In an age when truth is relative and the end justifies the means, people
are searching for something that transcends the “cultural free-for-all”
called postmodernism, Ray Jones emphasized.
“Postmoderns are the easiest people on the planet to
witness to,” said Jones, personal evangelism specialist at the Southern
Baptist North American Mission Board. “Dont believe the media stereotype.
Theyre not hostile.”
In an age when truth is relative and the end justifies the means, people
are searching for something that transcends the “cultural free-for-all”
called postmodernism, Ray Jones emphasized.
“Postmoderns are the easiest people on the planet to
witness to,” said Jones, personal evangelism specialist at the Southern
Baptist North American Mission Board. “Dont believe the media stereotype.
Theyre not hostile.”
“Postmodernism” is a recently-coined cultural term.
It is used to describe an ideology built on the premise that there is no absolute
standard of truth that applies to all people.
Instead, experience is highly valued, Jones noted. “Experience
in postmodernism has been elevated to the level of a god,” he explained.
Consequently, postmoderns – those people who favor such
a belief system – never have been more open to listen to someone share
how his or her life has been radically changed through a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, Jones emphasized during a recent Southern Baptist gathering.
The Southern Baptist worker illustrated the effects of postmodernism
by describing a woman he once counseled who said she believed Jesus
claims in John 14:6 that he is the only way to heaven.
However, the woman also said she believed there are multiple
means of securing eternal life, Jones noted.
“Weve got people who are creating their own religion,”
the North American Mission Board worker pointed out. “They will say with
their mouths what they believe and contradict it with the next sentence.”
In many ways, the postmodern era is much more like the first
century that the 20th century, Jones said. He cited the testimony of the apostle
Paul before governmental leaders and the story of the woman who met Jesus
at the well as examples in which the power of ones story of a personal
encounter with Christ was extremely effective in those early days of Christianity.
As in the first century, the story of ones personal
encounter with Christ remains extremely effective, Jones said. “The greatest
apologetic of all of Christianity is a changed life. It is the truths of God
that make our experience legitimate. … They wont argue with your story.
They wont debate it. They may not always agree with it, but they will
not debate it.”
Along those lines, the North American Mission Board recently
launched “The Net,” an evangelism resource designed to help Christians
effectively share their faith with postmoderns in a conversational and culturally-relevant
way.
“The Net” focuses on sharing the gospel through
ones personal testimony – or the story of the difference Christ
has made in ones life, Jones explained.
However, regardless of the approach, Jones emphasized that
effectively reaching postmoderns with the truth of the gospel will occur only
if Christians are willing personally to invest their lives in those left empty
by the materialism of the 20th century.
“They want to know that youre the real deal. They
want to know that youre not just after them as an evangelistic headhunter.
If they see youre real and youre authentic, that grabs postmoderns
minds because nothing in this world is authentic to them.”
Relationships are key – but Christians must not forget
evangelism when building them, Jones said. “If you can develop and cultivate
relationships, youre going to go a long way to being really able to
reach postmoderns,” he explained.
However, Christians must be careful not to forget evangelism
as they are building relationships with others, Jones continued.
“The goal of connecting relationally is to bring them
in the kingdom,” he pointed out.
“All evangelism is confrontational. At some point in
time the person has to be confronted with the claims of Christ to receive
him or reject him.” (BP)