I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year thinking about the best way to share my newfound faith in Bitcoin with others.
On the one hand, I could just live a “Bitcoin lifestyle.” Denominate my life in sats, stay humble and keep stacking. Hopefully, others will see a difference in me and ask questions.
On the other hand, I could create a pulpit for myself and implore everyone I know to get off zero. I could raise my voice and demand attention to try and get people to listen.
The underlying question is, how aggressive should I be in my proselytizing?
Ray Comfort is known for his more brash evangelism style. If you look him up on Youtube, you’ll see various videos of his confrontations.
He and his film crew put a camera in your face and ask tough, deep, and personal questions. He pushes unrelentingly until he has you in a corner and you acknowledge that you should take Jesus more seriously. He is gracious in his tone, but unrelenting.
Ray’s methods are thought-provoking, to say the least. He has some people come to recognize their need for Jesus on the spot, while others get mad or just feel too uncomfortable to continue the conversation.
Whether or not you agree with Ray’s methods, I want to highlight a key finding from his evangelism. In fact, he summarizes his approach through the following metaphor:
Imagine you’re on a plane that is about to crash, but it’s not completely obvious to everyone else on the plane yet. As the plane continues to fly, smoke pouring out one of the engines, you look around and appear to be the only person concerned.
You rush to the stewardess and ask her to warn the others. She tells you to calm down but then assures you that there are enough parachutes on the plane for everyone.
You immediately run to the parachute stockpile, grab one, and put it on. You look back across the plane and see the crowd, heads turned toward you. Some people are laughing. Some give you a confused look. Others just return to their book.
You ask yourself, “how am I to convince people to put on a parachute too?”
Here’s the kicker, according to Ray: the only way that people can be convinced to put on a parachute is if they are convinced that the plane is going to crash. The parachute is only useful as a life-saving tool. It does not make life more comfortable. In fact, it is bulky, too snug, and makes you look funny. It’s quite an inconvenience!
Jesus, Ray says, is like that parachute. We don’t embrace Jesus to simply make our lives better, we grab him and cling on because of what he saves us from.
This is why Ray spends an uncomfortable amount of time speaking about Hell. Here is the key insight. He believes that if you spend 90% of your time convincing people of the problem, then you only have to spend 10% of your time offering the solution.
Like a doctor diagnosing your illness, if they described your issue clearly and thoroughly, it won’t take you long to accept the medicine that fixes it. If you paint the problem well enough, people will be hungry for a solution.
I’ve wondered about this approach when trying to explain Bitcoin. Perhaps I’ve already seen it.
In Jeff Booth’s book, The Price of Tomorrow, he talks about the dangers of our inflationary monetary system and how it is attempting to hold back technological progress. As you read on, you get the sense that our world is at a dangerous tipping point, becoming increasingly centralized and increasingly indebted. You feel like the plane is about to crash.
Only at the end of the book does Jeff mention Bitcoin as a solution and a way to escape the inevitable collapse. By this point, you can’t wait to get your hands on some. Jeff has convinced you of the problem, so you are hungry for the solution.
Perhaps this is the best approach when it comes to Bitcoin evangelism. Spend 90% of the time focused on the problem, creating an appetite for a solution. Spend 10% of the time explaining what Bitcoin is and how it solves the problem.
Perhaps this is why we see Bitcoin working so well in poorer countries, places with unstable governments and/or high inflation. They see the effects of the poison, therefore they more readily embrace the cure.
How aggressive should we be? Maybe that depends on the context.
Maybe a close friend of yours needs a shock to their system. I’m reminded of the Rockstar Real Estate team saying Greg Foss basically jumped on a table and yelled at them about how they don’t get Bitcoin yet. The approach worked, and the Rockstar team has a heavy Bitcoin allocation now!
But maybe there are others who are not ready for an all-out assault yet. They need you to plant seeds in their mind, point out little bits at a time and keep asking them questions. Maybe they need to hear your story of how you discovered Bitcoin and the hope that it’s brought in your life.
For Christian readers, I hope you see the correlation to gospel sharing loud and clear. We need to be sensitive to the needs of others while also sharing passionately about the hope we have.
One thing is for sure: we cannot stay silent about something so good.
HODLing Jesus 