DE Book Review: God Space
God Space (Where Spiritual Conversations Happen Naturally)
Author: Doug Pollock, Group Publishing
Reviewed by Randy Siever
I got a call several months ago from Doug Pollock.We’d never met, but he wanted permission to use an Ordinary Attempt (OA) story from our site in his new book, and of course I agreed. We just had one of those “connections” happen over the phone (a common thing among old evangelists like us), and spent almost three hours talking about what God seems to be doing in the Church, particularly around evangelism.
A few months later Doug got his book published and sent me a copy. I was excited to see how he fleshed out the very important topics we discussed on the phone, and how much the book repeated, reflected and resonated with our message in DE Land. I read the book in two sittings…and began to feel like maybe I didn’t need to write my own anymore. This is really good stuff.
Here’s my take on it, from a Doable Evangelism (DE) viewpoint:
First off, I noticed that like most recent books on evangelism (at least the ones that sell well), the “e” word is not in the title. I think this is brilliant, since I rarely find anyone except evangelists interested in reading any more about evangelism. Instead, Doug strategically chooses to talk about how to encourage natural conversations in the course of ordinary life, creating what he calls “God Space.” His focus is on conversation, not conversion (which is one of the fundamentals of DE…pretty much gleaned by us from much smarter guys like George C. Hunter, Todd Hunter, and Brian McLaren). So I really liked this refocusing and revaluing of evangelism as a conversation and practice right off.
Doug’s two primary methods for creating conversations are listening and wondering (which, of course, sounded wonderful to me!). He does a fantastic job detailing what those mean and how to do them, using lots of engaging stories to illustrate (including the one he borrowed from our Ordinary Attempts blog). There is a LOT of common content and philosophy between DE and God Space, which was quite fun to see. But then I think God tends to plant these kind of significant ideas in a lot of places at the same time.
Doug is kind and gentle with the timid of heart and the introvert, but he does strongly encourage them to get over their fears and trust the Holy Spirit as they step out to engage with others. He also makes it very clear that simply converting people to Christianity is not all that matters, and that we need to trust God to guide us and guide THEM along the journey. I found all this quite refreshing.
Still…I couldn’t help but think about how some of his personal stories and examples come across to the ordinary Christian. Actually, I’d already been thinking about this in regards to books and programs about evangelism, so I’m just commenting here about this practice using Doug’s book as a platform and the latest example. You’ll find this practice in virtually EVERY book on evangelism in the past decade or two.
Using personal stories that show how easy it is to get people to engage in some kind of spiritual discussion often has the opposite effect that we evangelists hope for, particularly when it is a personal story from a gifted evangelist like Bill Hybels or…Doug. Doug is clearly a spiritually gifted and experienced evangelist who has a lot of scripture memorized and a bevy of really clever, intriguing questions he can pull out of his hat whenever he needs to (some of which he shares with the reader in the final chapters). The ordinary Christian usually feels a bit defeated by how UN-clever they are in those kind of situations, and how hopelessly dumb they feel when it comes to remembering verses and appropriate examples in the heat of the moment. I’m just concerned that these personal evangelism stories might tend to have the opposite effect we hoped for. Asking people to memorize more scripture, or lists of questions, or the answers to the ten most common objections to the faith has not been very effective at motivating our team to action. I’m just wondering if this practice has actually DE-motivated our team a bit.
To be fair, Doug is very self–deprecating in this book, admitting in one case in particular that these kind of amazing situations come along once in a lifetime…if at all. But this kind of qualification doesn’t necessarily help the ordinary Christian get over their now increased feeling of inadequacy. And I’m afraid it only gives further rationale for staying on the bench and leaving this job to the professionals. I could be wrong about this, of course, but this is the sense I get from people I talk with at DE Seminars around the country.
Despite the amazing and encouraging amount of similarities, there are a few other distinctions between DE and God Space. For example, it feels to me like Doug is walking a really thin line when it comes to his “wondering” strategy. Asking questions is a very Jesus-like methodology, of course, but sometimes it can be a subtle way of “steering” a conversation… something we in DE Land strongly discourage. Some of Doug’s wondering questions are honestly innocent in this regard, but many of the questions he listed (there are 99 of them) felt like they were intentionally directive statements, “softened” (as he described it) by adding the “I wonder” phrase to the front of them. This felt slightly manipulative to me, like the old “steering the conversation” tactic we used to teach.
All this may sound like I didn’t like the book, but I really did. A lot. Despite what I think are some residual particles of the old paradigm of evangelism (and a few forgivable faux pas from a passionate evangelist), I am actually very encouraged by it. This book is an important move in the right direction, and may be the first book about evangelism on the market in recent years that suggests anything truly like a paradigm shift (other than Jim Henderson’s book, Evangelism Without Additives, of course). I would highly recommend it. Thanks, Doug.
