Many Christians evangelize like the angler in the cartoon. We saw that in Parts I and II of this series. The Gospel message they share is not really GOOD news to those who receive it. That’s because the message they share doesn’t address people’s felt needs. It’s irrelevant.
In this blog you will read about the felt spiritual needs of people in the major religious blocks, as we present the felt needs of Hindus and Buddhists.
You will also learn how to develop a message that is truly GOOD news to those you want to reach. This blog will offer a simple proven process you can go through to formulate a message that will truly be GOOD news to your community, as well as questions you can ask to identify the felt needs of the people in your community.
What actually is the gospel?
In my previous blog, Part I of this series on the gospel that is Good News, I revisited the core of the gospel – according to the Gospels. Here is a brief recap of the main points:
The task of every gospel messenger is to articulate a holistic message that addresses people’s felt needs.
The gospel message Jesus and the Apostles preached was the gospel of the kingdom – its content was the kingdom of God (Mark 4:43).
The kingdom of God is God’s good reign, as it is fully manifest in heaven (Ladd, 1959; Willard, 1998).
The gospel is wholistic and encompasses God’s good reign for all aspects of life (Luke 4:18-19).
This means for us Christians today in the 21st century: What makes the gospel Good News is that those who hear it from us perceive it to be Good News to them. Therefore, the task of every gospel messenger is to articulate a holistic message that addresses people’s felt needs.
Applications for ministry among the world religions
Together with my church planting team, I thought through how to apply this to ministry among Muslims. In trainings I have facilitated around the world, I have done the same with trainees for ministry to other religious communities. In addition, I studied what leading missiologists, who are experts on ministry to particular religions, have written on the subject. The religions in this blog (Part III) are Hinduism and Buddhism. (In Part I we addressed folk religions, and in Part II Islam and secularism). You may of course jump straight to the table of the religion of the people you serve.
Beyond the ministry experience of teams I have trained, and seasoned workers among Hindus with whom I discussed this, I have considered the insights of Stanley Jones (1925), Donald McGavran (1970), Lesslie Newbigin (1978), Madathilparampil Mammen Thomas (1980), Ralph Winter (1981), David Hesselgrave (1983), and John Webster (1991).
Felt Needs in Hinduism | Answers in Hinduism | True Answers in the Gospel |
Connection with the Divine | Participation in rituals, prayer, meditation, and yoga | In Jesus, God came close to us, and in Him we can have union with God. |
Liberation of the soul from the bonds of worldly existence (Mukti) | Realization of one’s true self (Atman), and the unity of true self with Brahman, the universal soul | Holistic salvation through Christ that includes physical and emotional components, and deliverance from demonic oppression |
Liberation from the cycle of rebirth (Moksha) | Realization of one’s true self (Atman), and the unity of true self with Brahman, the universal soul | In Christ we have eternal life that begins in this life and continues in the afterlife in God’s presence. |
Knowledge and wisdom that lead to enlightenment | Study of sacred texts like the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, and others, and guidance from a guru | Guidance by the Holy Spirit directly from God, and study of the Bible in community |
Higher states of spiritual realization | Rituals, worship, meditation, and yoga | Completeness in Christ and the new self within us |
Righteous Living (Dharma) | Ethical behavior, in a way that upholds social and cosmic order, performing social duties | Christ is our perfect righteousness before God, which is given to us as free gift. Out of love we obey his commands and seek to live a righteous life. |
Belonging to community | Attending temple services, festivals, and communal religious activities | Belonging and acceptance in the fellowship of believers |
For Buddhism, beyond the ministry experience of teams I have trained, and seasoned workers among Buddhists with whom I discussed this, I have considered the insights of Paul De Neui (1996), Matthew Yates (1997), Ajith Fernando (2002), and David Lim.
Felt Needs in Buddhism | Answers in Buddhism | True Answers in the Gospel |
Achieving enlightenment (Nirvana) | The extinguishing of all desires and the cessation of suffering can be achieved through meditation and mindfulness. | Liberation through guru Jesus from physical, emotional, and spiritual oppression |
Liberation from the cycle of rebirth (Moksha) | Through enlightenment and righteous duty (Dharma) | Eternal life in Christ that begins in this life and continues in the afterlife in God’s presence |
Quest for ultimate truth (Satya) and reality (Brahman) | Search for deeper understanding of the cosmos and unity with the divine through mindfulness and concentration (Samadhi) | God has revealed truth through the Bible and the life of Christ, and we know him through the Bible and conversation in prayer. |
Experience of the Divine | Through rituals, festivals, worship (puja), and devotion (bhakti) | We can experience the reality of God in prayer and contemplation. |
Protection and blessing from the Divine | To secure well-being for oneself and family, through rituals, offerings, and prayers | Every blessing is available in Christ and protection in his name to everyone who asks for it and proclaims it in his name. |
Well-being (Shakti) and health (Arogya) | Through rituals, offerings, and worship of the deities associated with healing | God offers shalom as much as we live in his ways. Health is a blessing we can pray for. |
Need for spiritual purity (Shuddhi) | From sin and negative karma, through rituals and prayers, both personally and communally | The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all sin and uncleanness, and the Holy Spirit cleanses our hearts. |
Moral and spiritual guidance to gain wisdom (Prajna) | Studying the teachings of Buddha, including the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, other sacred texts, and the teachings of gurus | God revealed his truth through the Holy Scriptures of the OT and NT and through the person and life of Christ on earth. By applying God’s truth, we receive guidance. |
Living the divine teachings | Ethical and moral behavior (Sila), compassion (Karuna) and altruism fulfil the Dharma. | Christ is our perfect righteousness before God, which is given to us as free gift. Out of love we obey his commands and seek to live a righteous life. |
Harmony and balance (Shanti) | Holistic sense of well-being and balance with oneself, others, and the cosmos, through rituals and adherence to Dharma | Inner peace is a result of peace with God, a fruit of the Spirit, and can be maintained by truth in our hearts. We are called to live in peace with everyone. |
Belonging to the community (Sangha) | Fulfilling one’s role in society, engaging with fellow practitioners to gain support and instruction for own spiritual practice | Belonging and acceptance in the fellowship of believers |
Truly understanding the felt needs of people is not done primarily by studying publications but by intentionally listening to them.
