Tactics, A Game Plan For Discussing Your Christian Convictions - Review

Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions [LINK]
By Gregory Koukl (Zondervan, 2009)

I’ve read many books on evangelism.
I’ve attended many courses teaching evangelism's how-to’s.
None of them has impacted me as much as this book.

The author begins by acknowledging the obvious; we all desire to share our faith, we all know we should be doing it, we don’t always do it, and when we do, we don’t always do it well.

In various situations you have about a 10-second window of opportunity (particularly in the presence of obstacles) before the door of opportunity closes.

What if I told you there was an easy escape from the challenge that each situation above present, a way to minimize the awkwardness and engage the other person productively and gracefully? What if you had a simple plan in place that would guide you in your next move? ​

Use the Columbo Tactic – Remember Lieutenant Columbo of the TV detective series of years back? …the bumbling inspector that always got his guy?

The key to the Columbo tactic is to go on the offensive in an inoffensive way by using carefully selected questions to productively advance the conversation.​

• What do you mean by that?
• How did you come to that conclusion?
• Have you ever considered?​

You can use these questions and variations in everyday conversations or in adversarial situations to gracefully become the leader of the discussion.

This book isn’t your typical apologetic book on sharing your faith. It doesn’t go over the basics of salvation. It teaches and encourages Christians to develop a game-plan, so that when the opportunity arises in everyday conversations, you have your mind centered on Christ and our mission to share him with the world.

Rob