Living in a post-Christian world

If you didn't see the latest issue of the George Fox Journal, check out this article called "Rethinking Evangelism." I thought it was very interesting and insightful. Here's a short passage:

"Our mechanistic approaches worked when you had a vaguely Christian world. In some of Billy Graham’s latest interviews, he says he realizes in hindsight that he basically went around to the Western world saying, “Come on home to what you know to be true.” Back then he could say, “the Bible says,” because everyone knew the felt-board Sunday school stories of the Bible. But now in a more post-Christian world, we don’t have the luxury of doing that anymore. People don’t know our story or doctrine. There’s no Christian home for them to come back to. So it requires us dropping approaches that seemed sensible in a Christian world and adopting post-Christian ways of doing evangelism — which has more to do with faithfully being the people of God."

I immediately thought of a friend who didn't know the story of the Good Samaritan. She understood the concept that it was someone, perhaps a passerby, who helped out someone else. But she didn't know the story. She was raised completely outside the church and had never heard the story. I was truly shocked, but it really emphasized where she was coming from in her personal and spiritual life.

Interesting....
-Liz