Part Seven:  Why Word Pictures (“Story Telling”) Can Be a Particularly Effective Evangelism with Today’s Generation

Last week’s blog introduced word pictures as a valuable evangelistic approach, especially in today’s rapidly evolving postmodern culture. Today’s blog will further explain this and provide an example.

Some people are natural-born storytellers. They can take complicated concepts and recreate them into compelling, understandable stories. Some of the most spellbinding and memorable portions of a good sermon are the creative illustrations that vividly drive home the crux of the message. We may forget the Bible passages and the finer doctrinal points, but we don’t forget the stories that illustrate them.

Gary Smalley and John Trent, in their book, The Language of Love, refer to these illustrations as “word pictures.” Visual stories provide insight and understanding into emotionally charged or intellectually complicated issues where raw data fails. The idea is to convey truth subjectively because cognitive communication is ineffective.

In evangelism, I see this to mean that there will be times when we can’t get our thoughts across just emphasizing doctrinal or apologetic facts. Some people will grasp biblical truths more easily through word pictures and personal testimonies. Let me illustrate this.

One of the fundamental biblical principles that must be communicated accurately to unbelievers is God’s willingness to forgive all sins—but not based on how good we may live our lives. Instead, it’s purely by His grace (Eph. 2:8). This can be a difficult concept for many unbelievers to grasp because they believe God accepts us according to our ability to “earn” forgiveness (and hence salvation) through good behavior. A word picture may help us explain that forgiveness is a gift of God’s grace. Here’s an example:

Have you ever seriously offended your spouse or girlfriend, and no matter what you did, you couldn’t get rid of the guilty feeling? You think if you send her flowers and candy, you’ll feel better. But it doesn’t work. You still feel an estrangement that you can’t seem to shake. Finally, one day, knowing your heart and sensing your guilt, she says, “You know, you don’t need to keep trying to earn my forgiveness. I want you to know that there is nothing you can ever do that could earn my love. I forgave you the moment you hurt me because I love you. That’s not something you can earn. It’s something I give you. All you need to do is ask for my forgiveness and accept it. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t forgive you, and all the presents and apologies in the world wouldn’t change me.”

Specifically, the value of using word pictures in evangelism in today’s postmodern culture is that many people will be more receptive to evangelism that employs emotive avenues rather than propositional truths. Testimonies, Christian movies, and many Christian novels fall under the broad category of word pictures. ©

Next week I’ll begin a new blog series that focuses on being more effective in apologetics and, by extension, evangelism.  I call this series the “Ten Commandments of Apologetics.”