Get on with it! Get into it!

Leonard Sweet's book Soul Tsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millenium Culture (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999)has a section titled "Get on with it! Get into it!" (pp. 53-54)about postmodern ministry that says:

Postmodern preachers don't populate the pews; they connect people to the living Christ. Postmodern evangelism doesn't say to the world, "Come to church." Rather, it says to the church, "Go to the world."

Evangelism in a culture that is transitioning from Christendom to post-Christendom is different. Postmodern evangelism is more John the Baptist than Peter and Paul. Postmodern evangelism is constructing new constituencies for Christ.

Postmodern evangelism is recognizing that God is already at work in people's lives before we arrived on the scene, and that our role is helping people to see how God is presnet and active in their lives, calling them home. Postmodern evangelism is not "I have Jesus, and you don't. How can I get you here so that I can give you my Jesus?" but "you already know Jesus, even if you don't think you know Jesus. How can I help you see and know what you already know, and how can I know and meet your Jesus?