Chang 2

The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding - Review - Engaging Unbelief Page 1 of 2
Will the message be heard?
"I believe that in some way, there is a supreme being out there. I don't know what that supreme being
is like. What I don't believe is that the supreme being is anything like the God you say you believe
in." Those words were spoken to me by a young 17-year-old friend who's discussed spirituality with
me over the last several months. I know he's not the first to say those words nor will he be the last. His
thinking represents the basic spiritual values that are increasingly held in a cultural climate accurately
described as "postmodern" and "post-Christian."
The challenge I face with my young friend is the same challenge facing Christians who are serious
about evangelism and spiritual nurture: How can we share the truth of God's good news with people
whose world views are marked by nihilism, the denial of truth and religious relativism? Or, how do
we communicate the gospel to people in this new postmodern epoch?
For years I've believed the unique challenges Christians face are not something negative to lament,
but something positive to celebrate. These are exciting times for ministry. People are aware of their
spiritual hunger and willing to engage in discussion about matters of faith. The greatest challenge we
face is how to keep the message from getting lost in our outmoded methods and ministry strategies.
While the truth has remained the same, our culture will fail to hear and respond if we don't take
seriously our responsibility to do ministry as cross-cultural missions that seeks to know and
understand the language and culture of my 17-year-old postmodern post-Christian friend.
Curtis Chang faces this challenge on a daily basis in his work as one who oversees campus ministry
for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on the campuses of Tufts, Harvard and MIT. Chang believes
the challenges of this new epoch present a very real dilemma for Christians, who, like himself, want
to see the lost found. He believes our times call for "a new rhetorical strategy" that will engage those
we've been called to reach in the midst of this epochal challenge because "the old arguments no longer
sway; the old spells no longer enchant."
Where does Chang propose we go to find this new rhetorical strategy? Since this isn't the first time the
church has had to find "the right words to address a rival civilization that emerged suddenly from the
margins, animated by a different faith," Chang looks back to two figures in church history who
successfully engaged their cultures in the midst of similar challenges. In his book Engaging Unbelief
(InterVarsity, 2000, ISBN 0-8308-2266-6), Chang looks at the "captivating strategy" Augustine and
Aquinas used at two key moments in church history.
Augustine (A.D. 413) lived in a post-Christian society that was rapidly fragmenting. Pagans laid the
blame for Rome's social ills and deterioration on Christians. Chang looks at how Augustine engaged
those opposed to Christianity in his classic City of God. Thomas Aquinas (A.D. 1259) worked to
http://www.cpyu.org/Page_p.aspx?id=76815 1/27/2011
The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding - Review - Engaging Unbelief Page 2 of 2
engage the unbelief of his time—a time when religious pluralism and the Muslim challenge were
provoking Christians to crusade rather than converse—through his Summa contra Gentiles. While
Chang puts on the hat of the historian to examine these works and their historical context, his
conclusions don't read like history. Instead, they are relevant to our postmodern times, as we face
similar challenges, and relevant for anyone seeking to engage young hearts and minds in serious
consideration of Christianity.
Chang believes Augustine and Aquinas had a similar purpose and plan. He writes, "The underlying
strategy is what I label, borrowing from St. Paul's terms, "taking every thought captive to obey
Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5). The strategy is simple and mirrors not only the ministry strategies of Jesus and
Paul, but the strategies employed by effective cross-cultural missionaries in today's world. It's a
strategy we must employ in our youth ministry efforts in today's culture.
Engaging Unbelief lays out the simple three-part strategy in great detail. First, we must enter the
challenger's story. "By entering the challenger's story ... we seek a meeting based on the opponent's
own paradigms and authorities." In essence, we know them and meet them on their own turf.
Second, we must retell the challenger's story from the inside. Using their story, their words and their
thought processes, we "reinterpret the challenger by appealing to the challenger's own terms," and
then "carefully rework the challenger's story in order to highlight its ‘tragic flaw.'"
Finally, we must capture the retold tale within the gospel metanarrative. It is at this point the
challenger hears the Good News about Jesus Christ. The "capture" of the challenger is "not as a
soldier seizes a prisoner but as a suitor captivates his beloved's heart."
As I spend time listening to young people, I'm discovering more and more are finding the church and
Christianity (as presented by the church) have less and less to say to them. They are growing up in a
new epoch where Christianity is no longer seen as an option, but irrelevant. Much of the frustration I
hear among pastors, youth workers, and parents—who find it difficult to connect with these kids—has
been precipitated by this shift in epochs. To effectively connect we've got to adopt new strategies for
taking the unchanging Word into this rapidly changing world. Pastors, youth workers and parents will
all find Curtis Chang's Engaging Unbelief to be a valuable, practical and convincing overview of what
Christian rhetoric must be in the 21st century.
http://www.cpyu.org/Page_p.aspx?id=76815 1/27/2011

Chang 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chang 2

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chang 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding - Review - Engaging Unbelief Page 1 of 2

Will the message be heard?

You might also like