Nobody cares about apologetics

I am convinced that our culture couldn’t care less if we can prove the historical veracity of the resurrection of Jesus. I believe we can do that, and I believe it’s important to understand that the Christian faith is rooted in the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus, but that’s not the question anyone is asking anymore. Nobody is listening when we talk about proving the existence of God or the objective truth of the Bible.

Nobody is listening because "the top question of the new century and new millenium is not just whether Christianity is rational, credible, and essentially true (all of which I believe it is) but whether it can be powerful, redemptive, authentic, and good, whether it can change lives, demonstrate reconciliation and community, serve as a catalyst for the kingdom, and lead to a desirable future." (Brian McLaren).

The most powerful apologetic for the postmodern world is going to be embodied witness, not disembodied, "objective" truth. People don’t care if things are "objectively true" anymore (partly because true objectivism has been shown to be a myth). But if faith in and following of Jesus actually makes a person able to live in community, loving and kind, unselfish and giving, joyful and patient, well then you’ll have the culture’s attention. Until that point, our angry tirades against the culture just sound like temper tantrums, and our pleas to "accept the truth" just sound like another shrill voice vying for more marketshare in the economy of power and control.

Let’s see what the gospel looks like when it’s dressed up in a community, when it has been heard and believed, and then allowed to do its transforming, redeeming work in a community of people.