Challenges In Witnessing in a Post-Christian World

1. Challenges In Witnessing in a Post-Christian World By Dr. David Geisler

2. Key Perspective About Evangelism Remember that our problems in Evangelism our not one of methodology, but one of maturity!

3. OUR WORLD IS CHANGING…

4. 1955 – FIRST MICROWAVE OVEN 1958 – FIRST COMMERICAL JET AIRLINER 1961 – FIRST INDUSTRIAL ROBOT 1964 – FIRST UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES 1969 – FIRST AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINE 1970 – FIRST DIGITAL MUSIC 1973 – FIRST CELL PHONE 1979 – FIRST SONY WALKMAN 1984 – DNA FINGERPRINTING USED 1998 – FIRST MP3 PLAYER

5. Our World Has Changed And We Are In Trouble “How is it possible for a person to be an active member of an evangelical church for twenty or thirty years and still know next to nothing about the history and theology of the Christian religion, the methods and tools required for serious Bible study, and the skills and information necessary to preach and defend Christianity in a post-Christian, neopagan culture?” J.P. Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind, p.188

6. Our Evangelism Task Is More Daunting! Conversational EVANGELISM

7. There has been an erosion of truth! Conversational EVANGELISM

8. There is an intolerance towards those who claim to know the truth!

9. Obstacles to Evangelism Today The World we Live In It is not just a Western Problem! Signs of Trouble Have Surfaced Even In The East

10. Signs of Trouble Have Surfaced Even In The East “Many students don't think that there is a standard of right and wrong. Rather, they believe that this is up to the individual. This means they do hold a standard of right and wrong themselves, but they feel that each person's standard of right and wrong differs from the other.” “Personally, I feel stuck as to how to proceed on with the conversation. It's like saying that this food is nice for me but may not be nice for you. They relegate the standard of right and wrong to personal preference.” - Former Student, East Asia School of Theology

11. Signs of Trouble Have Surfaced Even In The East “I find that I'm shaken. Not in terms of my faith but in terms of how to answer such questions.” - Former Student, East Asia School of Theology

12. What Has Gone Wrong?   “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do.” Psalm 11:3 (N.I.V.)

13. A World View Shift “…a major cause of our current crisis consists of a world view shift from a Judeo-Christian understanding of reality to a post-Christian one.” - J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind, p.21

14. Changing Beliefs Concerning God Historical Development of Western World Views 1st Century 17th Century 19th Century 19th-20th Century 20th Century Late 21st Century Pre-modern Modern Postmodern Thomas Oden first suggested that the modern age lasted 200 years < 1789- 1989 > See Thomas Oden, On Two Worlds

15. Our world has changed and has made our evangelism task more daunting. • Examples in the West and East • Understanding the Post-Modern Period • * * Two Main Characteristics: • 1. Pluralism • 2. Post-Modernism

16. Religious Pluralism Is the belief that all religions are true. (They all have a part of the truth)

18. RELIGIONS JUDAISM HINDUISM ISLAM TAOISM CHRISTIANITY BUDDHISM

19. B. Understanding the Post-Modern Period ** Two Main Characteristics 1. Pluralism 2. Post-Modernism

20. Post-Modernism • General characteristics • 1). In general it is a rejection of anything modern • 2). It’s a total rejection of the idea of absolute truth in favor or cultural relativism. • 3). It is a belief in the incredulity of meta-narratives.

21. The Father of Postmodernism “I define postmodern as incredulity toward meta-narratives,” Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, 1984, xxiv

22. Implications of postmodern thought that affect receptivity to the gospel: • - They feel free to create or construct “knowledge’s” and “realities.” • As a result they are less and less sure about anything regarding Jesus.

23. This Explains Why Many Are Questioning The Biblical Story of Jesus The DaVinci Code The Lost Gospel of Judas The Lost Tomb of Christ The Golden Compass

24. Implications of postmodern thought that affect receptivity to the gospel: • They believe persuasion is to be prohibited. • They believe that to be exclusivistic is to be arrogant.

25. Implications of postmodern thought that affect receptivity to the gospel: • They believe that our belief that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life is just one of the narratives among other narratives in the world that are equally as valid.

