I've been realizing lately, through several conversations and things I've read, that America is increasingly post-christian, that is, biblically illiterate. Those generations of previous decades grew up in churches, whether they were actively "following Jesus" or not, the cultural landscape was one of church-going, modest families. It helped prolong our idea that this is a "christian nation". But more and more, I'm learning that my generation or, probably more accurately, the generation following me, isn't growing up with any kind of church-background. They aren't being forced to experience Sunday school and flannel graphs and choirs and communion. They don't know the stories of Gideon and his army, or Moses and the burning bush, or the wee little man Zacchaeus who climbed the Sycamore tree to see Jesus.
I've gotten really used to trying to deconstruct peoples' negative impression of Jesus that they learned from imperfect churches... But I'm starting to wonder what it looks like to tell people about Jesus that have few, if any, misconceptions about him. "Evangelism" as it has been practiced over the past few decades has become out-dated and rarely effective (except in the rare instances when God moves through them despite them), precisely because calling someone to "make a decision for Christ" used to mean more to a culture that knew the Bible stories and the Gospel of Jesus through their church-going sensibilities. They had the knowledge to inform a decision that will shatter your future in ways you can never fathom beforehand. Eddie Gibbs, of Fuller Theological Seminary, said he hopes those who have a 10-minute conversation with someone about Christ and then urges them to make a decision for Christ there on the spot don't approach their dating lives in the same way! Christianity, following Jesus Christ, is a life-long, world-shattering commitment that CAN'T be truly entered into lightly, without counting the cost first, etc.
Understanding that our culture now lacks the biblical background to allow people to count the cost of following Christ before urging them to make that decision is going to be a large factor that we have to wrestle with if we want to effectively communicate the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm not sure what that looks like yet. The message is the same, for sure, but the method of communicating it is constantly shifting. Our culture has shifted and is shifting further towards post-christian. How should we respond?
What are your thoughts? Does that make sense?
No comments:
Post a Comment