A friend and co-worker has a unique approach to ministry. He questions everything!

When my wife and I first started with Campus Crusade, we ministered to the students of George Mason University. Randy had been ministering there for a few years already so we spent some time together. I actually remember him telling me this story (before it was published):

The inevitable question arose, more as an attack than a sincere inquiry. “So, I suppose you think that people who don’t agree with you, like all those sincere followers of other religions, are going to hell!”

“Do you believe in hell?” I responded.

My antagonist had probably never seriously considered the possibility of hell. He looked puzzled, perhaps because he was being challenged when he thought he was the one doing the challenging. Finally, after a long silence, he said, “No, I don’t believe in hell. I think it’s ridiculous.” I chose to echo his word choice. “Then why are you asking me such a ridiculous question?”

I wasn’t trying to be a wise guy. I simply wanted him to honestly face up to the assumptions behind his own question. His expression seemed to indicate that I had a good point.

I think Randy has a point. One thing I’ve noticed is we get lots of great questions emailed to our ministries, but our reply seems to overwhelmingly go unnoticed. For me personally, less than 20% of the emails I reply to continue in conversation.

I wonder if it’s because our replies are “too good”. Granted, it’s tough to have a good dialogue through email (like the dialogue quoted), but I wonder, what could/should we do to encourage more dialogue? How is it possible to get that second reply rate higher than 20%? And even more cutting: should we strive to get that rate higher in an electronic fashion?

I say “yes we should”, but I’m not sure how. I want to explain the basics, but engage them enough to “come back”. Where’s the balance?

Flickr photo originally uploaded by straylight6.