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7: Five Thresholds · Finding God at Work

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  (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris, and this is Finding God
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  at Work.
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  Our current series is Gentle Witnesses, sharing the
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  good news at work in a way that
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  actually makes sense.
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  I want to start with a question for
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  you.
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  Have you ever been asked to do something
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  that you were not ready to do?
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  I think about experiences like this in school.
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  Like I had a physics teacher, or excuse
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  me, a physics professor in college.
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  He was really good with advanced level students,
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  but for some reason they asked him to
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  teach this entry level physics class.
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  It was called Ideas of Physics.
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  It was designed for English majors and other
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  people like me who didn't want to do
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  the math.
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  We didn't have to do the math.
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  We were just supposed to learn the ideas.
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  And so he would say something and try
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  to explain it to us, and then he'd
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  say, and I'm sure you understand that, and
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  then move on.
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  It's like everybody would look at each other
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  and be like, we don't understand that.
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  We did not follow anything of what you
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  just said.
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  But he would just blaze straight ahead.
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  He did not know how to pitch things
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  that we were ready for.
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  He went too quickly to the kind of
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  language that he used with his more advanced
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  students, even though we didn't even know how
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  to do the math, and we were lost
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  really fast.
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  Now, unfortunately, he was also really bad at
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  making tests.
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  So we all passed, even though we didn't
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  really learn those ideas.
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  So I guess that was good for our
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  GPA, but bad for our actual learning.
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  I still don't know the ideas of physics.
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  I'm like, f equals ma.
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  Cool.
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  I guess it's like, thema.
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  F equals ma, thema, thema.
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  What does that mean?
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  I don't know.
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  Mass, acceleration, force.
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  It all works somehow.
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  I know how to walk around.
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  I know how to navigate physics practically.
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  I have the ideas, or at least the
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  practice.
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  But I really don't know anything about physics.
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  I watched Oppenheimer.
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  That's the extent of my knowledge of physics.
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  OK, so maybe you've had an experience like
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  this, too, where a teacher or a coach
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  or somebody who's well-intentioned just pushes you
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  into the deep end of the pool and
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  you're overwhelmed.
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  You don't know what you're doing.
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  There is actually a theorist of education, Lev
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  Vygotsky, who was in Eastern Europe in the
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  early 20th century, and he developed this idea
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  of the zone of proximal development, which was
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  kind of to address this behavior of educators
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  and help them improve.
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  It's like you don't want to give somebody
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  something that's so hard that they're just going
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  to be overwhelmed.
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  But you also don't want to give people
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  something that's so easy that they don't even
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  need your help.
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  They could have just learned it themselves directly,
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  like, what's your role as an educator?
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  What you want to do is give people
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  something in their zone of proximal development or
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  like their next step zone that's just hard
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  enough to be challenging, but that with your
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  guidance and intervention and help, they can do
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  it, they can master it.
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  And when you have a really good teacher,
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  that's what they're always doing, is they're always
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  seeing where is your zone of proximal development.
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  What is your next step zone?
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  How can I keep you challenged while also
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  giving you the support that you needed?
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  And really amazing coaches do this, really amazing
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  teachers do this.
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  I had a piano teacher who was like
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  this, so I was playing like Bach's Minuet
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  in G after only nine months of piano
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  lessons, and I thought that was amazing.
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  But she just knew how to pitch it,
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  like, okay, Chris, do this song.
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  Okay, Chris, do this practice.
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  Okay, Chris, do this song.
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  Okay, Chris, memorize this.
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  And like, by me, it's like Bach's Minuet
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  in G, this is super cool.
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  And I took piano lessons for several years,
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  and it was amazing.
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  And hopefully you've had that experience too, whether
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  it's in music or in sports, in academics,
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  in the arts, in some arena of your
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  life, feeling that sense of mastery that comes
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  from facing a challenge and overcoming it with
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  the help of a wise guide.
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  Well, when we think about the good news
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  and sharing the good news, all of us
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  need to grow in our knowledge of the
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  good news.
