Columbo Tactics

Lt. Columbo, the main character of a detective show of the same name on television several years ago, always came across as a bumbling, inept, harmless man in search of answers about a crime. Always with a cigar stub in hand, a wrinkled raincoat on his back and looking like he just got out of bed (having slept in the rain coat), Columbo would ask disarming, but carefully selected questions that productively advanced his detective work.

Greg Koukl, one of the speakers at the California Christian Apologetic Conference and the founder of Stand to Reason ministry whose goal is to train Christians to be acpable ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) with knowledge (an accurately informed mind), wisdom (an artful method), and character (an attractive manner), beleives that the Columbo Tactic in evangelism is "the queen mother of all the tactics." He says this:

"The key to the Columbo tactic is that the Christian goes on the offensive in a disarming way with carefully selected questions to productively advance the conversation. If you hit a roadblock when witnessing, ask a good question. There are three basic ways to use the Columbo tactic that can tame the most belligerent critic, each launched by a different question. Three uses, three questions:

1. To gain information and stay out of the "hot seat" - "What do you mean by that?"
2. To reverse the burden of proof - "Now how did you come to that conclusion?"
3. To indirectly exploit a weakness or a flaw in someone's views - "Have you considered...(then finish the sentence by offering an alternative view that gently challenges his/her beliefs, possibly exposing a point of weaknesss you uncovered in the answers to your first two questions. For example, "Have you ever considered that the existence of evil is actually evidence FOR the existence of God, not against it?")

This quote was taken from Greg Koukl's Ambassador Basic Curriculum, "Tactics in Defending the Faith" which can be obtained at his website, www.str.org. We'll talk a little more about the Columbo tactic in the next Blog post where we'll discuss Greg's two basic executions of the Columbo tactic. Is this helpful? - Mary