Chapter 23
Reaching the Unchurched
If the culture rejects Christianity, it should be because it has refused to hear the gospel message of Christ rather than that it turned its back on the church’s outdated, culturally irrelevant methods.1
—Albrey Malphurs
The American church faces an irony; we have developed the most elaborate Christian subculture in history while being less effective than ever in reaching the hardcore unchurched. We must refocus on those who are not like us. To do that we must spend time observing those around us who do not understand our Jesus.
As a child I dreamed of going to Africa. I have always loved animals, and I have especially loved studying the animals of Africa. My first trip there a few years back did not disappoint. I journeyed with fellow professors and students to South Africa, where we shared the gospel and planted a church. I found a green mamba in the wild (I got a stick on it but decided against picking it up since I would only have died had it bitten me so far in the bush) and carefully held a black mamba. But what truly blessed me was the children. The children had never seen anything like the toys we have in the West. They had never seen eyeglasses and were amazed at mine. The students made all the children pipe-cleaner glasses. You would have thought they had all been given a Nintendo Wii. All week they wore those glasses!
Students taught them to play duck-duck-goose, the children’s game where you sit in a circle and have one person run around the circle saying “duck-duck-duck” until he taps one person and says “goose,” meaning “you are it.” That person has to get up and catch the one who tagged her before he sits down in her place. You likely know the game and have played it. There was only one problem. These children had no idea what either a duck or a goose was. So, the whole game made no sense, until a student changed the game to animals they understood. So, the children had a glorious time playing this amazing new game of pig-pig-cow!
We cannot simply teach things to people in a new culture without translating what we teach into a language they understand. This involves more than vocabulary; it involves concepts and subjects to which they can relate. Sometimes we assume people know what we talk about when we say that God loves them, we have all sinned, and Jesus came to offer salvation. But if a person has no biblical concept of God or sin, how can that person understand salvation?
The Radically Unchurched
Where are those who are willing to confront the contemporary culture with the timeless gospel? While every individual is either saved or lost, there are two groups of people who have not responded to the gospel: (1) those who have heard the message but have rejected it and (2) those who haven’t clearly heard. The first group must be confronted at the point of their excuses or objections for rejecting the gospel. The major issue for them is one of volition. The second group must hear the gospel in a manner that communicates the message clearly. Their need is for information.
What the church needs today is not more buildings, more dollars, or more new ideas—not a marketing strategy or new technology. What the church needs today is an army of apostle Pauls, who serve God with a passion and who are burdened for reaching those who have never clearly heard the glorious gospel.
Let me use the apostle Paul and his time as an analogy. He was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles, although he sought to reach Jews as well. Think of the Jews of Paul’s day, who had a religious heritage from which Paul could begin his witness, as analogous to the millions of nominal Christians in the United States—those who have been to church and heard about God but who have never been changed by the gospel. Like the first-century Jews, they have some awareness, but they still need the gospel’s power.
The Gentiles in the first century were those who knew nothing about the gospel message until someone like Paul told them. They had no heritage of Scripture as the Jews did. Some were religious; some were not. They are analogous to the millions of people in our country who have little knowledge of Christianity. They know what a clerical collar is, and they recognize a church building, but they have no functional knowledge of the gospel. I call these people the radically unchurched. They may be devoutly religious, as some first-century Gentiles were, or they may be irreligious. They may be Muslim or Hindu or New Age or Mormon, or they may be agnostic.
The difference between these people and the nominal Christians—the “Jews,” to use my analogy—is that any idea they have of Christianity is obscure or flawed. These people recognize the golden arches of McDonald’s much more quickly than a cross as a symbol with meaning.
The evangelical church has had some success reaching the “Jews”—or those with some knowledge and background in the faith. They are more likely to be like us. Our evangelism tools are almost exclusively geared toward them. Attractional evangelism can reach many of these. Most evangelism methods are geared toward harvesting, and those who have some background in the faith are obviously closer to harvest time. But the “Gentiles”—the radically unchurched—are a different story. Many of them are not ready for the harvest, although some certainly are. They are what Billy Graham called “an unseeded generation.” They see the church as irrelevant and an enemy to progress. They are ignorant of the truths of Christianity. We can honor God by seeking ways to present the gospel in a way that will be understandable to them.
