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| Postmoderns believe that “We can’t totally know”— meaning that all knowledge is contextual. Moderns believe only in what can be proven by science, and premoderns believe in the supernatural. This Car Talk will look at discipleship in a postmodern world. What is discipleship? Discipleship is a sister to evangelism. Evangelism is telling people about Jesus, and discipleship is actually getting with a person, studying the Bible together, teaching them theology, and learning what it means to follow Jesus in our daily lives. It can include trying to get a person to attend church or get involved with a youth group. There is a quote that says: “Preach the word of God; if you must, use words.” This quote is illustrated well by a story as told by Rudy Carrasco in Tony Jones’ book, Postmodern Youth Ministry: Tony emphasizes how to teach discipleship. Alongside this must come modeling a disciple’s life. This task is crucial in urban areas when it comes to racism. Many young African Americans and Latinos are daily the targets of racial prejudice. In following Christ more closely, issues of race are ever-present. They ask hard, painful questions. But mostly they watch to see how leaders deal with racism. Derek Perkins is an African American, and I am Latino. Together we run an urban youth ministry. We asked one of our students – an African American young man who’s recognized in our community as a racial peacemaker – how he learned to be a reconciler. I expected him to talk about Bible studies, prayer times, and history lessons. But this is what he said: “I saw people like you and Derek not just trying to help your own people, but treating both African Americans and Latinos the same. I remember the meetings with you and Derek where neither of you took sides on the issues of race, when we youth were clearly divided along racial lines. The way y’all fixed it made sense.” His response stopped me cold – all that time he had paid attention to what we did and said, not what we taught. From him I learned that, yes, we teach discipleship, but the greatest impact on young people may be what they catch on their own. 1 Continued... |
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