My husband, Chris, nerds out over sourdough bread-making techniques. My girls nerd out over Taylor Swift lyrics. Some people nerd out over the intricacies of Star Wars movies. We all nerd out over something.
Several years ago, when we were at a National Cru Staff conference in Fort Collins, staff member and missiologist Dr. Cas Monaco took the stage in Moby Gym to share the findings of her doctoral work regarding what it means to “Reimagine Gospel Conversations.” I sat mesmerized by her cultural and spiritual flyover of our nation since Bill Bright’s initial presentational tool, The Four Spiritual Laws, began being used. As she shared about massive shifts in racial and religious demographics and the influence of secularization on our culture, she made a plea for a remessaging of the presentation many of us knew so well. While the structure of this four-point outline had previously been helpful in many ways to our organization, she advocated for a move from a presentation approach toward “meaningful gospel conversations.”
A couple of days later, I transcribed the entire audio recording while my husband playfully teased me with a gesture of pushing a pair of imaginary glasses up his nose while snorting. Cas had me totally nerding out.
You can imagine my excitement to sit down with Cas on our podcast and hear her expand on what it looks like to “engage the curious.” Drawing from her deep commitment to help others “know the God she loves,” she shared openly about navigating feelings of confusion and disorientation as our country’s spiritual landscape has changed and now feels like “unknown territory.” As someone who both shares Cas' passion for my neighbors to know "the God I love" and has felt these mission-shifts over the years, I was vibing.
What I appreciated most about our conversation was that her posture was both humble and hopeful. It’s clear she doesn’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to translating what she’s learned about gospel conversations in her forty(!) years of ministry… but she’s feeling the urge to adapt. She suggested using three statement stories that pair with the three core longings of every human: peace, prosperity, and purpose.
If you’re like me and you’ve left spiritual conversations with a friend or neighbor scratching your head, thinking things didn’t go quite how you hoped they would, listen along to Cas. You likely won’t transcribe the whole episode, but you can nerd out with us all the same as we reimagine Gospel conversations together.
Dr. Cas Monaco has served with Cru for most of her adult life and is currently the VP of Missiology & Gospel Engagement for Cru's FamilyLife.® She is the author of Gospel Conversations Reimagined: A Missional Framework For Today (available for pre-order) and lives in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina with her husband, Bob.
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