My wife suffered a torn ligament in her right hand last year, which required her to wear tight black bands around two of her fingers, preventing full use of her hand. For weeks, simple tasks and chores—chopping vegetables, lifting items—forced her to shift to her left hand, which was mostly unaccustomed to such movements. Frustration would mount whenever her normal habits were thwarted; she had to retrain herself to rely on her left hand.
I sense a similar frustration among many pastors, evangelists, and apologists today. Cultural shifts are requiring us to switch hands and leaving us no longer able to depend solely on the strategies and approaches we’ve used in years past when engaging non-Christians in conversation. The sheer scope of questions and objections to the Christian faith has widened considerably in the past 20 years.
Two Conversations, Two Directions
Not long ago, I was talking with a friend in Germany, a church planter seeking to reach a community that includes increasingly secular Germans alongside Middle Eastern, Indian, and Asian immigrants.
It’s not unusual for this pastor to meet in the morning with a secular person who objects to Christianity’s sexual ethic. He’s obligated to explain why the Bible’s teaching on sex and identity isn’t arbitrary or hateful but ultimately good and beautiful. That afternoon, he may sit with a lapsed Muslim migrant whose objection is precisely the opposite: Christianity’s inclusive call to all kinds of sinners, particularly those who have identified as LGBT+. In that moment, this pastor must clarify why all people, including sexual sinners, are made in the image of God and—through repentance and faith—can be incorporated into the family of God.
A single day. Two conversations. In the morning, defending Christianity’s sexual ethic against accusations of hate. In the afternoon, defending Christianity’s inclusive offer of grace against accusations of permissiveness.
That’s what I mean by ambidextrous apologetics. We’re going to need pastors and evangelists who can move fluidly between competing objections, demonstrating versatility in how they respond to challenges from every side.
Rise of Intuitional Religion
A few years ago, I wrote a little book for pastors called The Multi-Directional Leader, which encourages them to develop dexterity and discipline—to reject false dichotomies and instead cultivate faithful versatility in their leadership. To be multi-directional means learning to better and more effectively respond with wisdom to challenges from every side.
Expanding the call for multi-directional leadership into the sphere of apologetics highlights the need for pastors to prepare for conversations with all kinds of seekers. Gone are the days when we could expect a “typical” non-Christian to come with a familiar set of objections. Generalizations may still hold in culturally homogenous areas—for example, if you’re on mission in Utah, most people you meet will be Mormons of varying levels of devotion. But more and more cities today are a hodgepodge of beliefs. Another church-planting friend of mine tells me about the people he regularly encounters, ranging from strict materialists (believing this world is all there is) to spiritual seekers dabbling in everything from mushrooms to meditation.
Charles Taylor describes this as the “nova effect”—an explosion of different options for belief and meaning in a secular age. It’s not just this position or that, it’s this choice among that, and that, and that, and that—a myriad of beliefs and practices, many “remixed” in some way. Cultural observer Tara Isabella Burton has done good work chronicling the shift from “institutional” religion to “intuitional” faiths. She says we’re seeing the rise of intuitional religion, a remixing and rematching of various spiritualities.
The church isn’t immune to these developments. It’s happening inside your congregation also. Intuitional religion mixes with institutional adherence. It’s not uncommon to find people mixing and matching different aspects of spirituality and religiosity as they cobble together an identity of their own that just so happens to coincide with church attendance.
So get ready to respond to all kinds of concerns. You may go straight from a conversation with a young woman appalled by all the misogyny she sees in the world, who questions the Bible’s teaching on male and female relationships, into a meeting with a young man who quietly admires the online bravado of self-described misogynist Andrew Tate. You may talk with an older believer who wonders if Christianity is discredited by the aggressive, warring spirit Christians have shown through the ages, and then talk with a younger believer who thinks Christianity is discredited because it promotes weakness and passivity, softness and suffering.
Contradictory Critiques of Christianity
This cultural moment reminds me of what G. K. Chesterton observed in Orthodoxy more than a century ago. He pointed out how Christianity was accused of being both too dreary and too dreamy, too weak because it forbids war and too warlike because it has caused wars. Critics called it too big and unified, yet too divisive and creedal; demeaning of women, yet too soft and feminine; sexually repressive, yet the root cause of overpopulation.
Chesterton’s conclusion? Perhaps Christianity is true, which is why it attracts objections from every possible angle.
If these are a sampling of the critiques lobbed at Christianity a hundred years ago, such accusations have only multiplied today. Tim Keller used the term “defeater beliefs” to describe cultural assumptions that make Christianity seem implausible from the outset. As subcultures flourish and radical individualism reigns, we will need to be ambidextrous—turning from one hand to the other, skillfully responding to competing objections and “defeater beliefs” from all sides.
Two Forces Shaping the Religious Landscape
Two major forces are accelerating this nova effect: human migration and the internet.
First, migration. More people live outside their country of birth today than at any other time in recorded history. This mass movement reshapes both sending and receiving cultures, increasing the likelihood that you’ll interact—personally and regularly—with adherents of other religions. What was once foreign and exotic may now be right next door.
Second, the internet. Online connectivity has flattened the religious landscape. No longer are people limited to the denominational choices within driving distance. Anyone can find any group making a case for their tradition on YouTube.
These shifts not only expand the types of non-Christians we’ll meet but also present new challenges for longtime church members. The pastor who once primarily defended Christian doctrine against progressivism or revisionist sexuality must now also explain why Protestants don’t believe in the bodily assumption of Mary, why we refrain from praying to saints or kissing icons. The pastor might engage on Monday with a Sikh, meet with a spiritual seeker on Tuesday, and then counsel a church member at Wednesday night supper who asks why Christians don’t worship on Saturdays.
Embrace Versatility
This cultural moment will require us to be equipped for apologetics, evangelism, discipleship, and compassion ministry across multiple cultural and religious contexts. There will be no cookie-cutter approaches, no one-size-fits-all methods in a world with so many people from different backgrounds showing up in different neighborhoods, and so many people online encountering all kinds of beliefs.
The golfer can’t rely on a favorite club anymore. The right-handed will need to learn to use the left hand. The pianist will need a working knowledge of the guitar. Multi-directional leadership, applied to defending the faith, requires ambidextrous apologists.
This approach will start with listening, really listening, to the people God puts in our path. It will mean learning to navigate conversations with both truth and grace, conviction and compassion. And it will require us to depend on the Spirit’s power, not just to win arguments but to faithfully bear witness to Christ in a world of ever-shifting objections.
If you would like my future articles sent to your email, as well as a curated list of books, podcasts, and helpful links I find online, enter your address.
