Embracing a New View of Evangelism

I checked out a new clothing store last week, and I ran into one of the best sales people I have ever encountered. She was pleasant and wanted to know about my job, my life and my clothing tastes. Just 15 minutes in the store I was feeling flattered, and honestly, extremely creepy.

I escaped back into my truck safely to a sense of relief. I was relieved because I had survived an encounter with someone who had done her best to convince me she was my friend for the express purpose of getting into my wallet.

Have you ever had that experience? If you have, you have clear picture of how the majority of unchurched young adults view most Christians.

Dave Kinnaman’s thought-provoking new book, UnChristian, cites six young adult perceptions of the evangelical church that repel them.

Perception number five is this: Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others. If this true, there is a big problem to solve, a monstrous issue to pray over and a fundamental change to ponder on how the church should address evangelism for this generation.

According to research conducted by the Barna Group and Kinnaman, only three percent of people 18 to 41 in America possess a Biblical worldview. At the same time, though, two-thirds of these people have made an important commitment to Jesus Christ.

The majority of young adults think they are saved. The majority of young adults don’t live like they are saved. The majority of young adults believe the members of churches ARE ONLY interested in them if they become a notch in their witnessing belt.

In 2006, Southern Baptist churches baptized only 58,000 people ages 18 to 29, and this figure has been steadily dropping for more than 20 years. So what should we do as leaders in Young Adult Ministry who care passionately about the salvation and life-change of this generation?

I have two answers.

First, we must discard the idea of cultivating intentional friendships - the notion that we should befriend someone for the express purpose of leading them to Christ. Instead, we should embrace the idea of befriending and loving everyone we come in contact with simply because they are God’s creation. It’s all about our motivation and what’s inside our hearts.

Without a doubt, we should know how best to share the story of God’s intervention and salvation in our lives and it should come pouring out of us like a creek overflowing its banks after a heavy rain. Sincerity is the key, though, and we can’t find ourselves guilty of the same kind of behavior Kinnaman cites in his book.

Kinnaman shares the story of an unchurched young man in New York City who was excited about meeting a Christian young man in a subway station. They exchanged phone numbers, but when the unchurched person said he was not interested in attending a Bible study, the Christian person never called him back. The unchurched man’s take? He was only interested in cultivating a relationship if he was an immediate candidate for conversion.

The second answer is to cultivate depth in the body of Christ—depth in our faith, depth in our Biblical knowledge and depth in relationships. LifeWay’s research project a year ago on this generation revealed exactly the same issue about young adults as Kinnaman relates: they reject pat answers, shallow faith and incongruity between belief and actions.

It’s time to go deep—in Bible study, preaching, apologetics, discipleship and life. It’s great to be seeker-driven, but if you’re doing it a mile-wide and an inch deep you’re wasting your time.

Today’s young adults are the most intelligent in history, and they have the misfortune of seeing the most volume and most sophistication in marketing of any generation. They can smell a fake and a sales gimmick a mile away. They are searching for what’s real and for what works. Fortunately, Jesus Christ has given us—and them—just what we all need.

Love God, Love People—and Go Deep.