SPEAKER: FU YU DA
One of the five Outreach Conference workshops at Wesley Methodist Church on 27 September was titled “Everyday Outreach”—reaching out to people whom you meet in all walks of life. After all, evangelism can take place even with your next-door HDB neighbour.
Being born and raised in a non-Christian family, the workshop facilitator, Fu Yu Da, is Chairman of Witness and Evangelism at Wesley. He said, “Outreach isn’t just about scheduled programmes – it’s a way of life.” Having majored in apologetics, his approach was to help workshop attendees discover how everyday conversations at work, at home and in our community can become meaningful opportunities to share the love and truth of Christ.
He began the workshop with an anecdote: some people practise ‘cat theology’, believing they are God because of their good fortune, whereas others practise ‘dog theology’, believing their benefactor is God. With this, he emphasised the importance of customising every conversation to the listener’s personality and beliefs.
Yu Da went on to explain that to help conquer barriers in sharing Jesus in modern times, we must practise “pre-evangelism”: providing our friends with a perspective they have not considered before, which will challenge them to keep pondering until someone else they meet comes to reap the ripe harvest.
The two roles that Christians have during these pre-evangelism conversations are listening and questioning. Listening enables us to gather more information from the conversationalist, and questioning helps our friends clarify their views and thoughts. In addition, three skills Christians need to develop are knowledge, wisdom and character.
Knowledge and wisdom are not synonymous in this context. Knowledge refers to having an accurately informed mind, while wisdom refers to employing an artful method during conversations. Character refers to owning an attractive manner, which engages our friends in conversation. These skills help us relate to listeners and present a less overbearing approach.
We were given the opportunity to perform role-playing exercises, where conversations turned awkward due to contentious statements, which could possibly be mentioned at any time by our co-workers, neighbours, family members or community members. Post-exercise, Yu Da encouraged us to ask questions with three ‘Ds’ in mind—surface doubt, minimise defensiveness and create desire (for them to feel curious about learning more). He also shared that we ask questions not only to gather information but also to reverse the burden of proof and steer the conversation in a specific direction for better addressing.
Most importantly, we were reminded that Jesus Christ also encountered awkward conversations, yet He asked questions to lead others into critical analysis (examples taken from Luke 20). In closing, Yu Da encouraged Christians not to fear, as Jesus encouraged His disciples to “not fear” when He sent them out. We were reminded to remain patient and to ask clarifying questions instead of feeling angry when we hear controversial comments, so as to sow a seed that will yield a harvest in due course.
