Change Your Tactics!

I'd like to further expand on the theme I've been examing in the past few days i.e. evangelizing today's youth. I was speaking (actually chatting) with a friend of mine recently and he was lamenting the state of the world-the moral decay, the changing landscapes and generally how things have just gone from bad to worse, with nothing like hope in sight. As we discussed, we both spoke about the chances of survival for our children (he's got 3 beautiful kids and lives in the UK) in this new clime. At that point, I realized one of the greatest issues the church has had with evangelizing each generation-we dont understand the terrain.

How many individuals have looked at Facebook and condemned its use by today's youth? What about the BlackBerry phone usage? And even the use of media playing devices (ipods, mp3 players and the likes). Most ol'schoolers look at the younger folk and damn them to hell for  ignoring the more importsnt issues and being so caught up in social media and technology. They call them no-good and don't see any bright future for them. Yet they expect these "Nu-schoolers" to "repent or go to hell!" What response do we get? "Du-uh!"

One of the most important things to do, for us not to end up with children, nephews, neices and siblings who don't understand God or even want to have anything to do with Him, is to understand the "market" we are dealing with. If social media platforms are where they are, then we must create communities that can engage them. If online media is what they read, then let's create content that can excite and EDUCATE them.

It's our responsibility to reach them. We must learn the terrain and understand the market. Traditional methods may have served us well but then those we used those methods on didn't have FAcebook. They didn't have access to loads of mp3 music files or were they able to video-chat with friends many miles away from home. If the world has changed, why haven't our strategies/methods?