The Whole Story
It was Munich, a night-club. The band was playing -- loud -- and I was getting ready to face the restless crowd. I had fifteen minutes to say something that would point them toward Christ.
Just fifteen minutes, including translation, to move people closer to the Lord -- in a famous Munich club.
What do you tell a crowd like this?
I told them a story. Not a "once upon a time" thing. Not a boy meets girl thing. I told them the greatest of all stories.
I told them a story that has four parts: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. We call it "the gospel".
The gospel of Jesus doesn't start and end with one or two New Testament texts, and it's not just a "spiritual" message. The gospel is a total worldview -- it's a whole way of seeing reality, of interpreting the way the world is and explaining why we're here and where we're going.
What's more, it's the only worldview that works -- the only one that lines up with the way things really are all around us.
Why are we not reaching the masses as we'd like to? Why do so many hear our message and then pass on by with scarcely a second look?
It's because we don't engage people where they are most ready to be challenged and most susceptible to change -- in the realm of ideas.
Ideas shape our entire lives. We all behave according to our worldview, our picture of what is real and important.
Most people today wouldn't know what "post-modernism" means, yet they live as post-modernists. Post-modernism started as a movement in arts and architecture, then it spread to philosophy and now, decades later, it has come to affect the thoughts and actions of millions of people.
Modernism in design arts taught that technique was more important than form. "Who cares about decoration?" it said. "What matters is function." Individual style wasn't important, so it tried to reduce every new design to a few basic standards.
Post-modernism was a reaction against that. It said that life's about more than doing a job and meeting a need; it's about beauty and experience as well. It rejected the idea that one style fits all, preaching instead that all points of view are equally valid.
This kind of thinking is all through our culture today. People don't first seek truth, they look for "meaningful experiences". Tolerance used to mean, "You can do that if you want, but it's wrong." Now, it means, "You can do that if you want because nothing is wrong."
This view of reality is worlds apart from that of the Bible. Yet, many Christian leaders behave as if all we have to do is quote John 3:16 and people will yield their will to Christ.
Some others behave as if all people need is a "power encounter", in a revival meeting. Many people who do have a power encounter simply file it away with all their other "positive, mystical experiences" -- like their recent tarrot reading, or the "meaningful sex" they had last week.
Unless we as leaders start meeting the world head-on in the world of ideas, we'll only ever produce believers who are afraid to think and unable to face the real world. They will live in a bunker, scared to engage real people for fear that they won't have answers to the big questions.
What's more, the only Christians pagan post-moderns will meet will be those who have lost touch with reality, who know more about fantasy than faith. Or Christians who lead almost the same life they do, with pretty much the same goals -- health, happiness and financial upward mobility.
There is no need for us to feel overwhelmed whenever the word "ideas" is mentioned.
When Paul faced the Athenians in Acts 17, he didn't need to confront them with heavy philosophy. He simply showed them that their view of reality couldn't compete with that of the Bible!
He saw that there were gaping holes in their view of the world and themselves -- holes even they recognized. There were a lot of things they just couldn't come to terms with, and so they'd erected their statue to an "unknown god".
Paul filled in the blanks, confronting them with the truth that was missing. Paul didn't need to resort to any heavy philosophy, he just told the gospel story -- from the beginning, and starting in the realm of ideas. Many of them came to faith in Christ that day.
We can do the same in our times and with similar results! Think about it: who else but a Christian is telling people that they're not the "chance result of evolution", but created beings -- and created for greatness?
Who else is preaching that people are not "basically good", but fallen from grace (a fact most people feel intuitively)?
Who else is telling people that they can't find redemption and grace through money, or sex, or success? And who else is able to say that there is hope in this sin-bruised universe, because Christ is at the end of our story just as he is at the beginning?
Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. It's a story that worked with pagan Athenians. It worked just as well in a Munich night-club, where we prayed for many to receive Christ. We must take every opportunity to tell people that whole story.
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