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  Personally, we need to grow as disciples whose
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  hearts and minds and whole being is being
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  shaped by the proclamation of the power of
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  Jesus' death and resurrection, the good news that
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  everyone who puts their faith in Jesus as
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  Messiah can be forgiven of their sins and
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  enter in the life in the kingdom of
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  God because of his death and resurrection.
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  And that's why we spent the past few
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  episodes laying a foundation for understanding the good
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  news itself.
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  What is the good news?
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  What kind of six key ideas we looked
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  at Kingdom, cross, salvation, healing, communion or eternal
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  life and disciples.
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  Those are all going to key facets, key
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  angles of approach to the good news that
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  God has given us in Scripture.
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  Now we're going to transition and for the
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  next few episodes, we're going to be looking
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  at practically speaking, how do you actually have
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  these kind of conversations in the workplace?
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  And we saw in our last episode that
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  Scripture guides us to meet people where they
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  are at.
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  So that that's the foundational idea that we're
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  going to be working with as we look
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  at the next few episodes.
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  How do we have these conversations is to
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  meet people where they are at.
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  One of the worst mistakes we can make
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  in sharing the good news is to make
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  assumptions about the people in front of us
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  and then just steamroll ahead with our own
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  agenda without a sensitivity of gauging where they're
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  at, their level of openness, what's going on
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  for them as much as we can intuiting
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  the work of the Holy Spirit in their
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  lives.
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  It's by being sensitive by being in tune
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  with what's going on in another person's life
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  that we can actually listen in the right
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  way and then speak a word that might
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  actually make a difference in their lives.
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  And as I was reflecting on how to
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  structure this section of the podcast, I realized
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  I should not structure it myself.
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  I should not come up with my own
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  little dainty list of good ideas.
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  I should go to people who have done
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  this for longer than I have and who
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  are more mature and whose work has been
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  vetted by a greater number of people.
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  So I'm going to some of the best
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  of the best Don Everts and Doug Schaupp
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  from InterVarsity.
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  Now, I would not be surprised if you've
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  never heard those names.
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  These guys are not famous, but they are
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  wonderful practitioners of sharing the good news with
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  other people.
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  They've done it on college campuses.
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  They've done it with adults.
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  They've done it in very relational ways under
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  the auspices of the Ministry InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
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  and they wrote a book about their approach.
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  Called I Once Was Lost.
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  This was published a while ago in 2008,
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  but it's really stood the test of time
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  and I've led trainings on the model that
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  they developed in this book.
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  I've experienced trying to put these things into
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  practice in my own personal life.
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  So I really believe in it and I
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  largely believe in it because it's so grounded
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  in Scripture.
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  Everything that they unfold in this model is
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  found in the New Testament as well, but
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  they actually stumbled into it themselves because they
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  had been involved in ministry in such a
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  way that more than 2,000 adults had
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  come to faith through the InterVarsity Ministry that
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  they were part of and they realized we
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  should interview these people.
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  We should figure out what happened like are
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  there any common patterns of how these adults
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  came to faith and they found out that
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  they were common patterns and they called the
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  patterns that they found the five thresholds of
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  faith.
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  So they're kind of five gateways or thresholds
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  that people had to step through on their
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  journey towards faith in Jesus.
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  So let me just read this election from
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  their book.
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  I once was lost.
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  This is early on page 15 writes to
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  our initial surprise.
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  We noticed certain common experiences among our friends
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  journeys to faith as we celebrated all the
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  conversations we have noticed the same things were
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  popping up again and again.
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  These general themes were so prevalent.
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  In fact that a group of us came
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  up with what we started calling the five
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  thresholds in an in-house working document that
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  sought to give words to what we were
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  seeing this unpublished article began to circulate a
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  bit then the news began to trickle back
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  to us our friends around the United States
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  and even in other parts of the world
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  found that these five phases found these five
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  phases to ring true for them in their
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  own context.
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  We were stunned have these particular new believers
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  actually taught us something generally true about the
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  path to faith.
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  The more confirmation we got as the years
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  went on the more we realized we were
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  on to something real.
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  So I love it.
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  It's kind of a serendipitous story.
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  It wasn't something that was strategized.
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  It was just let's learn what we can
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  by listening to people by listening to their
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  stories.
