This is a quote from Ravi Zacharias that has huge implications for evangelism in the emerging culture (ht: Scot McKnight):
"We must learn to find the back door to people’s hearts because the front door is heavily guarded."
The question of what evangelism looks like in the postmodern world needs to be determined by good theology and good sociology.
That is to say, we need to continue discovering the full implications of the gospel (it’s a whole lot more than "exporting anemic souls to heaven" in Wendel Berry’s words). Theologians like N.T. Wright are helping us come to terms with that ("The gospel is not ‘You can be justified by faith.’ The gospel is ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’).
Then we also need to understand how our words come across to those who are listening. It’s no use telling people they have to be "born again" when they think that means they have to become narrow-minded judgmental bigots. The aggressive "gospel assault" evangelism strategy will become less and less effective, and we’re going to need to find more subtle ways to proclaim the good news. Some good terms to think about in this regard: embodied witness, incarnational evangelism, wondering your way to faith.
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