As we saw in Part I, many Christians evangelize like the angler in the cartoon. 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. Therefore the “fish” don’t bite. Those needing to be reached don’t respond to the message.
In this blog you will learn how to develop a message that is truly GOOD news to those you want to reach. You will also read about the felt spiritual needs of people in the major religious blocks. In this blog we will present the felt needs of Muslims and secularists. (In Part I we addressed the felt needs of people in folk religions, in Part III we will address those of Hindus and Buddhists.) This blog will also offer a simple proven process you can go through to formulate a message that will truly be GOOD new 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 (see here), Part I of this series on the gospel that is Good News, I revisited what the core of the gospel is – according to the Gospels. Here 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 Jesus and the Apostles preached was the gospel of the kingdom – its content was the kingdom of God (Matthew 24:14, Mark 4:43, Luke 8:11, Luke 16:16).
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 holistically (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 II) include: Islam, and Secularism. (In Part I we address Animism and folk religions, in Part III Hinduism and Buddhism). You may of course jump straight to the table of the religion of the people you serve.
Beyond our own ministry experience among Muslims, I have considered the insights of Paul Hiebert (1990), Bill Musk (1991), and Rick Love (1995).
Felt Needs in Islam | Answers in Islam | True Answers in the Gospel |
God is distant | Help from imam or fetish priest | God is close in the person of Jesus. |
God is uninvolved | Prayer to idols | God became very involved in the person of Jesus. |
Fear of the unknown | Fortune-telling | Safety in Jesus who guides and protects |
Fear of the future | Fortune-telling | Trust in Jesus as the Lord of the future |
Fear of evil | Tall fences, power objects like amulets | Deliverance ministry and protection in Jesus |
Powerlessness against evil | Protection through charms, help from people of power | Authority and power of the Holy Spirit within very believer |
Diseases | Protection through charms, help from people of power | Prayer for divine healing from Jesus |
Meaninglessness in life | Seeking meaning in submission to Allah; or in wealth, power or fame | Meaning and destiny living as a child of God |
No assurance of salvation | Accumulation of good works, acceptance that only Allah can know | Assurance of forgiveness by trusting in the sacrificial death of Jesus |
Shame over not being part of the community | Conforming to group norms, outward appearances | Acceptance in the fellowship of believers |
Beyond my own ministry experience among secular people, agnostics and atheists, I have benefitted particularly from the work of Rick Warren (1985), Leslie Newbigin (1989), Brian McLaren (2001), and numerous studies of social trends in various Western nations.
Felt Needs among Secularists | Answers in Secularism | True Answers in the Gospel |
Pursuit of happiness | Seek to find happiness in things like relationships, romantic love, sex, career, wealth, or power. Values personal well-being, achieved through mindfulness, meditation, or yoga. | Our hearts find happiness in the unconditional love and acceptance of our Father. To receive it, all that is needed to open one’s heart |
Need for self-actualization | Desire to express oneself authentically, be one’s true self, and accomplish personal self-development | Our true identity is to be God’s beloved child. In relationship with Jesus we can be complete and whole. |
Need for connection with others and to feel loved | Glorifies romantic love and sex, values authentic friendships based on mutual interests | Real kingdom communities and friendships welcome and love everyone just as they are. |
Striving for meaning, purpose and significance | There is no absolute meaning, only the meaning we create subjectively. That can mean to anyone what they choose to be meaningful to them. | Our deepest meaning is in our value as God’s beloved. God invites us to live a life of eternal significance. |
Need for a sense-making narrative | Have no confident belief in God or any higher being or power. Evolution is the narrative that the earth was created through a big bang. | The God of the Bible is truly God and creator, and the narrative is that throughout history he has wanted to relate to us and bless us with his goodness and love. |
Dealing with pointers to a spiritual reality | Religion is a human invention, and is either useful for the evolution of mankind in a utilitarian sense or bad for the progress of society. | The Bible and the life of Jesus are God’s self-revelation. He also reveals his reality through creation and extends his goodness and grace to anyone. |
Desire to know truth | No absolute truth exists, only subjective truth based on personal experience and perception. | We are able to know absolute truth through God’s special revelation in the Bible and the life of Jesus |
Dealing with contradicting world views and beliefs | Tolerance of all religions and individual beliefs is supreme value; except ones judged as intolerant. Value their inclusivity of all religions as being progressive toward higher consciousness. All religions eventually lead to the same divine reality, if one exists. | Makes an exclusive claim that in Jesus only is the way of salvation. The gospel is very inclusive, meaning that God offers his abundant love freely to all. Christians affirm what is good and true in others’ beliefs. |
Truly understanding the felt needs of people is not done 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 felt spiritual 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 lead to meaningful conversations and insights into people’s felt needs, largely depends 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.
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A simple process
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.”
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.
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 | … | … |
… | … | … |
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.
Over time, the team can expand the list of identified felt needs.
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
References
Hiebert, Paul G. 1990. "Critical Contextualization." International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 14(3), 104-112.
Ladd, George Eldon. 1959. The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies on the Kingdom of God. Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Love, Rick. 1995. Muslims, Magic, and the Kingdom of God. Pasadena: William Carey Library.
McLaren, Brian D. 2001. A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Musk, Bill. 1991. The Unseen Face of Islam: Sharing the Gospel with Muslims. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
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.
Schwarz, Christian A. 1996. Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches. Carol Stream: Churchsmart Resources.
Warren, Rick. 1995. The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message and Mission. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Willard, Dallas. 1998. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. New York: Harper.