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  So you see they're practicing what they preach
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  about the importance of listening even in the
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  methodology they use to develop this model and
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  then when you hear the model, it'll just
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  ring true.
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  So let me lay it out.
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  There's five thresholds or five steps that they
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  give on people's journey to faith and that's
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  trusting a Christian becoming curious opening up to
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  change seeking after God and entering the Kingdom.
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  So to summarize briefly, it's one trust to
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  curious three open for seeking and then five
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  entering or deciding to follow Jesus.
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  And doesn't that pathway those five steps just
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  kind of make sense like imagine somebody who
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  does not have a Christian background or is
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  never seriously entertain the idea of following Jesus.
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  What's going to catalyze a change for them?
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  Well, it's if they trust a Christian friend
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  and in the context of that friendship, then
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  they might naturally become curious about what that
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  person believes if it comes up and then
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  even beyond a kind of intellectual curiosity.
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  They might have an openness to personal change.
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  There might be that that switch where they're
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  like, oh, what what if this could actually
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  affect my life and then that might motivate
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  them to seek after God not just to
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  consider the possibility but to really explore and
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  figure out what do I believe and why
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  do I believe it and is it real
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  and is it solid and then it's in
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  that seeking that they might find Jesus and
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  enter in to the Kingdom of God decide
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  to follow Jesus.
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  So I love this model.
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  It's beautiful.
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  It's coherent.
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  It's practical.
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  And so what we're going to do is
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  we might take more than five episodes.
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  I haven't quite figured it out yet.
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  We might break some of these into multiple
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  episodes.
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  We're going to take at least five episodes
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  and just look at each of these thresholds.
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  So starting with our next one trusting a
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  Christian friend, what does it mean to build
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  trust with your friends co-workers other people
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  you may encounter at work?
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  And how is that the foundation for everything
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  else that you do as you're sharing the
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  good news?
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  So just as kind of a practical thing
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  as we're introducing this part of the series,
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  I want you to just think about one
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  co-worker, you know, or one person you're
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  connected to at work, whether it's a vendor
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  or client or co-worker and somebody who
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  is not yet committed to following Jesus as
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  far as you know and just based on
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  that initial description, which threshold are they at?
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  Are they at the threshold of needing to
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  trust a Christian or beginning to trust a
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  Christian?
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  Maybe you.
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  Are they maybe curious about faith in an
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  intellectual way?
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  Have they shown some degree of personal openness
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  as though they think some change could really
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  happen in their life?
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  Are they actively seeking after God trying to
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  figure out what they believe and why?
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  Or are they on the cusp of entering
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  the kingdom choosing to follow Jesus?
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  Just think about which of those steps 1,
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  2, 3, 4, or 5 is your friend
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  at?
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  Okay, so now think about what's your role
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  in that friendship?
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  Well, it's to be a good friend, to
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  live life in the power of the fruit
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  of the Spirit, to do your job.
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  Well, all those things we talked about in
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  the imagining work series and the fruitful work
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  series.
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  Yes, yes, yes.
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  And now as a gentle witness, it's to
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  ask, ah, how can I help them take
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  their next step?
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  What's the next step zone for this friend?
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  Not something that's so deep and so beyond
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  where they're at that it would be overwhelming,
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  but also not something that's just so passive
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  and easy that like my presence doesn't even
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  make a difference.
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  How can I, as a faithful friend, as
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  a kind of spiritual guide, just because I'm
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  learning from Jesus and want others to learn
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  from Him too, can I come alongside and
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  help them take their next step?
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  And we'll be looking a lot more at
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  that starting in our next episode.
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  Lord Jesus, thank you that you come to
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  us and meet us where we're at.
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  That you help us take our next step
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  and that you came and found us.
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  Show us how to be faithful friends to
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  our coworkers.
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  Show us how to help them take their
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  next step towards you.
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  Do your work in us as we do
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  our work with you.
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  Thanks for listening.
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  Finding God at Work is a production of
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  Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
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  dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
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  life.
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  You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
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  listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
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  of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
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  and Thursday.
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  To get resources to go deeper with each
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  podcast series, read our blog, and get info
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  about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
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  go to our website, MissionCentral.Church.