Let me start off by saying that I have heard beautiful stories of people genuinely converting to Christianity after receiving a tract, listening to a brief presentation of the gospel by a total stranger, etc. I am not saying that the Lord never uses these methods to draw people into his church. What I am saying is that we have to ask our selves, "should this be our normative method?"
I don't think that it should. Before getting into what evangelism should look like in our post-Christian culture, it is helpful to think about why quick/impersonal presentations of the gospel should not be our primary evangelistic tool.
There are two major reasons.
1) Why is it that we all hate it when sneaky businessmen knock at our door and try to get us to buy something? You know what I'm talking about. A person tries to sell us some particular product and communicates the value of the product, its benefits for us and its cost in less than three minutes.
On one level we feel violated. We are all intelligent human beings who like to think about alternatives. We want to be able to think about something before we make a rash decision.
This stems ultimately from our being created in the image of God. Everyone (yes- including non-Christians!) are created in the image of God. This means that we have inherent dignity and worth. People should respect our intelligence and our dignity when they communicate something to us. Are we respecting the dignity and intelligence of non-Christians when we give them the 3 minute gospel presentation?
If we, as Christians, are going to respect the imago Dei (image of God) of our fellow neighbors, we need to make sure that any presentation of the gospel is clear, charitable and never forced. We have to let those we evangelize think about what we have said and give them time to struggle with its implications.
2)
The second reason is that our post-Christian culture has undergone a radical [postmodern] epistemological* shift. We are no longer living in a culture where people believe that truth can be received from raw statements/propositions. Instead, people believe that truth (if it even exists) is discovered/experienced through communal interaction. This means that people will probably be more receptive to hearing the gospel within the context of a healthy relationship than from a tract given to them by a total stranger.
* Epistemology: the study of how we know things
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2 comments:
Very well stated. You’ve put your finger on two main reasons why communicating the Christian gospel in the context of an ongoing relationship is the way to go.
Quique! I can't believe I found you online! How are you and your wife doing? I didn't realize you guys were in Sugar Land. I would love to go on a double date with you two next time we're in town!
Sheridan
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