Grab those goofy opportunities to share the gospel
"I want to try to get to heaven." What a great discussion starter!
Okay, most people can’t work their way into heaven. But what if you stopped a war??
One of Christians’ constant challenges is how to nudge a superficial conversation with a non-Christian into spiritual matters. So when the culture offers an opening, seize it!
On August 19, US president Donald Trump provided such an opportunity. He called a US television program and started talking about his struggles to end the Russia–Ukraine war. As he often does, he digressed from the main topic and started talking about himself.
“I want to try and get to heaven if possible,” Trump stated. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
That was a strikingly self-deprecating comment from perhaps the first person in history to publicly campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize. But it also seemed to indicate that his theology is more aligned with 15th-century Catholicism than with the evangelicals who have provided crucial support for his political career.
Some people thought Trump was joking. I don’t think so. If he actually had a serious Christian commitment, I can’t imagine him misleading his large audience by describing the means of attaining salvation in such an openly transactional manner. Nor would he have any reason to make a statement that would upset many evangelical Christians.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s professing Christian press secretary, didn’t think he was joking either. She dutifully defended the comment, stating, “I think the president was serious. I think the president wants to get to heaven—as I hope we all do in this room as well.”
Another prominent evangelical Trump supporter, Franklin Graham, deftly shifted the topic without directly contradicting his president, writing that Trump “brought up the topic of Heaven on Fox News yesterday morning, and I’m glad he did because many people struggle with the question of how we can get there. We do get to Heaven by good works—not by our own good works, but by the perfect work of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.”
In contrast, a mainline Presbyterian pastor combined a vivid expression of salvation by grace with some satirical political jabs, expressing the hope that Trump “will begin to follow Jesus and use the enormous power and wealth entrusted to him to be a peacemaker. He may not be able to end wars abroad, but he can certainly end the wars his own administration is waging against undocumented immigrants, the incarcerated, the LGBTQ community and all the poor and powerless.”
Whatever we think of Trump’s comment or his presidency, if we have an ambition to engage our friends and neighbors regarding spiritual things, we should be grateful whenever heaven becomes a topic on the national news. Are you on the lookout for spiritual conversation opportunities?
We can’t shift conversations quite as dramatically as Jesus did (John 4:10–26 is my favorite example). But we can look for conversation hooks in our culture, as the apostle Paul did in Athens, saying, “I was walking around town and saw you have an altar to an unknown God. Would you like me to make him known to you?” (Acts 17:23, paraphrased).
One of my recommended Substacks, Salt and Light Stories, is currently running a series from “Mars Hill High,” a fictional school named for the place where Paul dialogued with the Athenians. The focus is on finding underlying spiritual messages in expressions of pop culture. I also recommend Ted Turnau’s book Popologetics as an excellent guide to this realm.
Sometimes, the conversation hook is easier to find. A Christian friend who worked professionally in Morocco said that although proselytizing was banned, if he asked Muslims to talk about their faith, they would eventually invite him to talk about his faith.