Tension: The Engine of Change

By Seth -



Tension is the engine of change: This was the theme of my late summer presentation to student leaders from across the state of Michigan preparing to return to campus this fall.
The event (participants pictured above) was organized by Protect Life Michigan (PLM). While Scott Klusendorf of Life Training Institute provided apologetic training, I had been asked to address using these skills to reach individuals and influence culture. My thesis: To instigate change requires tension.
So long as individuals are comfortable with their worldview, they will see no reason to alter or exchange it for a better one. If we want to see people change, we must make them uncomfortable with their own view.
This is not hard to do. There are many things the abortion advocate champions—such as equality and human rights—which are destroyed by the worldview he holds. Our task is to demonstrate this to him—to show him that his view and his deeply seated values cannot coexist.
This places the individual in a painfully uncomfortable position. He is suddenly caught in a feud between worldview and values, between head and heart. For example, he must choose abortion advocacy or human equality, but he cannot have them both.
That tension is our opportunity, for that is when the pro-lifer can graciously step in and offer a way of escape from the existential crisis. Our worldview provides the basis for human rights and equality, the notions the abortion advocate wants to affirm. When alienated from his own view, suddenly the abortion advocate is more interested in considering the worldview we are offering.
This strategy is summarized by Francis Schaeffer in The God Who is There: “The whole purpose . . . is not to make them admit that we are right in some personally superior way, nor to push their noses in the dirt, but to make them see their need so that they will listen . . .”
When people feel tension, they are willing to listen to those who are able to relieve it. By God’s grace, that is what you and our team are working together to do—by offering the truth, which sets us free.

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