Why We Need to Add a Dash of Salt to Our Convo’s...
Friends! When was the last time someone told you what a stellar evangelist you are? That has never happened to yours truly. For a dozen reasons...
When pressed to share my faith, I’m found frozen with fear and desperately wanting to run for the hills saying, “Yes, well, let me get back to you on that...”
I’m thrilled to report there’s a new kid on the block, better known as a new book available every single one of us needs to read. Young, old, male, female—it doesn’t matter, this books speaks to us all.
The book? Stay Salt: The World Has Changed Our Message Must Not by Rebecca Manley Pippert. (a/k/a “Becky”)
www.beckypippert.org
I am blessed to call Becky a friend, mentor, and even a faithful prayer warrior. How we met is an only-God-could-pull-this-off kind of story.
Pictured left to right: Yours truly, Doris Bridgeman, Becky, and Jane Chilton
Becky and her husband, Dick, are currently living in Holland, Michigan where she’s just written this new book we’re about to unpack: Stay Salt.
Becky’s book is the result of what she and Dick have learned over decades of ministering throughout the world, even living recently in the UK and Europe, which Becky says, is the most secular place on the planet.
Many of you know of Becky’s classic book on evangelism, Out of the Salt Shaker and into the World. So why did Becky write a new book on evangelism?
Becky says, “Though the gospel is as glorious as ever, the world has changed dramatically. Today our Western culture is increasingly post-truth and post-Christian. Yet secularism does not have the power to meet our God-given human longings for meaning and worth—but the gospel of Jesus Christ does! How to communicate our faith effectively in these challenging times is why I wrote Stay Salt—to help believers accept that we ARE inadequate and utterly God-dependent—to assure them of God’s presence and power in our weakness.”
One bittersweet fun fact you must know is Ravi Zacharias wrote the Foreword to Becky’s new book. It was sadly the last Foreword he wrote before his untimely death from cancer.
Becky has spoken often at Ravi Zacharias International Ministry (RZIM) events around the world. She’s also an adjunct teacher at The Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics (OCCA) in Oxford, England. Her own ministry is called Becky Pippert Ministries International.
Ravi begins with comparing Becky to the Apostle Paul (Yes, you read that right…) saying she is successful, like Paul, “in combining the rare strengths of theological integrity and methodological relevance...In our time, few have done more to promote these twin realities than Becky Pippert, in her writings and her speaking...Stay Salt provides a brilliant, holistic approach: one of ‘being’ and ‘doing’ and ‘telling’ the good news of the gospel.”
Friends, if Ravi raves about Becky like this, you can take this all the way to the bank that this is a must-read book. Wow!
Ravi adds, “Becky’s passion is for all of us to start or keep sharing the beautiful and powerful truth of the message (of the gospel)...I commend Becky’s desire to light new fires in our hearts so that we would go to meet people where they are, rather than waiting for them to come where we are: in other words, that we would stay salt.”
I’ve come to discover Becky’s book is a rich resource each of us can refer to over and over and over again. It will positively cure your fear of sharing your faith.
Becky’s vulnerability will also encourage you. I found myself thinking, more than once, “Well, if Becky said that and survived to tell about it, we can surely learn from her!”
One of many “aha” moments includes the reminder we’re never alone in these encounters. The Holy Spirit is always with us and it’s His power that equips us and our conversations, releasing any pressure we’d formerly placed upon ourselves.
Becky’s enthusiasm blesses us right out of the gate in the Introduction, “The one thing that unites all Christians, now and throughout history, is our joyful assurance that the greatest thing that ever happened on our planet is the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel is quite simply the best news ever!”
Os Guinness is a long-time friend of Becky’s. She quotes him often in her book. An early favorite is:
Another fun fact: Os also graciously endorsed Becky’s book. Don’t miss the other fourteen endorsements… You’ll see our buddy Liz Higgs among them as well as Tim Keller! Bravo, Becky!
Straightforward, Stay Salt is divided into three parts:
Section One: The Means
Section Two: The Message
Section Three: The Method
Each chapter ends with “Questions for Reflection” which would be wonderful for small groups or Bible studies to discuss together. After 14 chapters, there’s a conclusion and an epilogue which includes “A Word to Leaders” which would be great for leaders in churches or the other groups just mentioned.
