In analyzing today’s postmodern generation, Dr. Juta Pan puts it this way: “Though rational assent undoubtedly has an important role in people’s decisions whether or not to accept the faith, the real key to their decision to believe in Christ often lies in their knowing that only God can give them purpose, hope and sense of value in life. When they are fully convicted that they need Christ, the majority of their traditional faith questions are easily resolved because of their changed presuppositions.” In light of Chinese students’ pragmatic postmodernism, contextualization seems generally to advocate for a departure from previous means of sharing the gospel that focused on apologetic encounters.
Blog post: Chinese Pragmatism: What Difference Does it Make? by Davy Chu
GOSPEL PRESENTATION
Knowing God Personally (Mandarin) |The presentation of how to know God personally. This could be share on screen for an online conversation or group presentation.
Honor-Restored | In honor-shame cultures the main existential problem is shame: this is where the need for the gospel is most keenly felt, and where the good news of the gospel is experienced as truly good news. While many gospel tracts focus on a person’s guilt before a righteous God, this one centers on our shame before a holy God. You can find Honor-Restored in the GodTools App.
God’s Eternal Purpose | A four-point evangelistic tract that begins by asking what the Bible is, who God is, and who we are, before proceeding to explain how to know God personally. These three prefatory questions, though answered fairly simply, are particularly helpful with Chinese in that they don’t assume a prior knowledge of God, of the Bible, or of biblical anthropology.
Four Spiritual Laws | The Chinese version of the evangelistic tract can be purchased here. Additionally, a bilingual version, as well as a pinyin version (for those hoping to share the gospel in Chinese) are also available for purchase. An updated online version that could be used for group presentation.
Two Ways to Live | An excellent evangelistic tool that conveys the gospel in the context of the big-picture biblical storyline. The Chinese version is available on the web. Additionally, Two Ways to Live is also available as a multi-lingual iOS app, and in print. Check out also Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s core seminar training material for how to use Two Ways to Live.
At the risk of oversimplification, most evangelistic tools in the Western world are subsets of systematic theology. By this I mean that they tend to ask atemporal questions, and give atemporal answers… There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this pattern, as long as the people to whom it is presented have already bought into the Judeo-Christian heritage… But if you present these atemporal outlines of the gospel to those who know nothing about the Bible’s plotline, and who have bought into one form or another of New Age theosophy, how will they hear you?… In short, the good news of Jesus Christ is virtually incoherent unless it is securely set into a biblical worldview… In the last few years, several evangelistic tools have been created that are far more sensitive to the Bible’s ‘story line’.The first of these to be prepared is still one of the most effective: Two Ways to Live presents Christ in six steps, the six steps offering, in contemporary English, something of the Bible’s plot-line as the necessary framework in which to understand the gospel.