Churches in our nation are much more effective at reaching the “Jews” than the “Gentiles.” We have some modest success at reaching those connected somewhat to churches, but we are not reaching the hardcore unchurched. We need more churches who seek to reach the radically unchurched. In doing so we must find ways to communicate effectively the message we cherish when those who hear it do not automatically share our love for it. But first let’s consider the importance of confronting the objections raised by the “Jews.”
Dealing with Those Who Make Excuses
The reason some people are not saved is that no one ever took the time to explain to them why and how salvation can change their life. But those who have grown up with an awareness of the gospel, the “Jews” in my analogy, often reply to a witness with one excuse or another. This is also true of the unchurched in general. One of the practical things I have learned about witnessing by actually witnessing a lot (novel thought) is that the overwhelming majority of excuses people give initially for rejecting Christ often have nothing to do with the real reason they say no to the gospel! So, answering objections should involve determining the real objection as much as the ability to answer them.
I’ll never forget one of the first times I taught evangelism and took people witnessing with me in a local church. That was the spring when a national evangelical religious personality fell into sin. Week after week we would visit, and people would say, “Look at that guy. I don’t need to be around a bunch of hypocrites.” At first, I was defensive, but then I changed my approach. As we talked to a man whom I’ll call Bob, he raised this scenario.
“Bob,” I said, “You are right. Not every preacher lives a life that honors Christ. There are hypocrites. In fact, Jesus spoke against hypocrites more than anyone else. Let me ask you a question. How would you describe a real Christian?” Bob’s reply was not that he believed Christianity was false due to the testimony of a fallen preacher. Rather, he replied that a Christian is someone who goes to church, is moral, and so forth. He did not disbelieve the faith; he was only using this fallen preacher as an excuse.
I then said to Bob, “Can I explain to you what a real Christian is according to the Bible?” He then allowed us to share Christ. He did not respond, but the gospel was proclaimed.
Most people have never been confronted with the truth of the gospel in a personal encounter with a loving witness. But most have wondered about spiritual issues that cause them to think about ultimate realities. From tragedies to cults to psychic hotlines, various events cause everyone to think about God at some point. When an objection is raised, we have to ask, “Are they rejecting Christ based on a clear knowledge of the gospel, or are they ignorant or misinformed about Christianity?” We must get beyond the excuses that people give to the real reason they object to the claims of Christianity.
I’m convinced that many of the objections people raise are smoke screens. They are attempts to set aside the main issue—a volitional commitment to God—under the guise of intellectual excuse. This is not new in our day. Michael Green, in Evangelism in the Early Church, described a street preacher of the second century who was talking to a group of philosophers. One of them asked him why a small mosquito has six feet and wings while the elephant, the largest of all animals, is wingless and has only four feet. The question was an attempt to stump the preacher much as some questions are asked in our day. But listen to Green’s comment on his response:
The preacher is unabashed. “There is no point in telling you the reason for the different structure of mosquito and elephant, for you are completely ignorant of the God who made both.” He could . . . answer the frivolous questions if they asked them sincerely, but he refuses to get sidetracked by bogus issues like these impelled as he is by the concern to fulfill his commission. The preacher says further, “We have a commission only to tell you the words of him who sent us. Instead of logical proof, we bring before you many witnesses from among yourselves . . . it is of course open to you either to accept or disbelieve adequate testimony of this sort but I shall not cease to declare unto you what is for your profit: for to be silent would be loss for me just as to disbelieve would mean ruin for you.”2
Part of the struggle we face as witnesses is dealing with questions we can’t answer. I heard a student say he hated door-to-door evangelism because he feared being confronted with an issue for which he had no reply. But note this: nowhere in Scripture are we told that we must answer every question a person has. Even the Bible doesn’t do that! It doesn’t tell us everything we want to know but everything we need to know. It doesn’t tell us where Cain got his wife; that is not a significant issue. It does tell us how sin entered the human race because this is important! We can spend so much time trying to be relevant that we fail to be significant. We may not be able to tell people all they want to know about spiritual things, but we can tell them what they must know to be converted.
I have learned that the best way to deal with objections is through a Socratic method, as opposed to the rote memorization of pat answers to complex questions. Here are four general principles to keep in mind:3 1. Recognize the objection while keeping the conversation focused on the gospel.
2. Remember, the Holy Spirit will give you guidance. Trust Him.
3. The gospel itself will answer many honest questions.
4. Many objections will not be raised if you maintain a proper attitude.
Here are five guidelines to help you avoid emotional confrontations without compromising the gospel:
1. Negotiate; do not argue (think win/win). Whenever possible, we should agree with the person raising the objection to make it a win-win situation. For example, R. A. Torrey said he was talking with a man who said he was too great a sinner to be saved. Instead of talking him out of that sentiment, Torrey agreed with him and directed him to 1 Tim 1:15 where Paul said he was the chief of sinners but Christ came into the world to save sinners. The man replied, “Well, I am the chief of sinners.” Torrey said, “Well, that verse means you then.”4 If it is a legitimate concern that people have when you agree with them and show them the scriptural answer, this makes all the difference in the world as you lead them toward conversion.
2. Avoid emotional confrontations.
3. Accept the other person as an equal. Remember that we are not better than unsaved persons; the difference is that we have met Jesus! And so can they! A holier-than-thou attitude is quickly discernible.
4. Exercise gentleness. The goal is to present truth, not win a debate.
5. Check your motivation. Love should be your guide.
The material used with Continuing Witness Training has helped many witnesses in dealing with objections. The basic approach can be summarized in the following steps:
1. Use a transition statement. “You’ve obviously given this some thought.” Most people have given some thought to spiritual matters, so your first statement is affirmative, not confrontational. Then you can address the specific objection.
2. Convert the objection to a question. The question should deal with the objection raised, as illustrated below. If you are not sure what to ask, two general questions are, “When did you begin believing this?” and “Why?”
3. Answer the person’s question.
4. Continue with the gospel presentation.
Example 1: “The church is full of hypocrites. I don’t need it.”
Transition: “You’ve obviously given this some thought. I would agree that hypocrisy does exist in churches. Jesus warned against hypocrisy.”
Convert to a question: “Let me ask you a question. What is a real Christian like?”
Typical answer: “Lives a good life, not judgmental, etc.”
Answer: “The only way to discover what a real Christian is would be to see what the Bible says.”
Example 2: “I believe there are many ways to God.”
Transition: “You’ve obviously given this some thought. I would agree that there are many religions with many devout followers.”
Convert to a question: “Let me ask you a question. Have you ever considered the unique claims of Christianity?”
Answer [following their response]: “The Christian faith is unique in that it is less a religion than it is a relationship.”
R. A. Torrey used a similar approach. If he encountered a skeptic who said, “I don’t believe the Bible,” he would ask, “Are you saying the Bible is foolishness?” And if he said yes (by the way I’ve met people like that), you can say, “Well, that’s what the Bible says about itself. First Corinthians 1:18 says the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.” And then you can say, “But you don’t have to be perishing.”5
If someone says the Bible is full of contradictions, the best thing to do is hand a Bible to him and kindly ask him to show you one.
An excellent resource for answering the most asked questions in a helpful, pastoral manner is Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God.6 Keller answers the most common excuses raised by unbelievers in a manner that is both intellectually stimulating and biblically sound. Reaching the Radically Unchurched
There are over 120 million functionally secular people in the United States. Millions are caught up in cults and other religious systems. How do we communicate the gospel to them? Before dealing with specific groups, let me say again that any witness is better than no witness. A friend of mine named Saleim grew up a Muslim. He knew Christians in high school, but they never witnessed to him. They apparently thought he was unreachable. Saleim finally came to Christ in college. He told me he could have been saved earlier if someone had taken the time to share the gospel with him!
The landscape of American culture has changed radically over the last generation. In our day we are called to share Christ in a culture with no consensus on heritage, as seen in our ethnic diversity; no consensus on our moral code, as evidenced by debates over abortion, homosexuality, and euthanasia; and no consensus on religious belief, as seen in the growth of other world religions and the explosion of cults.
In any generation, apologetics—or the defense of the faith—has a role in evangelism. The two were combined in the lives of Paul, Justin Martyr, and Augustine, and in our day we see them wed in the lives of such people as Ravi Zacharias and the late Francis Schaeffer. Apologetics has been founded on propositional truth, and this remains essential. Increasing numbers of unchurched young adults are not only asking, “Can you prove it?” They also want to know if we can live it.
Mormonism’s impact in contemporary culture is not due to success on epistemological grounds. They use the arts well (their TV commercials are without peer in touching the emotions). They don’t reach people with truth claims; they use sensory appeal. Now just imagine if the church, without compromising any commitment to the epistemological basis of the faith, were to appeal to the arts to help declare its truth.
This is why drama and multimedia have become effective in many churches. We live in a sensory, TV-dominated age. How can we share the timeless truths with a postmodern culture? We must do it the same way the Bible does it. The Bible is primarily narrative, easy for a person to relate to. It is relational—the story of how God relates to man. For example, the story of the prodigal son may be more effective in reaching some people than the Roman Road witnessing approach. The truth is the same, but the approach is different.
In the sixties, some people said, “God is nowhere.” Now God and gods are everywhere. In the sixties secular people were turned off by the church because it was too spiritual; now they are turned off because it is not spiritual enough.
Unchurched people can and do wonder about Christianity. They generally have three responses to Christians:
1. Do Christians really believe this?
2. Do Christians really live this?
3. Does it really matter?
How do we relate to changing culture and the people in that culture? We must distinguish between pop culture and traditional culture. George Hunter defines pop culture as much the same everywhere; it varies little across space but changes rapidly across time. Some popular music in Tokyo can be found in Chicago. Changes are called fads. Traditional culture varies greatly across space, but it changes very little across time. Changes do occur and are called trends. In relating to a changing culture, Hunter states:
• Some things should be abandoned—hymns that are not understandable, mimeographed bulletins, irrelevant announcements.
• Some things should be kept—preaching, singing, prayer, giving.
• Some things should be repackaged—worship style, worship order.7
Imagine that you are in a community with 5,000 homes that you want to touch with the gospel. Using mass evangelism, the Sunday school, small group, visitation, outreach—all of these viable, traditional tools—you will reach many. But how many will you truly impact? There is a significant percentage of people you will never touch—the radically unchurched. We tend to rate our success based on who we are reaching without evaluating all those we are not touching with the gospel.
Let’s assume you have a fruitful Sunday school campaign. You go out and enroll 10 percent of the population in Sunday school in three years (500 of those homes). Then you have evangelistic crusades each year. In three years 50 people a year (150 people) come to Christ. So you have reached 650 homes in three years.
Statistics show that one out of three unsaved people in our Sunday schools will eventually come to Christ. So out of those 500 people whom you enrolled in Sunday school, about 170 would come to Christ.
Now we have 150 people reached with the gospel through mass evangelism and 170 reached through Sunday school for a grand total of 320. Add to that the 80 who came to Christ by other means in three years. Four hundred people have come to Christ out of 5,000 homes. Outstanding, yes, but literally thousands of people in that community have still not heard the gospel of Christ.
Without taking anything away from these methods, the truth is the greatest single missing element of evangelism is a missional witness, the very means to reach the unchurched. We must get involved in the lives of the millions of unchurched people all around us if we are to reach America and the world. And when we do, we must tell them the timeless, unchanging gospel in a manner that they can understand.
Perhaps the best place to learn how to reach the unchurched of our time is to see how they were reached in the early church. As a case study let us look at Paul’s visit to Philippi in Acts 16 where three diverse people were reached. The first, Lydia, could be considered a “Jew” at least in her understanding by my earlier analogy. She had a hunger for God and an understanding of Judaism. The slave girl and the jailor offer two examples of unchurched people. Lydia was Asian and a professional, a moral person and a God-fearer who immediately showed interest in the gospel. The slave girl was a spiritually bankrupted youth who had been used by adults. Yet she is the one who ran after Paul! The jailor was a blue-collar worker, seemingly neither interested nor opposed to the gospel, only indifferent. How were they reached?8
Lydia came to Christ mainly through an explanation. While not explicitly stated it seems clear by implication and by Paul’s ministry elsewhere that she simply needed to have the message clarified. She was ready! When I am randomly witnessing in restaurants or in neighborhoods I always pray for “Lydias.”