As you progress thru’ the book, you will laugh, and cry, and say out loud a lot, “Ok, I now have zero arguments left. Becky’s covered every potential problem with more than one suggestion.”
She also reminds us it was Jesus himself who commanded us to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15 NIV) Friends, we are without excuse, especially with this pandemic surrounding us...Carpe diem!
I also find it comforting and reassuring that each scenario we experience in witnessing is unique, therefore there’s no rote script. In Stay Salt you’ll find suggestions for engaging people and how to look for common ground to discuss.
Because God created each and every one of us, we are gifted with our own style and don’t need to try to be just like Becky, or anyone else. She reminds us to always pray before we engage someone in conversation and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Evangelist and preacher Sam Chan, in a review he wrote of Becky’s book in Christianity Today, reveals,
One of my favorite comforting quotes on evangelism comes from from J.I. Packer:
J.I. Packer’s quote should put us all at ease. It reminds me of a time last fall when I was one of three speakers at a Women’s event at Christ Church United Methodist. Liz Curtis Higgs was the keynote. When I confessed a teensy bit of anxiety over the event to her, Lizzie said, “Our jobs are to plant the seeds and God’s job is to water them.”
Our Lord had a sense of humor the day of the event as we awoke to torrential rain. I chuckled as I marched into the church with a drenched umbrella saying, “Thank you, Lord!”
Becky expounds on J.I. Packer’s train of thought:
You won’t want to miss Becky’s friend, Bobbie Wolgemuth’s story and strong faith in Chapter 10, The Return: More to Come. She lived with an eternal perspective, bursting with hope in the midst of her cancer. The story will Inspire you to press onward.
Additionally, do not miss Becky telling us about her own brother, Bobby’s, miraculous conversion. (Grab some Kleenex before you get there!) It’s in the Conclusion: Our Critical Moment in the “Witness Truly Matters” section. Becky was the first in her family to become a Christian and while the rest of them followed, it took a long time for many.
If you’d like to hear Becky talk about Stay Salt, check out her recent interview with Eric Metaxas from Friday, July 17th.
Finally, allow me to throw you seven (of probably forty-seven!) questions from the book so you can see how valuable of a resource Stay Salt is. Yes, Becky answers all of these questions and much more, beautifully:
“ - What does it mean to be a witness for Jesus, and where do we begin?
- How do we talk about sin in a culture that doesn’t believe in it?
- Why is the cross essential as our means of deliverance, wholeness and peace?
- If the cross offers people the possibility of a restored relationship with God and the promise of forgiveness, then why doesn’t everyone see the cross as the best news ever?
- Why can Christians have hope in suffering?
- How do we respond to a world where there is so much offense and so little forgiveness?
- How do you move a conversation about sports into a conversation about God?
Stay Salt is just one of many excellent books and resources Becky’s written. Visit her website: www.beckypippert.org to see her other books that are available. Maybe try one of her Bible studies, just for starters.
This fun photo below was snapped by my sweet husband several years ago after Becky spoke at Christ Church United Methodist, here in Louisville. We trekked to our home for brunch after the service.
Pictured left to right: Top row: David Heady (this is like Where’s Waldo?!!!), John Chilton, Bob Russell, Bill Higgs, Stew Conner (God rest his soul!), Jon Seiz, and Steve Fleece
Bottom row: Liz Curtis Higgs, Betsy Heady, Eden Bridgeman Sklenar, Doris Bridgeman, Jane Chilton, Judy Russell, Becky Pippert Molenhouse, Dick Molenhouse, Bev Fleece, Denise Seiz, Lindsey Layton, and Yours Truly
Now you know I love to close: Run, don’t walk to your nearest bookstore and grab Stay Salt. Enlist a group of your friends to read it together!
‘Til next time!
P.S. Here’s a shot of the sunrises we could savor every morning when we met Becky and Dick in Naples. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways from that God-orchestrated encounter many moons ago. (You can find the details of how we met plus a beautiful treatise Becky wrote in my book Let’s Be Friends: What My Sister-Friends Taught Me About Faith, Food, and Fun.)
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”