December 29th, 2009 · 6 Comments
Categories: Book review · DE Thoughts
Doug Pollock said
am January 4 2010 @ 2:17 pm
Randy,
Thanks for taking time for the most part to favorably review my book. As a reflective practitioner, I try hard to understand how others receive my attempts to guide God’s people into outward focused living. In that spirit I’d like to better understand why you chose to label “wondering” as a strategy. “Wondering” is in it’s truest essence one of the most organic things you and I do. When we tap into the “wonder” going on inside of us and connect it to the “wonder” God has put in other’s hearts, the potential to increase the quantity and quality of our spiritual conversations is greatly enhanced, a-la natural. The ordinary Christians I’ve been sharing this with over the past six years have found this to be the most freeing, practical, and doable ways to engage in spiritual conversations because “we all wonder”. For anyone wanting a quick intro into this organic concept go to: http://www.godsgps.com/gods-gps-articles and select “Have You Wondered into Anyone’s Heart Lately?” After you read this, please come back and share your comments. In the mean time, Randy I’m wondering why you felt like I was walking a very fine line with this concept.
Randy Siever said
am January 5 2010 @ 6:59 pm
Thanks, Doug. And I, of course, agree with you regarding wondering in it’s “truest essence”. Curiosity might be another word to use to describe this practice, and we (along with many, many others) regularly encourage people to practice curiosity about others, even as a spiritual practice. WE call it “noticing” and “listening”, but it’s basically the same thing. It amounts to asking questions, whether silently (as in “noticing” in the DE version) or out loud (asking, for example, “How are you?” and then really listening to the response). Wondering, pondering, being curious…these are wonderful spiritual disciplines, and were clearly modeled by Jesus.
I think it becomes a strategy when it is utilized to direct or steer a conversation. This is what many of the “wondering” questions sounded like to me in the way they were worded. And as I suggested in the review, it seems like you might defend directing conversations when you talk about how adding “I wonder” to the front end of a question “softens” it for the listener (we don’t usually have to “soften” a question if it is actually soliciting someone’s opinion without intending to elicit a particular response).
I’m not entirely opposed to directing conversations, mind you. There are some good reasons for doing this now and then. But in order for it to not be or feel manipulative, we should be pretty up front with our direction, perhaps even asking permission to redirect (for example, “I know we were talking about how much the Raiders suck this decade, but this is depressing me, so I’m wondering if you would be willing to talk to me a little about what your religious background was growing up?”).
Also, the list of 99 ‘wondering’ questions included in the book seemed a tad overwhelming (the sheer number of them, and the sense that I needed to remember at least SOME of them!). While most of those were innocent, organic, and authentic questions one might ask of someone whom we were genuinely interested in, I found many of them to be directive statements cloaked in the “I wonder” covering. That’s the fine line I was referring to, I think. We just need to be careful not to manipulate a conversation (or a person).
Of course, I might have totally misunderstood what you were trying to say. I have plenty of baggage around these concepts, so please forgive me if I missed the point!
Judy Wallace said
am January 10 2010 @ 7:54 am
I absolutely, positively loved the book God Space. It was SO freeing for me and so helpful in helping me to see it simply comes down to connecting with others and having conversations with them. I have already recommended the book to everyone I know and even did a critical review for a curriculum project team I’m working with on discipleship.
I haven’t taken the wondering questions as something to memorize, I simply see them as as guidepost that show how my own wondering can lead to opening up a ‘God Space’ in which He can work. Before I might not have verbalize my ‘wonder’ because I feared it would take me into an area I wouldn’t know how to get out of! I’m now getting it into my skull that no conversion is my responsibility…..but every conversation is! Thank you Doug…..and thank you for steering me to DE! You have both made planting seeds much more natural for me. I’m beginning to be a ‘seed-flinger’! YEAH!!!!
Randy Siever said
am January 10 2010 @ 6:42 pm
Way to go, Judy!
Doug Pollock said
am January 20 2010 @ 2:12 pm
After some more reflection Randy, I can see how the wondering questions might be perceived as a clever way to cloak one’s attempt to be steering the conversation. The 99?’s were meant to stir up the readers sense of wonder by giving some examples in different areas of life. My intention was not to provide a new set of “Kennedy questions” for this generation. The best wondering questions are not memorized attempts to steer the conversation, but organic expressions of the wonder or curiosity stirred up in your heart as you listen to another’s heart. Where the conversation goes when a wondering question is asked, only the Holy Spirit knows. I was hoping that my stories in the book demonstrated that point. I also tried to speak to your concern (which I share) when I clearly state what wondering is not. As you know, it’s challenging to express your heart without there being misunderstanding. I’m glad Judy got it, and I am thankful for the opportunity you have provided here to address these concerns so that others might get it. I truly believe that “wondering” is the missing link that most Christ followers are looking for in their conversations.
Randy Siever said
am January 20 2010 @ 4:30 pm
I think so, too, Doug.
After I went back into the section about wondering and re-read it, you make a VERY strong case for not manipulating conversations. That’s why some of the wonder questions listed, and the suggestion that adding “I wonder” to the front end of a question “softens” it, seemed so contradictory to the whole point you’d just slammed dunked.
I’m probably just being over-sensitive on this point, because I want you to know that I’m truly thankful for your stand on this issue of non-manipulation in particular. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I’m so grateful that there are more and more seasoned evangelists in the world (old guys like you and me) who are saying these things. God is up to something really cool. And I’m just happy to be here.