A little over a week ago (actually long before that), I purposed to get to the bottom of this and lay this to rest. You see, the whole "post modern culture" thing, and "engaging culture" seems to have muddied the discipleship water a bit from my perspective, so I started reading.
Here's what I've read so far: excerpts from "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller, "The Screwtape Letters" by CS Lewis (re-read), the Gospel of Mark, "The Reason Why", and several weblogs that would help flush this stuff out.
Here are some entry level thoughts on this so far:
- The culture isn't very different now than it ever has been.
- 1 Cor. 1:18 - 25 says that the Gospel will appear foolish to lost people. Blue Like Jazz says the same thing in 2005, CS Lewis said the same thing in 1942, Paul wrote it under the inspiration of God around AD 50 or so.
- CS Lewis was very pointed in his view of how damaging it can be to discipleship if we constantly dwell on the shortcomings of those next to us in the pew. If a Christian doesn't view others with the same Grace God views us, discipleship hits a wall. Donald Lewis is saying the same thing 60 years later except he's being "real" about not wanting to be perceived like those folks in the pew next to him.
- Lost in much of the more recent writings I've read is "repentance" and a call to virtue. In an effort to make salvation easy and accessible, we seem to be cherry picking the blessings and putting the responsibility in a bottom drawer somewhere (Miller talks about this some, so we're not too far off).
My summary: As a group, 21st century Christians aren't getting it done. An elite group of progressives/academics are narcisitically writing about what makes us different as a culture. A large segment of spoiled, rich American Christians are unwilling to move out of their comfort zone. Another group thinks that if I make friends with enough non-Christians, and insert myself in a pagan culture, maybe one of those pagans will ask me about my faith - and that seems like wrong logic too. And a different group thinks that if I hand a gospel tract to a cashier or toll booth attendant they will graciously read it and wonder what they've always been missing. The Gospel is very clear that we are to love people, both lost and saved, and through loving them earn the right to share a Gospel with them that is real in our lives and affects noticeable change.
All this was proven out recently in my life. I have a co-worker who fits the "post-modern" label. He's unchurched, never been churched, neither parent was religious at all or of any faith. He's a great guy, a better father, and a fantastic husband. Three years ago, when we hired him and he moved to the south, he found it bizarre that everyone he met here that was nice...went to church. I invited them (he and his family) to church, Bible study, various evangelistic events, VBS...they came, cordial to our invitation...all with no fruit. So about a year ago, I backed off and started to pray. My pastor mentioned a short book (long pamphlet) called "The Reason Why" being a good resource for "thinkers" or high "C's" if you prescribe to DISC profiling. So I bought it, read it, and took it to work hoping to get enough courage to share it with my friend. Yesterday, I gave it to him, telling him I think it is the perfect summary of the Christian faith in 30 pages, with enough detail to satify him without having to read all 66 books of the Bible. He thanked me, shared with me that he was talking with two other men yesterday who are just like him (seeking) and he wrote a goal to "research God"...WOW!
I don't think things have changed all that much in 2000 years. We're to love people...all people. We're to get to know them, their needs and challenges. We're to share our needs and challenges and build a trust and raport with them. And we're to share our faith with them. We're also to repent, to be transformed by faith, a new creation, with a new outlook on life, and a new vigor and passion for holiness...all for the purpose of reaching the lost, not to see how far up the wrung of piousness we can get.
Like any problem, when you start to resolve it, you work your way back to root cause and effect. If the problem with our culture is lack of discipleship and evangelism...less people getting saved per capita than at any time in our history...then the root problem may be that we have less true disciples (saved Christians) than ever working on it. But I don't give up hope...Jesus changed the world with 12. If the readers of this blog will get serious about others, and truly love them, and pray for them, and share the Gospel with them...I'm confident God will take care of the rest.
