How can we share the good news in a world that is hostile or not very receptive to Jesus?

The report ‘Talking Jesus’ commissioned by various Christian organisations is not good read for all those engage in traditional evangelism [mission]. Yes, we need to be aware that surveys of this kind have so many variants and can be read and interpreted in many different ways. However to read that 40% of the people that took part in this survey think that Jesus is not an historical figure and  30% are put off when people talk to them about Jesus is concerning. It raises all kind of questions to our missional work.  (to read more click on title)

How can we share the good news in a world that is hostile or not very receptive to Jesus?

Maybe we need to do mission in a different way. Maybe we need to become missional creatives.

To begin we need to encounter people were they are, and engage with them with the issues that matter to them. People may not be interested in organised religions and institutions of faith, however people are seeking for something…and sometimes that ‘something’ that meet their spiritual needs for transcendence are found in the creative endeavour in its many forms and expressions. Quite recently I had a powerful experience [I would not hesitate to called it religious] when I visited the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale. I was overwhelmed by beauty with the installation “Keys I my hands”. It was the beauty that touched my deepest inner being. It was a profound spiritual experience because beauty and truth are the places where God inhabit.

To become missional creatives means to engage with the world exploring the beauty of aesthetic possibilities.

In a recent interview the famous novelist and activist Amos Oz said that when he was 16 he was fascinated the Renascence art, the music of Bach and the work of Dostoevsky. At that age it become clear to him that in order to understand the wonderful art of the western culture he need to read the Gospels and the New Testament. He did precisely that because his interest in art. “After I read the Gospels I fall in love with Jesus”. He said. “How can I don’t fall in love with him?”

Somebody has said that “all art is a longing for God”. If that is the case we may find that in the many different manifestations of the creative endeavour, we have a powerful allied in our mission to share the wonders and beauty of Jesus.

Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga