Rebecca. All right, so next up, we have a few questions related to obedience. We have another question here by Alex T. What is a tender yet firm way of changing people's minds on counter cultural commands of Christ? Yeah, whenever I'm thinking about this topic, there's really two categories of people that are out there and it helps a lot to think about what category of person I'm addressing. So one category is someone who I call them the virtuosos.
So the virtuoso, I take that term from the musical world where a virtuoso is someone who can be playing the violin, playing Mozart on the violin at the age of five. You know, they're extremely gifted. And they have an ability to transcend normal boundaries and limitations that people have. There's very few virtuosos in the world.
And there are some people who, and I'm sure many people on this call are like this, where you can read something in the Bible, you're very truth-driven, and that will be sufficient for you to go out and say, I want to live this. And praise God that we have virtuosos out there. And as I said, I'm sure a number of you on the call fall in that category. But there's a different category of people out there. And in fact, the vast majority are not in that.
And what they need is what a sociologist calls a plausibility structure. So there's this concept that for most people, what they need to see is, yes, they want to see that this is grounded in the truth. But for a lot of people, they need to see it lived out in a winsome way in order for this to be compelling there.
And so for that reason, one of the things that we really need to do, particularly as we think about church planting, is to have that core of two to three winsome families that can live and model the countercultural commands effectively, because that's going to be the best way to win people over, the vast majority of people.
And I've heard this many times that if you can have that environment and then just simply invite people over to your dinner table, that alone, even without speaking about anything related to the subject at hand, is going to win people over more effectively, most people more effectively than maybe the direct frontal assault on, let me try to change your mind on this issue. So I've really learned to think about the people who are receptive in those two categories.
Of course, there's another category of people who simply have no interest whatsoever, and we're not speaking about them. But in that other category, we got to be thinking about that. And I think what happens is that a lot of you who are probably virtuosos, you're going to talk to somebody, and you're going to assume that they're a virtuoso, and they may not be. And in fact, they're probably not.
And you have to sort of reframe your thinking and say, okay, well, really, they're going to be compelled more by the John 13, the John 17, the good works of Matthew 5, the ways that Jesus describes as other ways to win people over. And that's going to be what wins is over. I'll say one other thing here, which is that once you get that foothold in, I do think that there's a role for good books, good teaching.
I'm very grateful for historic faith, David Bercot, and the now the huge platform of books and people that are now beginning to emerge. And what we like to do here in Boston, because there's a lot of people who fall into this category, is start with come over to our house. We often have people to our house, especially when it's not COVID time. And then to say, can I take you through a set of Bible studies through a set of topics?
And I have a sheet of, okay, you're going to listen to this sermon, and then you're going to come back, and we're going to discuss. And this sermon, we're going to come back and discuss. And that is a really effective way to win people over who are open, right? And if they're not open, then you're going to lose them after one or two sessions.
So I would say that combination of a lived out plausibility structure with some kind of a structured program where you can walk people through all of these commands and really the broader picture of what it is to be a New Testament disciple. Sounds like we need an evangelism course from Finny on the HistoricFaith.com. That would be a useful tool. But yeah, thank you very much for that. I appreciate that.
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