Greg Koukl, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions, 10th anniversary edition (Zondervan, 2019).
Greg Koukl is one of my colleagues in Biola’s MA Christian Apologetics program, and his updated version of Tactics is a must-read for all Christians who desire to be effective ambassadors for Christ. These tactics help ambassadors “effectively maneuver in a relaxed and confident way in [their] conversations with others about Christ, even when they disagree strongly with you” (17). But, his goal is not to enable Christians to “win” every conversation with those who do not yet know Christ. Instead, it is to be effective ambassadors while being a “gardener,” one who plants seeds for the gospel.
Koukl introduces the book with a general overview of the importance and role of tactics. Each chapter is accessibly and conversationally written, filled with key points and illustrations drawn from his extensive experience, followed up by a summary of what we learned. Part one focuses on the “game plan,” in which he unpacks and demonstrates the uses of his “Columbo” tactic. Part two shifts to provide tactics that help ambassadors for Christ find flaws in claims made by others.
The book is easy to read and glean many helpful tips, even from a quick read. However, careful practice of his many tips will help reap the book’s deeper benefits. These fruits come from cultivating his tactics as habits. Anticipating questions how readers can develop these habits, Koukl provides several practical suggestions in the last chapter.
In part one, he starts by stressing the need ambassadors have for knowledge, character, and wisdom (an artful method), and Koukl’s tactics focus on the third of these elements. Tactics are not “manipulative tricks or slick ruses”; instead, they are “techniques of maneuvering in what otherwise might be difficult conversations” (34). Nor are they techniques to be used to steamroll people into becoming Christians. Koukl advises that these tactics require good listening and being charitable and gracious, as well as providing thoughtful responses.
Before diving into the “Columbo” tactic, Koukl pauses to address helpfully some reservations various Christians have to engaging in argumentation. For one, he counters a common misconception, that we can argue people into the kingdom (44). Yet, he wisely realizes that simply employing methods will not result in kingdom fruit: “without God’s work, nothing else works” (45). For another, he takes off the pressure to have to convert someone to Christ in every conversation. Instead, his more modest goal in any encounter is to “put a stone in someone’s shoe,” to get that person to think more about Christ and the plausibility of the gospel’s claims.
Chapters three through nine address uses of the Columbo tactic, which Koukl names after Lt. Columbo, the homicide detective who would solve cases by asking a litany of questions. The key to using this tactic is to “go on the offensive” inoffensively “with carefully selected questions that advance the conversation” (57). There are several advantages to using questions, and Koukl suggests using them to gather information, reverse the burden of proof, and make a point (60).
The key way to gather information is to inquire of the challenger, “what do you mean by that” claim? By drawing upon his many years of experience, Koukl helpfully navigates readers through challenges to this approach.
The second is a response to claims made as a challenge to Christianity. Koukl’s recommended move here is to reverse the burden of proof by asking the person, “How did you come to that conclusion?” Moreover, he helps readers discern differences between peoples’ replies of simply giving an opinion versus an argument with reasons.
Before exploring the third step in the Columbo tactic, Koukl explains how to respond to two specific situations in which a Christian ambassador is on the defensive and the challenger is in the driver’s seat. Here, Koukl unpacks the “professor’s ploy” and “getting out of the hot seat,” as well as a third tactic he calls “narrating the debate.”
Columbo’s third step uses questions to make a point, which help the ambassador go more on the offensive, yet inoffensively. This can be done in various ways, including to help explain one’s point, set up discussion to more easily make a point, indirectly expose a flaw in another’s views, and soften the challenge to another’s views. I can resonate readily with the last two suggestions, which tend to come fairly naturally for me. Then, in wrapping up part one, Koukl addresses how to respond wisely and effectively to challenges that employ the Columbo tactic.
Part two dives into other tactics that help ambassadors find flaws in claims and reasons given by challengers to Christianity. One of the key benefits in all these chapters is how Koukl gives current, real-world illustrations and applications for each tactic. He devotes three chapters to kinds of self-refuting claims. Then, he explores “taking the roof off,” which involves taking a view to its logical conclusion, to see its flaws.
Koukl then explores many other tactics, such as the steamroller, Rhodes Scholar, just the facts ma’am, inside-out, and several mini-tactics. Once again, the power of these chapters is found in Koukl’s clear explanations and wisdom born of commitment to truth and real-life experience.
Now, I can imagine some Christians who have been influenced by the postmodern turn might consider Koukl’s book to be just another instance of “modern” apologetics and thereby dismiss it. But that would be shortsighted, I think. One of the key themes throughout this book is that believers need to engage in loving dialogues with others, and that by employing good questions and good listening (and the tactics of part two), we can have fruitful discussions about many important issues with those who are unconvinced about Christianity, and even amongst ourselves as believers. From my own experience, I have tried to be a good listener and ask good questions, and that has led to several fruitful discussions with others shaped by the postmodern turn.
Most apologetics books address specific kinds of subjects, such as arguments for God’s existence, the reliability of Scripture, morality, science, and more, providing reasons why Christianity is true. Yet, this book does something comparatively unique; it provides tools to help the ambassador for Christ know how to use this knowledge well, so as to be effective and loving. As such, this is an invaluable resource for apologists, filling in the need for a “plan to artfully manage the details of [their] dialogues with others” (33). I highly recommend the book, and its tactics deserve close study and practice.