Lessons from the Life & Ministry of Ravi Zacharias (by Sam Allberry)

3 Lessons I Learned from Working with Ravi Zacharias

By Sam Allberry

1. The person matters more than the question.

I’ve never really felt like I was an evangelist. Every image that comes to mind when I hear that word is of something I’m not––gregarious, extroverted, or super confident.

But what I’ve seen from Ravi’s ministry is that what has makes him such an effective evangelist is that he’s actually pastoring unbelievers. His focus is the person, irrespective of their question or demeanor. When he would return from trips and report to the team, he would always mention particular individuals for us to pray for, especially those carrying deep wounds and pains. “Answer the questioner, not the question,” he would often say. When a student approached a microphone to ask a question, he wouldn’t be seeing a challenge that needed to be met, or an obstacle that needed to be dealt with, or an argument that needed to be won. He would see a person who needed ministering to.

Whether the question was answered amazingly wasn’t the key issue; what really mattered was responding to the person, not just what they were saying.

2. Tone is as important as content.

It’s easy to reduce apologetics to argumentation. I’ve seen Christians who seem to think that contending for the gospel means stomping over everyone who raises any objections to faith. But it’s all too possible to win an argument and yet end up losing the person––as though the gospel was advanced by a succession of mic-drop moments.

But Scripture shows us something different. When Peter calls us to be ready to give an answer for the hope we have, his attention is on our demeanor, not just our words: “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:16). This text has been foundational for Ravi, and, through him, for the whole team. Tone matters. A true word said ungraciously will not commend the gospel. We can un-preach with our manner what we think we’re preaching with our words.

Peter’s words don’t include the caveat “unless they’re a jerk, in which case you can unload on them.” There were many times at a university forum, when a student would ask something in a snarky way. But Ravi would always aim to respond with gentleness and respect. It could often be disarming. They may have just treated him with disdain, but his response was both dignified and dignifying. He didn’t belittle others, or humiliate them.

3. The cross is the heart of the message.

Ravi’s calling was always as an evangelist. His work as an apologist was in service to that calling. The phrase we would often hear was “evangelism undergirded by apologetics.” Apologetics was never an end in itself, as though the aim of the game was mainly to show that our thinking and beliefs were superior to those of others. The place for apologetics was in serving the promotion of the gospel itself.

Ravi’s message wasn’t so much the intellectual credibility of the faith (though he has done more than anyone else in this generation to commend that); it was Christ crucified. When Paul said, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), he didn’t mean that he only talked about the cross; rather, he meant the cross was the animating heart of everything he did say. Ravi’s goal wasn’t to demonstrate the shallowness of, say, secular thinking; his goal was to present Christ. He didn’t preach an argument; he used argumentation to preach a person.

Ravi has now gone to be with the Christ he so loved to proclaim. He wasn’t a perfect man (and he would be the first to stress that), but he did know someone who was, and did all that he could to commend him.

This article was originally posted on The Gospel Coalition and is used with permission of the author.

Katie Gaultney writes in WORLD Magazine’s tribute to Ravi:

[Ravi] said he also loved the culinary arts, writing once, “My family still thinks that after I retire, I will open a small restaurant somewhere. If I ever did, it would be for great conversations around a great meal.”

In my book Heaven I write that there’s a biblical and logical basis for believing that on the New Earth we will have the privilege of living out some of the dreams we had for this life that we weren’t able to fulfill. Perhaps on the New Earth, Ravi will get to live out his dream of cooking and/or having a restaurant, one open to people of every tribe, nation, and language. In any event, I look forward to the great food and conversations around the tables on that redeemed and resurrected earth, and to seeing my brother Ravi again, in the presence of King Jesus!