TACTICS

 

    While I was taking Tactics course online from STR, I was delighted with tactics Greg was teaching. He explained the tactical game plan to start conversation with our partners who hold just opposite views in relative to us in a very playful manner. The course was simple but well equipped for beginners. Perhaps, the tactics is really an awesome way how we can get into a friendly conversation while dealing with people about our faith.

    I still remember the day when I was studying in college with Science major. We had one Nepali teacher. I don’t remember confidently but it seems he was vice-principal of our college. He had an amazing feature. Whenever the free topic in the class touched religious issues, he used to show himself as a learned person in religions and philosophy. He used to convince students that one must never follow any religions and all religions indeed teach the same moral and ethical values. This might not sound foreign to the readers since this is religious pluralistic society, we live in.

    In his classes, I used to feel uncomfortable whenever he discussed about religions. He used to discuss about Christians’ narrow mind, Hindus’ hatred towards them for abusive response to deities and so on. He used to suggest Christians not to be conservative but to learn flexibility. Meanwhile, his reasonings had a lot of flawed information, I used to enroll in active evangelism at college and help to remove barrier to the Gospel. I had several friends from Koinonia church as well which gave me strength to share Gospel with friends. There were many atheists.

    One day, the same teacher was again showing his attitude as if he knows well about all religions. I don’t remember what was the topic but he was saying that he doesn’t like to call himself a Hindu and he also hated Hindu scriptures. He blamed certain Hindu scriptures that general Hindus know today as an agent to corrupt our society. There I got an opportunity and raised my question why he said that so. He asked who made the question and I raise my hand. He asked me the level of my knowledge on Hindu scriptures and I just said yes, I’ve gone through most of them. Now he asked me many questions. He exposed the weaknesses of Hindu deities and objected me how I can even think of worshipping such deities. He gave few examples and showed how the deities fail to be a good example for our society. I was indeed on safe side because I never made any offensive claim against other gods. I let him speak out on them just by asking simple question in favour of Hinduism. The whole environment turned opposite! He spoke of Jesus not having any weaknesses but praised his dedicated sacrifice on behalf of humanity. However, he himself insulted major Hindu gods. It was the first time; I didn’t speak a word against other faith and their devotional figures. I used to do that when I was a fresher in Christ but as time moved on, I began to learn tactics in presenting the Gospel and dealing with objections.      

    Sometimes becoming harsh and projecting our criticism is also necessary but sometimes they aren’t needed at all. We also need to learn tactics on how we can approach people. My formula during my +2-science study was just turning against the argument so that I don’t have to do anything on my favour. Indeed, many of my friends who used to embrace Hinduism just for sake of its scientific relevancy, used to abuse their own gods. I found they had no respect for their gods. I used to talk about few scriptures to which they called fictitious themselves. They couldn’t blame me since I used to hold respect for their faith. Sometimes, I had to be harsh to correct false accusation against our faith e.g. churches luring people with money.

    Some other tactics I used was drawing tangents from relevant topics. We had English course books on Supernatural stories and I used to share the Gospel using those stories. Other times I used to point towards certain cursor through which I could bring their minds towards the Gospel such as international Dating system. Sometimes I used events, teachings and other issues from their faith to draw them towards Christ. I was fresher in theology and apologetics at that time and whenever I was free at home, I used to study and investigate a lot. Unfortunately, there was nobody to guide me in these giant fields. The only focus was my prayer and trust upon God who opened the gate to some friends who showed me certain resources.

    The intellectual interest elevated me from Charismatic devotion to critical thinker at that time. I grew up with both elements. I used to give time to Charismatic devotion as well as thinking deep about intellectual presentation of my faith in Christ. The joy of sharing the Gospel and talking about Christ was more than a pleasure to me. It was a delightful experience and helped me to praise God even more and be closer towards him.

    Tactics is a practical implementation of how we start our conversation with people. We keep ourselves in a safe side and let others speak out their views. Then its our turn to respond them. Tactics might be subjective and depends on how an individual personally uses it. It is an important aspect of how we deal with people and must learn in humility and love.    

Thank you