'There is nothing new under the sun' (Ecclesiastes 1.9). Really? The car, television, holidays abroad, the splitting of the atom, computers, space flight . . . life is nothing like it was 100 years ago. What would 'The Preacher' think if he could see our world today?
More importantly, our times have changed spiritually. People today are often ignorant about the Bible, and do not see Christianity as superior or more truthful than any other religion. We have a supermarket of faiths. You pick off the shelves whatever suits you, and mix them in whatever way you find personally meaningful.
Worldviews today are often intentionally incoherent. People see no need to reconcile contradictory beliefs, because they are only opinions. We cannot know reality, only interpretations of reality which arise from our race, class, religion, gender, politics.
This makes our age spiritually dangerous. Earlier, people often rejected Christianity outright, saying that science and politics show it is false and outdated. Today, Christianity is seen as acceptable for those who want to believe it, but no more valid than a multitude of other points of view. People do not need to reject the gospel: only say 'it is not true for me'.
Preliminary work
Don Carson points out that we need to set out the Christian worldview to most Western people today before they can begin to understand the message of the cross. We must present a personal God, creation, objective morality, sin, redemption, judgment. Some churches do this through home discussion groups, which gets evangelism away from the church services, an uncomfortable experience for those not used to them.
Some churches think the answer is to update their services. Certainly we need to avoid making our own sub-culture of worship rigid, but merely changing the form can be self-defeating. Modern people see the pursuit of happiness as their goal in life, and they may accept the gospel to be happy, rather than to put God first. Other churches lose themselves in the past, believing God will reward them for 'keeping to the old paths'. Certainly the past has a lot to teach us, but we cannot bring it back by aping it. The great men of the past spoke to the needs of their day.
We must understand that the message people hear is not necessarily what we think we are saying. 'God saves those from sin who have faith in Christ' is clear enough to us, but what do these words mean to our non-Christian neighbours? Also, we have to include an apologetic that shows that the Christian message is not just opinion, but true and applies to everyone.
In, but not of . . .
While we should understand and speak to the culture in which we are living, we must resist being absorbed into it. Evangelicals have succumbed to the relegation of the spiritual to the private world. We must restore Christ to his role of Lord of all, and not just of personal morals and spirituality. Christians need to cultivate a whole-world view, encompassing politics, art, society, etc..
In general, younger Christians today engage more with modern culture. They will read modern novels, watch television, go to the cinema, clubs, pubs. This ensures they actually come into contact with non-Christians on a common, cultural level. But churches must teach them how to develop a Christian mind about their contact with the world and its culture. We must get away from a blanket condemnation of rock and pop music, and prepare our young people to sift out the harmful from valid expressions of human longings. Academically, our young people need to know how to think in a Christian way about subjects like English and History if they are not to fall into relativism.
Once we start training Christians to look at the whole of life in a Christian way, we also equip them for bringing the gospel naturally to their places of work and play, and at the same time speak on subjects that ordinary people see as relevant. The vast majority of new Christians made their first move to Christ through personal friendships.
We also need to pay more attention to what we do as well as to what we say. People are often more impressed by deeds rather than words. Of course, we need to explain the evangel as well as act it out, but the tragedy is that so often churches' deeds contradict their words.
Of course, 'The Preacher' is right: there is nothing new under the sun. There are just different ways of doing the same thing. We still fight, act unfaithfully, put ourselves first. The heart of man is still the same, as is the remedy for its malaise, for God remains unchangeable. But this unchanging gospel has to be translated. This includes understanding the worldview of the people around us, and responding to the questions that this raises.
Ivan Stringer
Home
Archives
Subscriptions
Adverts
Find a church
About us
Contact us
Site Map
Printable