell, Martin would have fit in well with the blue collar crowd in my town. He was proud to be a hard worker, but he did not follow Jesus.
When people ask what I do, I don’t usually sugarcoat it. I jump right in. I’m a pastor. Those three words either open up a great conversation or completely shut it down, but at least we get to the point. I explained to Martin that I was an evangelical and followed Jesus and was in Scotland to pursue mission partnerships.
“What do you believe,” I asked? Without embarrassment, he told me how his father had believed that aliens visited earth and shared advanced learning and technology with our ancestors. “I reckon, I believe that too,” he said, “you know there are some cave drawings in Australia that show people with big heads, like aliens.”
This is the kind of evangelistic encounter that enhances your prayer life. How do you transition from aliens, to Jesus and the gospel?
It turns out that it really isn’t that hard. I asked Martin some questions about his worldview, I challenged him about where these aliens could have come from and who could have created the aliens. Then, I presented my worldview. One with a Creator who loves us and a Savior who died to save us.
I shared an offensive message. I told him that everything his father had taught him and everything he believed about religion was wrong. And yet, he was not angry. I shared the gospel. He thanked us and took a copy of the gospel of John.
So what is the secret to bridging from aliens to the gospel? A lost world needs to meet Christians who are willing to listen. In a loud world, we need to ask questions and patiently listen to answers. Yes, we want to see those far from God be brought near to him in salvation, but we are not laying traps. The world needs to see us first and foremost as disciples of Jesus, not fire-breathing apologists or Bible-thumping evangelists.
People need to see real humanity in Christians. It should not be hard for us to act like normal people, Jesus was the most “real” human who has ever existed. He listened patiently. He spoke lovingly. He reserved his strongest criticism for religious hypocrites, not confused sinners who were enslaved to false saviors.
Evangelism isn’t easy. When you are willing to share the love of Christ with others, you will hear all sorts of stories. You’ll hear about aliens, but those will be the easy stories. You will also hear stories of pain and loss. People who walked away from the church because of abuse. People who do not believe in God because their mother died. You will discover that when we talk about a world that is “lost and dying,” these are not just church words. People are lost in the darkness. They need the illuminating light of the gospel to point them to a Savior who loves them supremely.
Are you willing to step into the broken lives of broken people? Are you willing to cry over their pain? Will you do more than put notches on your evangelism belt? Will you listen? Will you actually love your neighbor as yourself?
As we listened to Martin tell his story and offered to pray for his son, he was willing to hear our story.
The alien story is really not so crazy after all. C. S. Lewis wrote that paganism was really a shadow that anticipated a greater story. Many ancient pagan religions held to the idea of a god who died in the winter and rose again in the spring–a god who brought life. For Lewis, these stories anticipated the great King who would die and rise again. So too, the alien story.
Martin understood that we needed something to come from outside of us to help us. His alien came down to help people. “I guess its not that much different from what you believe,” he said, “somebody who comes down to help us.”
Not that much different, I thought, but so much more. This man who was burdened for his son was able to learn on a train from Edinburgh about a God who not only came down to help, but who died to save us. Pray for Martin. I am hopeful that he read the gospel of John and that the true light overcame the darkness in his life.
