What Improv Comedy Can Teach Us About Evangelism
Have you ever experienced improv comedy? It feels like chaos! Chicago is the home to the most influential comedy theatre in the world, Second City. From the elevated train running through Chicago, you can read billboards advertising the Second City Improv class: "Because Everyone's A Comedian."
Improv, or improvisation, is a form of live theatre in which the plot, characters and dialogue of a story are made up on the spot. It looks terrifying. You don't know what they are going to say and that makes for great humor. They don't know what each other will say and that makes it unpredictable. There is no formula for improv. Yet, if it is all made up in the moment, why would they advertise to take a training class to do improv? Why do the great improv comics practice their craft so much? The reality is that improv appears spontaneous and random, but it is not. Being "in the moment" is a developed skill cultivated through practice. Improv works because it follows a set of certain rules and is a function of practice. Anyone can learn it, practice it and improve at it. "Because Everyone's A Comedian."
One key rule of the art of improv is called the rule of agreement, also called "don't deny." "Denial" is the number one reason most improv scenes go south. Any time one improvisational artist refuses an "offer" made by their partner the scene will almost instantly come to a grinding halt. For example, player A says, "Hi, my name is Joe. Welcome to my house." Then, player B does not follow this rule and replies with "This isn't a house, it's a spaceship. And you're not Joe, you're a hippopotamus." The scene crashes. No matter how clever player B's idea was or how funny he thought it could be, it stalled because player B did not follow the simple rule.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Another key improv rule is to always tell a story. The magic of improv happens when the players take totally random suggestions and somehow "make it work". For all these unrelated elements to come together, it's must happen in the course of an interesting story line.
So what does this have to do with evangelism and engaging in meaningful conversations about Jesus with people who believe differently?
What if the art of spiritual conversations has certain guidelines of engagement as well? If we can understand them, practice them and apply them, we could multiply the quantity and quality of our gospel conversations and see our conversations about faith flourish, introducing more people to the good news of Jesus Christ.
Like a scene in an improv sketch, many of us stall out in our conversations about God with our family, friends, coworkers and neighbors. We want to have a spiritual conversation, but end up bumbling around, saying too much too fast or not saying much at all. What if there were a few guidelines we could follow that would help facilitate more meaningful discussions?
Maybe there are. Here are four guidelines, similar to the rules of improve, to help you engage in conversations about God:
Look for where God is at work.
The adventure of God's Kingdom is discovering where God is at work and joining Him on His mission to reconcile people to Himself. Since He is already at work all around us, we can ask Him to show us where He wants us to participate in His activity of love and grace. You could call it "praying behind people's backs" and it can be the first step of engagement in what God is up to, so that you can recognize where God is at work and join Him. This secret prayer approach provides an opportunity for all Christians—whether talkative or quiet, outgoing or shy, silly or serious—to experience God more and to participate in His work. To understand what God is doing in others' lives and what our role might be, we can ask Him. Here are three key questions to start with:
God, where are you already at work?
God, what does this person need right now?
God, how can I invite this person to experience Jesus in a fresh way?
Be curious.
Asking God these questions will stir you to be more curious as you engage with other people. Curiosity focuses your attention on the other person, not yourself. It reduces the fear of not asking the "right" question, saying the "right" thing, or having the "right" answer. Curiosity is the bridge that gets us from silently noticing another person to actively engaging with them. Notice the good in them, the image of God imprinted on their lives, and get curious about it. At the end of the day, the reason curiosity has so much potential is because everybody is curious. We all experience emotions like awe, admiration, wonderment, fascination, surprise, astonishment, and amazement.
Proverbs teaches, "Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights" (Proverbs 18:15, The Message). Just as Jesus put others' needs above His own (Phillipians 2:3-4), we are called to be interested in others, not for our own sake, but for theirs. This means that we can tap into our Spirit-led curiosity during a conversation and lead with questions. Questions that invite the person into dialogue, uncover their struggles, and find their story. Then, we can be curious about where God's story intersects their story.
Peak curiosity.
When I went fishing for lake trout in the Ozarks as a kid, we would put corn on our hooks and throw them in the water. Then, my father would always toss a handful of corn in the water to "chum," to attract the fish more eagerly to the corn bait. "Little and often" is the motto for successfully chumming when fishing. What if in the course of our conversations, we did the same? When engaged in any conversation, what if you peaked the curiosity of your friend by dropping clues "little and often" of your faith, your walk with Christ, your dependence on God, your transformed life? As you seek to discover their story, you can also drop clues about your story and God's story. My experience with this approach is that people naturally begin to get curious about my faith story, opening up greater opportunities for conversations about God.
Be safe.
Simple interactions and ordinary conversations can be difficult for us. We are often poor conversationalists. Some of us talk way too much. Some of us listen very little. At times, we offer our unsolicited opinions. Our attention spans are short. We formulate our response while others are speaking. We'll often make hasty generalizations and jump to conclusions. Some of us talk over people and talk for them. We tend to cast quick judgments. Most of us are generally not curious. We are more inclined to talk about ourselves or to avoid entering into conversations at all. If we are not good at ordinary conversations, how can we talk well about spiritual matters? How do we create a safe atmosphere for spiritual exploration, that can thaw a cold heart, and invite someone to freely investigate God's truth without judgment, correction or argument?
Participating in the Great Commission will inevitably mean talking with people in ways that will introduce them to Jesus. So, to be Great-Commission Christians, we all need to improve in our conversational ability, to engage the spiritually curious, and to begin a journey of discovery with them about God and the Bible.
People crave engagement. They want someone who will acknowledge and respect their thoughts and feelings. For Christians living in this technologically interconnected but relationally disconnected culture, engaging in simple conversational practices will communicate the unconditional love of Christ to people all around. Maybe before we need apologetic arguments, we need simple conversational "arts." When it comes to spiritual conversations, we are talking about a craft that you can cultivate and practice over time — just like improv. Wouldn't it be great if our churches helped everyone to learn it, practice it and improve at it? Because "Everybody Can Do It!"
