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How would you handle these objections to Good Soil E&D that sometimes are given by traditionalist Christians?

Objection 1: Logic has no place in leading someone to Christ.  Only the conviction by the Holy Spirit based on the preaching of the Word of God can do that.  Appealing to logic is to ask an unregenerate man to understand something he cannot comprehend without the Holy Spirit.

Answer 1: If you look closely, you will realize that Good Soil E&D is not based upon logic-oriented gospel presentations (evidentialist-rational-classical apologetics).  One of our most basic distinctives is that we teach believers to present God's story of redemption as it unfolds through the Bible.  Only God can change the core worldview beliefs (presuppositions) of an unbeliever and he uses His Word to do that.  As we present the Bible's metanarrative (Big Story) to an unbeliever, he/she must compare what he/she believes with what the Bible says about the core issues of life.  As that happens, we pray for God the Holy Spirit to lift the veil of spiritual blindness from his/her heart and for the Holy Spirit to convict him/her of sin and rebellion against God.

Objection 2: Anything in addition to preaching of the Word is adding human works to the gospel.

Answer 2: There are many ways to proclaim the Word of God, in addition to what we culturally think of as "preaching."  Much of Paul's evangelistic ministry, in the book of Acts, was not "preaching" per se.  We simply would disagree with any one who would say that presenting God's plan of salvation in an illustrated and printed form is adding human works to the gospel.  That is not "adding" to the gospel, it is presenting and clarifying the gospel.

Objection 3: Americans have plenty of opportunities to hear gospel preaching on radio and TV.  They don't need a long explanation of who God is and what He expects from them.  They just need a clear presentation of the gospel.

Answer 3: That was probably accurate a generation or more ago.  But, increasingly that is no longer true, in many situations.  We have had numerous pastors attend our Good Soil seminars who have told us that many of the people who now live in their communities do not know the basic Biblical-Christian concepts--who the true God is, what sin is, the realities of life beyond the grave, who Jesus Christ is, and what He has to offer them.  The Good Soil training and resources were originally created to prepare missionaries to present the gospel in totally pagan, non-Christian cultures.  But, we are finding that many North American pastors are telling us that their communities are similarly pagan.

Objection 4: Relational ministry is a waste of time.  Relatives don't listen, anyway.  "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country."  Don't get too emotionally involved with your parishioners--they will lose respect for you and you will know too much about them.

Answer 4: We don't say that relational evangelism is better than initial contact evangelism.  We believe that both are appropriate, depending on the situation.  But in defense of relational evangelism, keep in mind that (humanly speaking) Simon Peter would not have followed Jesus if his brother Andrew had not brought him to Jesus (John 1:41).  There have been numerous survey studies that indicate that unbelievers are attracted to Jesus and the gospel because of the influence of relatives or friends, more than for any other reason.  The examples of Cornelius (Acts 10) and the Philippian jailer (Acts 16) should encourage us to use our relationships to influence our friends and families for Christ. 

When leading a Good Soil seminar, how do you get out of a discussion that has turned into a debate?

Before You Get Into Those Situations:

1. The first thing to do is to try to avoid those kinds of situations as much as possible.  Think about the kinds of potentially emotion-charged topics that might spawn a debate and prepare ahead of time for them.  When you approach a topic like that, “frame it” with disclaimers and lots of humility.
   Example: We approach the Good Soil scale with disclaimers such as—it’s only a humanly constructed model so it isn’t infallible, etc.
2. Use a “Questions Board” and, from the very beginning of the seminar, direct people to place their questions on that board, along with their names.  That allows you to decide if you want to answer the question in a private setting or before the entire group.
3. Be aware that many of these kinds of issues have been addressed in the resource articles in the Supplement section of the notebook, or on the Cultivate blog-forum site.  Be familiar with these sources and direct the person who asks the question to those resources.  That’s one of the major reasons that we’ve created those resources—to keep emotion-charged issues out of the general discussion forum of the class, without simply dodging them.
   Example: Be familiar with the “Affirmations and Disclaimers” and “What Must I [Really] Do to Be Saved” articles, as well as the many FAQs and blog articles on http://Cultivate.GoodSoil.com.

When You Find Yourself in Those Situations:

1. If the issue isn’t crucial, say something like “Thanks for sharing your view on that.” and then move on with the seminar.
2. If the issue is important, state your position and invite the person to discuss it further later, outside of the main sessions.

Recommended Resource: Dealing with Difficult Participants by Dave Arch (Order from Amazon.com)

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