These lists are in no way meant to be definitive. Rather, I share them with you as a starting point. Really understanding the felt needs of the people you are reaching out to can be done much better by you than by me. And the primary means of understanding these needs is not studying publications but intentionally listening to people. By doing this in the context of a budding trust relationship, you can find out the real felt needs of real people.
Helpful questions to understand people’s spiritual felt needs Here are some simple-yet-proven questions you can throw in during everyday conversations. They are also robust enough to be used in more formal ethnographic interviews. Which of them will lead to meaningful conversations and insights into people’s felt needs, depends largely on how much trust you have built and how safe they feel with you. The deeper the relationship, the more of these questions you can use.
|
A simple process
1. Mobilize your team to ask the above questions in personal encounters with people in your community. Have them all listen deeply – to understand both the felt needs they identify and how local people seek to find answers to their felt needs in their own religion. It is normally best to take notes after these conversations, to avoid having people feel “investigated.”
2. In a team meeting, all share their notes and discuss them. For starters, the team can aim at identifying five felt needs and their answers that the people in the community articulated.
3. The team studies the Bible to seek how God and the kingdom gospel truly meets the felt needs identified.
You can use this kind of table to capture your insights:
Felt Needs among our Community | Answers in their Religion | True Answers in the Gospel |
Need A | Answer A | True Answer A |
Need B | ... | ... |
... | ... | ... |
4. Whenever conversations turns to any of the felt needs or how people seek answers in their own religion, your team can communicate the true answer from the gospel as truly Good News.
5. Over time, the team can expand the list of identified felt needs.
6. Over time, the team can also hone the way they communicate the Good News in culturally meaningful ways that speak into people’s worldview and use language that resonates with them.
What are your thoughts?
I would love to hear from you. What are YOUR thoughts? What is your experience? Leave a comment below! If you prefer to private message me, you can use the contact form.
Learn more about the best practices of effective catalysts in my book Movement Catalysts. You can order your copy here.
If you found this helpful, how about you share this blog with your network?
Emanuel Prinz – Father’s Beloved & Movement Activist
Reference
De Neui, Paul. 1996. “Felt Needs and Buddhist Contexts: Understanding and Engaging with Buddhist Worldviews.” International Journal of Frontier Missions, 13(3): 115-123.
Fernando, Ajith. 2002. “The Challenge of Buddhist Contextualization.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly, 38(2): 192-198.
Hesselgrave, David J. 1983. “A Theological Perspective on the Needs of Hindus.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 7(3): 101-108.
Hesselgrave, David J. 1991. “"The Power of Christ and the Powers of Culture: Can Christians Witness to Folk Religion Adherents with Integrity?" Evangelical Missions Quarterly, 27(4), 342-349.
Jones, Stanley. 1925. Christ on the Indian Road. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press.
Ladd, George Eldon. 1959. The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies on the Kingdom of God. Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Lim, David. 1992. “Understanding Buddhist Needs: A Framework for Effective Mission.” Missiology: An International Review, 20(4): 467-475.
McGavran, Donald A. 1970. Understanding Church Growth. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Newbigin, Leslie. 1978. The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Newbigin, Leslie. 1989. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Thomas, Madathilparampil Mammen. 1980. “Hinduism and the Gospel: A Theological Perspective.” The Indian Journal of Theology, 29(2), 68-80.
Webster, John. 1991. “The Church and the Hindu World: A Challenge to Mission.” Missiology: An International Review, 19(1): 25-35.
Willard, Dallas. 1998. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. New York: Harper.
Winter, Ralph D. 1981. “The Challenge of the Hindu World.” Mission Frontiers, 3(2): 4-12.
Yates, Matthew T. 1997. “Mission and Buddhist Cultures: Addressing Felt Needs and Engaging Worldviews.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 21(1): 22-29.