The slave girl came to Christ mainly through a demonstration of kindness. Paul’s deeds paved the way for her to hear the words. She was oppressed spiritually and economically, and Paul helped her to be released from both. There are many unchurched youth who will not quickly hear our words if they do not first see our deeds. They are wary of moving from exploitation from the world to another form of exploitation in churches who do not deliver on their promises. An amazing movement has spread through contemporary youth culture with the twin themes of “Love Is the Movement” and “To Write Love on Her Arms” stemming from one person’s compassion to a 19-year-old named Renee who was cutting herself and addicted to drugs. I have seen more than a few youth come to Christ because of Renee’s story.9
The jailor was reached because of a demonstration of character. Stunned by their singing of songs of praise while yet in jail, he turned out to be more in prison than the inmates. Freedom involves more than physical access, as he witnessed in the lives of Paul and Silas. When Paul and Silas had the opportunity to flee they refused, demonstrating character like that of their Lord. Uncommon character in the workplace can make a huge impact. I worked in college and seminary with construction crews and in factories. The work is blue collar, hard, and often unappreciated. I was often the youngest and more then often ridiculed for my faith. Yet I tried hard to display a life that honored Christ, which led to some remarkable doors of witness and at least one case of a coworker coming to Christ.
The church that will effectively reach the unchurched has members filled with a passion for Christ and whose lives demonstrate that Christianity is more than serving on a church committee—it is a radically changed life through Christ! To state it simply, the key to communicating the gospel to the unchurched is to be real, to let them see the genuine change Christ has made.
One of the ways we can become more effective in reaching the unchurched is by identifying subgroups, pockets of the unchurched, and developing effective ways to penetrate those groups. I have a friend in our church who came to Christ as an adult from a very unchurched background. He is a skydiver both from his military days and as a hobby. He tells me the overwhelming majority of skydivers are unbelievers, many of whom talk about the free-falling experience as the greatest spiritual experience of their life. They need to be reached and most likely will be reached by people like my friend who know them in their culture. There are many subgroups that can be classified in many ways: ethnic communities in the cities, homosexual groups (many of whom increasingly live in urban areas in the same proximity), or even the unchurched population involved in the sex industry, from escort services to pornography.
Other groups are linked more by affinity, from NASCAR followers to hunters, from artists in the city center to bikers living on the road. Many churches have in fact launched successful ministries to such groups. My friend David Wheeler has reminded me of a group too often overlooked by the church, those with special needs. David has a precious special needs daughter and has given much time and effort to reaching those with such needs.
One of the most practical efforts you can have in your church is to identify those groups in your community for whom no one cares, begin to care for them, and from that to share the gospel. No doubt in your community there are those who have some reason to identify with one another but who have few in their group who know Christ.
Reaching Those in Cults and Other Religions
While identifying unchurched people groups noted above may take some work, it does not take much effort to see the impact of cults and other religions in communities in the West. America has become a microcosm of the world—a place of thousands of religious systems. How do we reach them?
The proliferation of cults and new religious sects has been an unmistakable part of American society during the past 30 years. Thousands of new religious groups, ranging in membership from less than fifty to hundreds of thousands, have sprung up. Other groups such as Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been around much longer. Other world religions are also growing in the United States. In particular, the rise of Islam has caused a great rise in pluralism and syncretism, with the merging of faiths and other challenges to the Christian faith.
What is a cult? Brooks Alexander, cofounder of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project in California, gave a theological definition of a cult.
1. A cult has a false or inadequate basis of salvation. In other words, their soteriology is wrong. This comes out of a faulty Christology.
2. A cult has a false basis of authority. Biblical Christianity is founded on the Bible as the Word of God, while a cult looks for other authorities—a messianic figure, a David Koresh-like leader, or other writings such as The Book of Mormon or The Pearl of Great Price.10
There are certainly other religious sects as well: Zen Buddhism, Hare Krishna, and the Unification Church. Evangelicals in America must confront Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses more than any other single group or groups. We must admit that cults represent “the unpaid bills of the church.”11 Principles of Witnessing
Here are five principles for witnessing to people in cults and other religions:
1. Commit to a relationship with this person whenever possible. Such a person, if devout, will not be won to Christ upon first contact with the gospel. As a pastor, I had the privilege of leading a Mormon to Christ, but I led her to Christ out of a relationship that I had established with her family. I have also led Muslims and one Buddhist to Christ. In every case, I got to know them and spent time with them. They saw the change Christ has made in my life.
