The “One Good Reason” method is simply a tool for sharing the faith—a quick and easy phrase that we can use to help us move the conversation forward when evangelizing. The core of it is basically a question: “Can I tell you one good reason why I … ?”—and you fill in the blank with a belief or practice that you embrace as a Catholic Christian. It could be any number of things: “Can I tell you one good reason why I believe that Jesus is the Divine Son of God?” or “… why I choose to be Catholic?” or “… why I go to Mass every Sunday?” or “… why I believe in God?”, etc.
If the core of One Good Reason is a question, then the rest of it is an explanation: a “good reason” and perhaps a further line of reasoning used to support it. You may, of course, formulate your own good reasons for Catholic beliefs and practices; but we at Saint Paul Evangelization Institute are happy to provide good reasons for some of the most central. The following lessons in this course will do this. They are available for you to study, go deeper with, revise, embrace as your own, and make use of in your efforts to evangelize.
Three Good Reasons for One Good Reason
The One Good Reason conversational tool is useful for at least three reasons:
- One Good Reason combines compelling reasons for the faith with a form of personal testimony. When used well, One Good Reason provides an opening to sharing part of yourself with someone, and at the same time, giving him the best arguments you’re aware of. You give him a good reason why you choose to believe and act the way you do. For his part, he can take it or leave it: he can respond, ask you follow-up questions, or thank you and walk away. But whatever happens, you’ve moved the conversation on to topics of faith, in a way that’s conducive to a person-to-person encounter. This is especially the case when you give a “good reason” as part of your larger story of faith—your personal testimony. In fact, your “good reason” could simply be your personal testimony. For example, your good reason for believing in Jesus could be the story of your most powerful encounter with Him, what led up to it, and how it has affected your life until the present.[1]
- One Good Reason is adaptable. You can bring to the conversation whatever reasons or personal stories you want. And seeking to apply the One Good Reason method can inspire you to do your own research into theology, apologetics, and even science and philosophy, in search of new reasons that will be compelling to you.
- One Good Reason gives us something to fall back on when we’re not sure how to move forward in a conversation. We don’t have a script memorized when we evangelize—the point is to have an authentic encounter with another human person. While we rely on prayer and the Holy Spirit, sometimes we’re at a loss for words. Sometimes we don’t know how to begin to speak to someone about Jesus or the Catholic faith. When that happens, we can often transition into this method easily.
It works like this: through listening and befriending, we already know where someone is at in the matter of faith and religion; now we just need a way to move the conversation forward to proclaim the truth. For example, the person tells you that he finds it hard to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. You talk with him for a while about that, and then you say, “You know, I understand where you’re coming from. I used to feel very similarly. But eventually, I came to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.”
At that point, you’ve offered him a prime opportunity to ask you how it is that you came to believe in Jesus. And he just might grab the opportunity and ask you that question. But suppose that he doesn’t. Suppose that he just says, “Well, that never happened to me. I just can’t see it.” It is at that point that One Good Reason might come into play. In order to pave the way for you to actually share the truth of Jesus’ divinity and resurrection, you say, “Well, would you like to hear one good reason why I came to believe it?” Nine times out of ten that question is answered in the affirmative.
Don’t Misuse One Good Reason
With the One Good Reason method, it is very important to avoid a specific pitfall.
Below is a simple example of the early part of a dialogue that demonstrates this pitfall. The dialogue is put in the context of street evangelization, but the danger of slipping into this kind of mistake is real no matter the context.
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Street Evangelist: Hi, would you like a free rosary?
Pedestrian: <walks towards street evangelist> What’s a rosary?
SE: It’s a set of prayer-beads. It helps Christians to ask for the prayers of the Virgin Mary, while meditating upon the life of Jesus. It’s very popular among Catholics. Are you a Christian?
P: No! Actually I was raised non-denominational Christian but never really believed in it.
SE: Can I give you one good reason that I choose to be a Christian?
P: Um … Sure.
****
If you overheard this conversation going on nearby, what would you think about it? Is the evangelist doing a good job? Do you notice anything missing in this dialogue?
So what is missing? The first two steps in conversational evangelization: Listen and Befriend. It doesn’t matter that the pedestrian in this example agrees to hear the evangelist’s “one good reason,” because that almost always happens. Just because a person agrees to hear your “one good reason,” doesn’t mean that he’s really paying attention to it or taking it seriously. Since you haven’t yet built common ground or earned his trust, he has “no good reason” (from his perspective) to pay heed to your “good reason.”
To put it bluntly, One Good Reason is not a tool for making a religious sales-pitch. It’s not meant to be used as a way of subtly manipulating someone into a conversation that he’s not open to having with you. The One Good Reason method should only ever be one small part of your larger effort to love people into the eternal Kingdom of God, to bear witness to Christ in word and deed, to share the truth that He reveals, to proclaim the Good News of His Cross and Resurrection.
In other words, the One Good Reason method is intended to be bound tightly together with authentic conversational evangelization. It’s meant to be seamlessly integrated into our four-step method: Listen, Befriend, Proclaim, and Invite. And while the One Good Reason tool is easy, good conversational evangelization usually takes a lot of practice.[2]
Don’t Overuse One Good Reason
As we’ve made clear, One Good Reason should never become a “religious sales-pitch,” but only an integral part of an authentic conversation. In fact, as much as we love and make use of the One Good Reason method, we must be clear that authentic conversational evangelization has to trump it every time. In other words, don’t feel like you need to use One Good Reason all the time—especially in cases where it might detract from a conversation. Remember, it’s just a tool for moving the conversation along. If you can do the same thing in another way, perhaps a slightly more natural way, then by all means, go for it.
“Training Wheels”
On the other hand, One Good Reason can be a gateway to improving your conversational evangelization skills. Perhaps you find One Good Reason to be a confidence-booster in conversation; so you spend a lot of time building your reasons and making use of them as you evangelize. Once you’ve mastered the method, you might just find yourself ready, from time to time, to incorporate your reasons and stories into conversations without actually using the phrase, “Can I give you one good reason ….” You would keep the basic idea of it, but set aside the “script.” The script helped you for a time, but now it’s no longer necessary.
To put it all in another way, the One Good Reason method can be like a set of training wheels on a bike. For someone who’s dedicated to growing in their conversational evangelization skills, One Good Reason can become a catalyst for building your experience, your knowledge base, and your confidence. And when we’re experienced, knowledgeable, and confident, we’re bound to have many fruitful conversations. And if we’re having lots of fruitful conversations, then we’re achieving the whole purpose of the One Good Reason conversational tool, and we might not need it anymore.
[1] For more on building and sharing your personal testimony, see Introduction to Evangelization, lesson 3, “Introduction to Christian Testimony.”
[2] For an introduction to conversational evangelization, check out Introduction to Evangelization, lesson 4, “Basic Evangelization Strategies.”