EVANGELISM IN A SKEPTICAL WORLD
How to make the unbelievable news about
Jesus more believable
By Sam Chan
Zondervan. 288 pages. £10.99
ISBN 978 0 310 534 716
We must adapt our traditional approaches to evangelism to methods more suited to our contemporary culture.
This book gives some practical help in how we might do that. Chan says we need to engage with people’s interests and values in our conversations, starting with testimonies rather than theological propositions. The Western world has moved from seeing sin in terms of guilt, to thinking in terms of shame or defilement, as many do in the East. Next, Chan assesses the strengths and weaknesses of some of our traditional gospel presentations. In seeking to reach Postmoderns, we are advised to use hospitality, stories and creative art, rather than only logic and argument.
Don’t impose our culture
We are urged to avoid imposing our culture on the gospel, and to aim for worldview conversion. Chan advises us to start by affirming common ground (resonance), then to expose the problems with a non-Christian worldview (dissonance), thus paving the way for the gospel (fulfilment). The language of repentance could have been more prominent here: the recognition that one’s worldview is wrong and that a whole new approach to life is needed surely includes repentance. After giving very practical help in how to apply these principles, Chan concludes by examining two broad approaches to evangelism. Firstly, ‘evidentialism’ which focuses on apologetics, believing that what people need is evidence; secondly, ‘presuppos-itionalism’, saying we cannot argue people into faith, so just present a gospel outline and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit. He concludes that these two approaches work together.
Each chapter opens with helpful examples of hearers and their thinking, and returns to look at them again at the end of the chapter. This book will make unsettling reading for those of us who are comfortable with a traditional, Western approach to evangelism. We need to be more aware of our culture and more adaptable in our methods. Chan has challenged us to think it through.
