Offer Them Life. Dan W. Dunn
one result of the U.S. American focus on individualism is “an intense self-centeredness” (63). In this context, to expect non-Christians to be initially motivated by questions that they do not see as being relevant to them in some way is simply unrealistic.
17. Donald Soper has observed in Advocacy of the Gospel that as a result of the process of secularity, five shifts took place in the Western world. One of these shifts was from a death orientation to a life orientation. People no longer think about death on such a large scale as they once did. There is a far greater emphasis on life. Soper maintains that we must bear this in mind as we advocate the good news of Jesus Christ. “If we talk about eternal life, as under God we are compelled to do when we preach, we must talk about the present possibility which our blessed Lord advocated and himself spoke of” (17–18). Soper’s insights are almost fifty years old, but they remain true even today, as confirmed in Charles Taylor’s much more recent work. In A Secular Age, Taylor notes that “modern humanism tends to develop a notion of human flourishing which has no place for death” and that death “must be combated, and held off till the very last moment” (320).
18. John Wesley addresses this in an indirect way with the distinction he makes between justification and the new birth. He writes that “God in justifying us does something for us; in begetting us again, he does the work in us. The former changes our outward relation to God, so that of enemies we become children; by the latter our inmost souls are changed, so that of sinners we become saints. The one restores us to the favour, the other to the image, of God. The one is the taking away the guilt, the other the taking away the power, of sin . . . ” Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 224.
19. In discussing the prosperity gospel, I prefer Gordon Fee’s description in The Disease of the Health & Wealth Gospels (2–3) that the primary affirmation of the prosperity gospel is that “God wills the (financial) prosperity of every one of his children, and therefore for a Christian to be in poverty is to be outside God’s intended will.” A related secondary affirmation that is often implied or stated outright is that “the King’s kids . . . should always go first-class.”
20. It is difficult to locate examples in print for citation purposes of no-more-problems evangelism. George Hunter observes that this kind of message usually gets communicated when preachers get carried away in their evangelistic communication, but they seldom include it in written works (email message to author, February 19, 2010).
21. Abraham, Logic of Evangelism, 95.
22. Ibid., 98.
23. Ibid., 167–80.
24. Varying versions of the Great Commandment are found in Matt 22:37–39, Mark 12:28–34, and Luke 10:27–28.
25. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 13–18, 50–65, 99.
26. Ibid., 18.
27. As a person steeped in the Wesleyan tradition, I find it encouraging that Steve Harper links much of Wesleyan theology with a focus on life. When presenting foundational Wesleyan concepts in seminars or workshops, he divides them into three main categories: (a) the message of life (grace); (b) the means to life (the means of grace); and (c) the mission for life. A further delineation is made within each of these three categories. The message of life involves (a) prevenient grace (the invitation to life); (b) converting grace, (the entrance into life); (c) sanctifying grace (the consecration of life); and (d) glorifying grace (the transition to everlasting life). The means of life include (a) instituted means and (b) prudential means. The mission for life comprises (a) redeem the lost, (b) renew the church, and (c) reform the nation (Steve Harper, personal conversation, April 27, 2011).
28. For example, a person may claim to believe in full life in Christ. Their use of the “Bridge Method” in their gospel presentations, a method that focuses on the chasm between unredeemed humanity and God, may, however, represent a lack of connection between theological belief and gospel presentation.
29. I focus on John’s Gospel in this book because of his pervasive and consistent references to life.
30. Jagessar, Full Life for All, 123.
31. Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 20.
32. Paul Hiebert, for example, in Transforming Worldviews (105–264) writes about the different dynamics involved in the worldview of small-scale oral societies, the peasant worldview, the modern worldview, the postmodern worldview, and the post-postmodern worldview.
33. A few examples of literature relating to different generations in America include the following: Howe and Strauss, Millennials Rising; Smith and Clurman, Generation Ageless; Hanson, Baby Boomers and Beyond; Erickson, What’s Next, Gen X?; and Dyck, Generation Ex-Christian. This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but is sufficient to confirm that generational differences are an important dynamic in the U.S. American context.
34. Bellah, “Is There a Common American Culture?” 614–6.
35. Althen and Bennett, American Ways, xxii.
36. Fischer, Made in America, 241.
37. Though I have been exposed to a great deal of anthropological and sociological research, these are not my fields of expertise. I will not, therefore, attempt any strict definitions of culture, worldview, and the like. For the purpose of this book, I am focusing primarily on the simple yet important dimensions of how U.S. Americans think and act.
38. Following are a few examples of themes that are highlighted in the literature. Althen and Bennett (American Ways, 4) highlight eight primary categories: (1) individualism, freedom, competitiveness, and privacy; (2) equality; (3) informality; (4) the future, change, and progress; (5) goodness of humanity; (6) time (lineal); (7) achievement, action, work, and materialism; and (8) directness and assertiveness. Claude Fischer (Made in America, ix, 8–9) lifts up voluntarism (a combination of individualism and commitment to voluntary groups [more on this later]) as the most distinctive element of U.S. American culture, but also stresses the role of security, material goods, and self-perfecting. Steward and Bennett (American Cultural Patterns, 33–74) mention several of the themes that are highlighted by Althen and Bennett, plus they refer to pragmatism, null logic, causation, achievement, and time thrift.
39. Bellah, “Is There a Common American Culture?”