reform your evangelism: understand the culture

From ‘The Radical Reformission’, by Mark Driscoll (Zondervan 2004). 

What is culture?

“The sum total ways of living developed by a group of human beings and handed on from generation to generation, that seeks to give shape and meaning to life, and that claims final loyalty.” (Lesslie Newbigin)

Most people are “as unaware of their cultural assumptions as they are of their bad breath” because it is so familiar to them.  So Christians must be particularly attentive to the culture they are trying to reach.  “Every culture can mediate the gospel if we expend the effort to determine how to work through that culture.  Our ultimate goal is to have people from every culture worshipping Jesus through their culture – the vision gloriously pictured in the book of Revelation.”

who should evangelise?

A helpful article by Mark Dever, taken from ‘The Gospel and Personal Evangelism’ (Crossway 2007).  

 

 

Many “ordinary” Christians feel scared or ill-equipped in evangelism, and often the “professional” clergy folk give the impression – intentionally or unintentionally – that they’re the only ones who can do it.  Should we leave evangelism up to the extroverts and the professionals?

No – it’s for all Christians!  What Scripture says on the subject:

leading the secular to Christ

 

Read this article:  ‘Deconstructing Defeater Beliefs: Leading the Secular to Christ’ by Tim Keller.  Below is an abridged version, but the original is brilliant and offers more expanded comment.  

 

Anti-Christian cultures hold to a set of commonly held beliefs that automatically disqualify Christianity as believable.  These are called ‘defeater beliefs’ and vary depending on the culture.  For example, in the West it is assumed that there can’t just be one true religion; therefore, Christianity cannot be true.  In the Middle East, this isn’t a problem, but the American culture is; it is unjust and corrupt, and is based on Christianity – therefore, Christianity cannot be true.  A combination of defeater beliefs leads to a cultural ‘implausibility structure’ where Christianity is dismissed without even a hearing.  

How do we deal with such a cultural attitude towards Christianity?  Many suggest that arguments are ineffective; the right apologetic is a loving community, or the embodiment of social concern.  Of course, these are important; people today come to Christ through relationships, through trying it out.  But this is expressive individualism, a central part of a non-Christian worldview today.  The problem with using this ‘it is true if it works for me’ is that when it ceases to work – when life gets tough – then Christianity ceases to be true.  At some point one must challenge the sovereignty of individual consciousness.  Jesus is Lord, not my personal consciousness.  Many people today make a heartfelt commitment to Christ, but give up when it really affects their lifestyle.  This is often because they have fitted Christ to their individualistic worldview, rather than fitting their worldview to Christ.  

Apologetics needs to adapt to postmodern sensibilities, but it must challenge those sensibilities too.  

reform your evangelism: understand the gospel

From ‘The Radical Reformission’, by Mark Driscoll (Zondervan 2004). 

The vision: ‘reformission evangelism’ highlights a desire to return to Jesus in our mission.  Jesus has called us to love our Lord in the gospel, love our brother in the church, and love our neighbour in the culture. Neglecting one of these aspects has disastrous effects for mission:

Gospel + Culture – Church = Parachurch

Culture + Church – Gospel = Liberalism

Church + Gospel – Culture = Fundamentalism

So, we need to correctly understand each of these key ingredients.  

 

Understanding the gospel: 

 

1. Reformission is hindered by being married to morality.  Would you go to a gay bar to build friendships in your community?  Often we care most about appearing a good person before people, and this affects how we get involved in culture.  Instead, get close to Jesus: “the way to avoid sin is not to avoid sinners, but to stick close to Jesus”.