You’ve got your title (an objection like ‘Hasn’t science buried God?’) and are wondering where to start.

How do I write a lunchbar talk?

Well, what are we trying to achieve?

Let’s pray and prepare to answer the question in a way that shows the Gospel to be both…

…. wait for it…

…. wait for it…

1. Desirable (wouldn’t this be great if it was true?) and
2. Reasonable (and don’t you now see that it is?!)

So how do we get there? Here’s a template that I find helpful.

1. Define My Destination. What is my answer in a single sentence? Let’s try ‘Science hasn’t buried God; He is very much alive’. I want to bring my listeners to rejoice in this main Insight, recognizing that it presents a choice (agree + act, or disagree). And I mustn’t give away the punchline at the beginning!

2. Identify with your Audience. What do they currently think about the topic? Can I identify and empathize with their concerns? Can I show how the topic is profoundly relevant to all our deepest hopes and fears? Can I hold up a mirror so people recognize themselves? 

Let’s face it: the answer to whether ‘science has buried God’, or not, profoundly affects our understanding of who we are, where we are, and where we’re going.

And then….

3. Prepare To Persuade. Persuasion is demolition and construction.

I need to demolish the alternative (Science HAS buried God) by showing it to be

1. Less desirable (are we really just DNA replicators, in a blind universe, destined to extinction forever, as atheistic naturalism would tell us?) and
2. Less reasonable (isn’t this naturalism inadequate as a basis for human dignity, and is there a better explanation of the events surrounding the burial of the God-Man?).

I then need to build the case for Christianity that is

1. Desirable (What if you weren’t a cosmic accident, but were knowingly put in a magnificent creation, intended for a joyful relationship with your creator? What if that creator wants to restore this relationship and stepped into the world he has made? What if he died and rose again to offer us a new life with him, now and always?)
2. Reasonable (and doesn’t this make much more sense of our deepest intuitions; that we’re here for a purpose, that beauty is real, and that there’s more to life than this? And wasn’t it a belief in a reasonable creator that inspired the early modern scientists to seek laws in nature?)

4. Invite a Response. Given the Reason for Science is very much alive, and wants you to live with and for him, we have a choice. Either we bury this knowledge and continue to live against our very reason for being, or we bury our old attitudes and start to live a new life with him.  We find a fork in the road, and here’s how to take the first step, and where each road ends up…

So to summarize, once you’re happy with your destination, then think ‘Identification, Persuasion and Invitation‘. If you want to develop further, come to a Christian Persuaders conference!