Evangelism in a Post-Modern World

Andy, this is for you. I tried putting it on your Facebook as a response, but for whatever reason it was not letting me do it. I would certainly covet a response from you as well as your additional thoughts at where you find yourself currently for this difficult question:

I think the more I learn about the Bible, the less relevance I truly see to our society. How do we try and share this good news that we fail to live out so much ourselves? More than that, once we get past the good part, how do we then share these teachings(or torah; chalk me up for one point! haha) that bid us to take up our cross and abandon family and other distractions. I think part of helping this has been coming to some sort of resolve within myself to think through it "logically" rather than through my life's context so far. For me, I can recognize that this world as it exists needs to be "put to rights" and that there has to be some sense of order that has initially created it and seeks to restore that. Now, this is where I am somewhat limited to my context, but I can say at this point the character of the Christian God is most compelling in completing this puzzle in my brain. If I at least have a starting point, I feel this can aide in setting some mutual footing.

Yoder

Although I have not done much reading outside of that for my Pentateuch "class" I'm informally taking through mp3's courtesy of Fuller and iTunes U, I am reading John Howard Yoder's most well-known work "The Politics of Jesus." Although not far in, I can already see that this will be a challenging but rewarding work. He gives a refreshing take assessing the implications of Jesus' purpose and saying as opposed to instilling on Him a certain bias. Some examples:

"...there is often an appeal to Jesus as a revolutionary and political figure; yet this appeal is a slogan-like formal one. It is not linked to a substantial concern for the kind of politics Jesus incarnated. It is thus marked by the absence of precisely the concerns to which the present paper is devoted."

Speaking to folks who come to Jesus' teaching and actions as if he is simply a radical:
"...their style is still sufficiently impressionistic that the theological reader is not sure how much of what they say about 'Mahatma Jesus' should really be taken seriously as exegesis, and how much is simply the new symbolic dress for something they could say without it."

This balance that is found here is something that is desperately needed in the church today. While my generation and younger have been influenced largely by many who say Jesus was a social activist and actually fell more on the side of love than hate/dislike. It is definitely attractive and desirable to come to an understanding of faith that involves action and being involved in caring for the needy(which is certainly not unique in Jesus), but it is important to not lose sight of why we ought to be this way. We shouldn't trade or mistake a living and active faith for social action. We are to be a blessing and we ought to be aware that we are carriers of good news for all, however especially to the poor(however that may be defined) because the rich have had and are having their reward.

I'm looking forward to continuing this book and seeing the other things I will learn along the way.

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Now playing: The Onion - Prematurely Born-Again Christian Suffers Complications