2. Know your faith and theirs. None of us can be an expert in all the different cults. But if there is a dominant religious group in your area—Mormonism for example—you ought to know something about their beliefs so you can talk intelligently with them. The Interfaith Witness Department of the North American Mission Board and the Spiritual Counterfeits Project have excellent materials to help. My friend John Avant led a Mormon missionary to Christ. He knew Mormon beliefs, and he was able to demonstrate weaknesses in their theology. However, he didn’t do this initially. After spending time talking with the missionary, finding points in common, he began to show the errors in Mormonism and was able to lead this person out of Mormonism into genuine Christian faith.
3. Do not begin your witness by attacking the other person’s beliefs. This may seem contradictory to the example of John Avant, but the principle stands. If you start witnessing to a person involved in a cult by attacking the cult, for example, the person is not likely to have any respect for your views. Begin your witness by affirming anything you can about the group, building rapport as you would in any other witnessing situation. Then move to God’s truth.
4. Share your own testimony. This is critical. I have had students from a Mormon background who were very effective in winning people to Christ out of Mormonism. One student, Larry, was a fourth-generation Mormon. He has won several to Christ over the Internet by sharing his testimony and telling how he came out of Mormonism.
5. Explain the gospel clearly, noting especially the reality of sin and the need of a Savior. Their soteriology is almost always a works-oriented view of salvation. They need to hear the gospel of grace.
Biblical Model
There is a biblical paradigm that helps us in dealing with cults and other religions. The apostle Paul went to Athens to preach the gospel. The number of idols in that city overwhelmed him. The religious pluralism was abundant. How did Paul share Christ in a culture filled with religious belief but empty of the gospel?
First he was provoked when he saw the city was given over to idols. Are we aware of and brokenhearted by the idolatry of our age? He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the Gentiles and in the marketplace, talking to them about their relationship to God and their need for him (Acts 17:17). Then he was taken to Mars Hill and asked to speak on what he believed.
Second, he acknowledged their religious search. Paul said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious” (NKJV). The King James Version translates that last word as “superstitious,” but the term is less one of condescension than one of recognition. Paul affirmed the reality of their search for God, building a common ground with them. He affirmed their search, recognizing they were seeking truth. Of course if he stopped there he would have been a pluralist. But he did not.
Third, Paul knew their beliefs. He even quoted two of their poets (see Acts 17:28).
Fourth, Paul moved from their error to the truth. He noticed an inscription on an idol—“To an Unknown God” (Acts 17:23). He started talking about God in general terms as Creator and moved on to the specific reality of Jesus as the Son of God. Paul did not compromise the gospel. Instead, he began where they were and took them to the place where they could be.
Finally, Paul clearly presented the gospel. If he had not done this, we could accuse him of selling out the gospel by speaking of a general god. He moved from a general understanding of God to the specific claims of the cross. He also talked about the judgment of God and the resurrection (Acts 17:23–31). At Paul’s mention of the resurrection, the people began to respond in the three ways people inevitably respond to the gospel. Some believed the gospel, others rejected it, while others sought to know more. That’s the way people respond. If we follow these principles in witnessing to people in cults and other religions, or in sharing with the unchurched in general, we can expect these same kinds of responses.
Questions for Consideration
1. Have you encountered an excuse for rejecting Christ by anyone recently? How would you use the process explained above to deal with that excuse and ensure the gospel is proclaimed?
2. Do you know anyone in a cult or another religious system? How might you share with that person?
3. Do you have personal friends who would be described as radically unchurched?
NOTES
1. A. Malphurs, Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 14.
2. M. Green, Evangelism in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 199.
3. Much of this has been adapted from excellent materials I first learned in the method known as Continuing Witness Training.
4. R. A. Torrey, How to Bring Men to Christ (Pittsburgh: Whitaker, 1984), 33.
6. T. Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Dutton Adult, 2008).
7. G. Hunter, “The Rationale for a Culturally Relevant Worship Service,” Journal for the American Society of Church Growth 7 (1996): 137–38.
8. I am indebted to Tim Keller for helping me to think through this passage in Acts 16 for our day. See http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2004/april/advancingthegospel_4_p3.html (accessed August 28, 2008).
9. See http://www.twloha.com.
10. B. Alexander, “What Is a Cult?” Spiritual Counterfeits Project Newsletter 5, no. 1 (January–February 1979).
11. J. K. Van Baalen, The Chaos of the Cults (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1938).
