Effective communication in a post-literary age: A narrative apologetic for young doubters.

摘要

Community of Faith Church is a Pentecostal Church which has lost its identity and experienced rapid decline over the past decade. The decline is not related to leadership challenges, but to a lack of biblical and theological sophistication. The church has failed to navigate the drift toward postmodernity in the digital age. Her greatest need is to reclaim the narrative of her Pentecostal roots, a narrative indigenous to her Charismatic/Pentecostal tradition.;While one may envision a transformation through the usual methods of consumerist marketing techniques borrowed from Main Street, the power of story is able to change lives when told in a provocative style true to the narrative genre of Scripture. In other words, the revitalization will not be found in a new method, but an old one---the method Jesus used when He expounded truth through parable, riddle, and metaphor.;A fellowship of mystic storytellers must be formed who, persuaded by the gospel, boldly tell the story to people adrift on the sea of relativism. One must squarely face the nihilism of the current age with the certain hope that doubt can turn into faith when gently confronted by the narrative apologetic of the gospel.