26. Historical Development of Western World Views Changing Beliefs - Pluralism Post-Modern Pre-Modern Modern THEISM ATHEISM PLURALISM Theism Deism Naturalism Nihilism Existentialism Fill in the blank Post-Modernism Weak Theism New Age: Pantheism, Monism Bottom line: “What works for you.” GOD GOD GOD COSMOS COSMOS COSMOS SOCIETY 1st Century 17th Century 19th Century 19th-20th Century 20th Century Late 21st Century

27. Key Question How can we talk to people in a way that creates greater interest in hearing our gospel in such a challenging world? Answer: We need to better understand the times or culture in which we live.

28. Understanding the Times We Live In! We need to be like the men of Issachar and understand the times in which we live and therefore know what we should do. See I Chronicles 12:32

29. I. Our world has changed and has made our evangelism task more daunting.II. Things To Keep In Mind In Our Witness To Others Today

30. Key things to remember in our witness today: • We must be good news before we can effectively share good news, especially with those we see on a regular basis (Phil 1:14).

31. Key things to remember in witnessing today Remember that we may be the only Bible that that anyone ever reads!

32. Key things to remember in our witness today: • We must give ourselves the permission to sow (1 Cor. 3:6).

33. EVANGELISM IS A PROCESS “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6

34. We must give ourselves permission… “We have come to believe that there are only two kinds of Christians:the harvesters and the disobedient.We must begin to teach, with great urgency, that every laborer should learn to reap and that God will call some to exercise this role exclusively--but everyone can learn to sow right now, right where they are.” Tim Downs, Finding Common Ground, p.32.

35. We will give ourselves permission to sow if we see evangelism more as a lifestyle and not just as an event.

36. Key things to remember in our witness today: • We must also give ourselves the permission to till the soil.

37. WHAT IS INVOLVED IN TILLING THE SOIL? Tilling the soil = Pre-Evangelism If evangelism is planting seeds of the Gospel, pre-evangelism istilling the soil of their mind and heart, preparingthem to at least be willing to listen to the Truth. (Mark 2:22, 4:8)

38. Planting seeds… “… other seeds fell into the good soil and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:8)

39. Why Is Pre-Evangelism So Essential In Today’s World?

40. “We live in a world in which people are reluctant to be told what is true. But they may be willing to see for themselves (as in a mirror) the inadequacies in what they believe by us asking them probing and thought provoking questions.” - Dr. David Geisler Why Not Just Proclaim the Truth?

41. Why Pre-Evangelism is Necessary …The more I thought about what happened, the more I realized that in today's generation, people would generally not give Christians a full uninterrupted 10 mins to share the gospel with them. It is more likely that we share the gospel through injecting it into normal conversations of everyday life. - Former national College evangelism director, Campus Crusade for Christ, Singapore

42. No One Size Fits All Approach Not all pre-believers are at the same place: - Hostile - Indifferent - Skeptical - Ready to Trust in Christ

43. I. Our world has changed and has made our evangelism task more dauntingII. Things to remember in our witness to others todayIII. Practical suggestions for taking the next step

44. Taking That Next Step A. Determine who the Lord is placing on your heart to reach out to!

45. Taking That Next Step • Pray for open doors (Col. 4:3).

46. Taking That Next Step A. Determine who the Lord is placing on your heart to reach out to! B. Pray for open doors (Col. 4:3). Praying at the same time for us as well that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned. Colossians 4:3

47. Taking That Next Step • A. Determine who the Lord is placing on your heart to reach out to! • B. Pray for open doors (Col. 4:3). • C. Look for Divine Appointments daily! (Acts 8:29).

48. C. Look for Divine Appointments Daily! • Look for ways God is already at work in the lives of those you want to reach! “And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and join this chariot.’” (Acts 8:29) Ask yourself, “What are the signs that God is already working supernaturally in someone’s heart?”

49. C. Look for Divine Appointments daily! • Ask God for wisdom to know what to say in your conversations with others (James 1:5; Acts 14:1).

50. Taking That Next Step • A. Determine who the Lord is placing on your heart to reach out to! • B. Pray for open doors (Col. 4:3). • Look for Divine Appointments daily! (Acts 8:29). • Make the most of every conversation you have with pre- believers to help them take one step closer (Col. 4:5; 1 Cor. 9:22).