Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Bad News?
A-Team Blog links to this article at World Magazine that describes the the belief of the average teen:
Is this Christianity? No, of course not. But I am not sure this is bad news. I recall a conversation I had with a pastor about 12 years ago in which I wished for a general societal return to the non-specific, deism of my childhood. Why? Simple, it is a much easier place to work from when trying to teach people about genuine Christianity.
Now, the "therapeutic" nature of this basis is somewhat new, that whole "feel good about oneself" is far more naricisstic than the deism of my youth, but I still find this good news. Despite the efforts of so many, and so verbally to eradicate God from common discourse, they have not. This really does change the focus of evangelism.
Based on this, the key to evangelism is, as I have thought for sometime, not to convince people of God, but to convince them of our genuine, and continual, need for Him. The key to that is to do so without the condemnation or "turn or burn" approaches. This I think comes from demonstrating how dissatisfactory so many approaches to "feeling good about oneself" really is; that in fact we cannot feel good out ourselves without accepting the Love of Christ.
- "A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth."
- "God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions."
- "The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself."
- "God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem."
Is this Christianity? No, of course not. But I am not sure this is bad news. I recall a conversation I had with a pastor about 12 years ago in which I wished for a general societal return to the non-specific, deism of my childhood. Why? Simple, it is a much easier place to work from when trying to teach people about genuine Christianity.
Now, the "therapeutic" nature of this basis is somewhat new, that whole "feel good about oneself" is far more naricisstic than the deism of my youth, but I still find this good news. Despite the efforts of so many, and so verbally to eradicate God from common discourse, they have not. This really does change the focus of evangelism.
Based on this, the key to evangelism is, as I have thought for sometime, not to convince people of God, but to convince them of our genuine, and continual, need for Him. The key to that is to do so without the condemnation or "turn or burn" approaches. This I think comes from demonstrating how dissatisfactory so many approaches to "feeling good about oneself" really is; that in fact we cannot feel good out ourselves without accepting the Love of Christ.
