I recently read Lindsey Medenwaldt’s book, “Bridge Building Apologetics.” The book was a very easy read and I was able to read through it relatively quickly…at least quickly for me. I tend to be an extremely slow reader, but the book only took me about 10 days of reading about 10-15 minutes a day.

If you are looking for a lot of apologetics-centric tips, this is not the book you’re looking for. There are plenty of other excellent books that provide great information on apologetic arguments, historical evidence, cover Biblical reliability, philosophical arguments, etc. What this book focuses on is the way we interact with people.

First, I love that she started out the book with a chapter on prayer. I will be the first person to admit that prayer tends to be the last resource I lean on. Usually, by the time I get to that point, God is looking at me shaking His head and saying “I knew you’d get here, eventually.”

Lindsey starts with going over the importance of prayer when discussing our faith with people who may not agree with us. The value of starting here cannot be overstated, even if I have difficulty following that advice.

In a way, nearly this entire book could be boiled down to one aspect of Greg Koukl’s Ambassador approach. Koukl often refers to the three main attributes of a good ambassador:

• Knowledge – An accurately informed mind
• Wisdom – An artful method
• Character – A winsome approach.

Lindsey’s book could almost be thought of as a longer excursus on the third attribute, character. She does delve a bit into the wisdom aspect of it, as well. But mostly, the book is encouraging us to follow that last, often unused part of the famous 1 Peter 3:15 passage that apologists love to use as their theme verse….you know…that last bit about “gentleness and respect.”

She correctly points out that being unkind, judgmental, rude or belittling to people when you’re trying to share your faith is a formula for failure. We have to connect with people and be likable in order to earn the position of being able to speak into their lives.

From what I can tell, she is quite good at this. After all, I know that I felt an immediate kinship with her when she mentioned going to a Skillet concert. I think that makes us best friends, now.

Another chapter I really liked was the one in which she covered how to handle people who not only disagree with you, but they mock you and your faith. I hope that I can do a good job having the correct attitude in a situation like that, but Lindsey certainly does a great job describing what that attitude ought to be.

Where she started with prayer, she finishes up with an equally important point; the importance of relying on the Holy Spirit. Like prayer, we Christians do seem to have a tendency to forget about the Holy Spirit, particularly when we’re engaging in a spirited debate (see what I did there?)

We have to remember that we must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit if we’re going to have any success in our discussions about faith with non-believers. Not only will that help us adjust our attitude and even better articulate our position, but it’s also important to remember that, unless the Holy Spirit moves in our interlocutor, nothing will change. Our arguments, however strong, are completely useless without the work of the Holy Spirit.

At the end of the day, this was a fun book to read. The writing style allowed me to read it quickly and easily. This was definitely not a “slog your way through it” sort of book. Go ahead. Get a copy for yourself and see what I mean.

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