Evangelism in the 21st Century (1): God's Message, Our Context

And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18-20).

Thus Jesus commissioned His Apostles and His followers after them to preach the Gospel throughout the world. Each generation of Christians is called upon to evangelize the world with the message of Christ. As we now move into the 21st century, how do we best go about presenting the message of Christ and Him crucified to our society? How can we present God's message in a way relevant to citizens of the 21st century? These are critical questions, and much hangs in the balance. Let us consider our current context, particularly the different types of persons we see in our society today, and look to God's Word for guidance on how to show them the light of the Gospel.

As we look around the world around us, we are confronted with an often dizzying array of people believing all sorts of things. We can develop some spectra based on certain characteristics that may be of value in our analysis.

Spectrum of belief/conviction. There are still some in our world who believe strongly in a religion, be it Christianity or something else, and who have devoted themselves to understanding their belief system and can well defend it. There are many more, however, who have a more nominal belief system-- they have a bit of understanding of what they believe, perhaps, but not much. Many more may attend a church and not even know what it teaches; they go because they always have gone or think they need to go to a church and that one is it. A large segment of the population profess belief but have little knowledge of the basic ideas of that belief, let alone go to church or an such thing. Many have no belief more out of a lack of concern or care for spiritual things. Finally, of course, there are those who claim no religious belief and act militantly against any such expression of belief.