I can't help thinking that a lot of young Christians might be suffering a collective failure of nerve or perhaps they don't really understand the story of Jesus. It could be a combination of both of course.
I say this because recent research shows that a third of young adults and teens object to terms like 'winning souls', 'witnessing' and 'conversion', and when it comes to 'evangelism' they much prefer to think in terms of 'sharing faith'.
Now, I would be the first to applaud anyone who wants to get rid of Christian jargon. I have tried to do this throughout my entire ministry. I was completely turned off by 'Christianese' long before I became a Christian. I am in good company because the writers of the New Testament constantly used 'everyday words' when talking about their faith.
Take 'redemption', for example. It may not be on everyone's lips today, but it certainly was in the first century. The Greek word 'agorazo' meant 'to purchase in the marketplace', and often referred to the common practice of buying a slave.
In the same way, I am delighted to discover that phrases like 'winning souls' are finally being thrown into the bin marked 'bad theology'. Phrases like this smack of Greek philosophy, not Biblical faith. Jesus didn't die for 'our souls' and the Christian hope is infinitely richer than the prospect of a 'disembodied' life in heaven. Christians believe in the resurrection of the dead. Our bodies do matter, which is why God expects us to use them in His service now.
The apostle Paul made that crystal clear in a letter to his friends in Romans when he encouraged them to offer their bodies as 'living sacrifices'. Some members of the church needed to understand that God was no longer interested in dead sacrifices, while others who had been brought up to think of their bodies as an 'embarrassing encumbrance' needed to learn that the reverse is true. We can worship God through daily acts of sacrificial love.
So far so good, but how anyone could ever think of ditching the concept of 'conversion' is another question. It may not be politically correct to talk like this of course, and it certainly jars in a culture that hates to cause offence. But get rid of conversion and you emasculate the Christian faith. John Stott underlined its importance in his brilliant book entitled 'Christian Mission in the Modern World'. According to Stott, talk of conversion 'has always been distasteful' for some. Snobbishness has played its part, of course, and we should not ignore the fact that some forms of evangelism have given it a bad name too.
Then, of course there are those who think that you don't have to become a Christian to get right with God. But as Stott demonstrates so clearly, conversion is a fundamental Biblical concept and we should never be afraid to spell it out.
In the same way we must not make the mistake of thinking that the Christian message is just for 'religious' people. It is a both a public proclamation and a pressing demand. Christians have not been told to 'share faith' so much as tell everyone that God has raised Jesus from the dead and expects them to acknowledge Him as Lord.
Tom Wright put it well when he wrote in What St Paul Really Said: "When the herald makes a royal proclamation, he says 'Nero (or whoever has become emperor'. He does not say 'If you would like to have an experience of living under an emperor you might care to try Nero. The proclamation is an authoritative summons to obedience."
Countless Christians have suffered and died because of the revolutionary, even subversive implications of this claim. It seems to me that the next generation of young believers need to accept that mission will inevitably cause offence and will often result in confrontation. Everyone needs to be told that Jesus Christ is Lord whether they like it or not, and if we lack the nerve to do it He can give us the confidence to do so.
Rob James is a Baptist minister, writer and church and media consultant to the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is the author of Little Thoughts About a Big God.
Views and opinions published in Christian Today are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the website.
