Share your 300/400 word response to any of the biblical passages you chose. Your post should focus on how this passage intersects with the concept and work of evangelization (and if and how it connects to our work with inactive young adults).
Also, what is missing? Are there Scripture passages that inspire your evanglization work that aren't listed in the assignment - and what do those say about our focus with inactive young adults? And what about the Gospel of John? Where is the Great Commissioning there - if there is one - and what does this nuance in John's presentaiton of the main evangelistic charge say about the gospel writer's take on the call of the Christian community to spread the Good News?
Evangelization in the Scriptures
ReplyDeleteLuke 24:44-49, Acts 1:6-12
In both of these passages Jesus appears to his disciples to reassure them that He is not leaving them alone. In addition, He commands them to give testimony with their lives. In this passage in Luke, Jesus reminds his disciples that he came to fulfill the scriptures. In both of these passages, too, Jesus speaks of him sending the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Both of these passages portray a soothing type of evangelization. Jesus reassures his disciples of what is to come. Jesus encourages them to be his witnesses through the way that they live their lives.
A connection that I am able to make between the disciples that Jesus is speaking to in these two passages and the generation of young adults today is that they both find comfort in the words “repentance & forgiveness will be preached in his name….I am going to send you what my Father has promised.” In a world of many religions and outside forces fighting for attention, not to mention the many subdivisions of the Christian faith, young adults are eager to find the threads that speak of unity, brotherhood and of care in their own faith. Many young adults are tired of the stereotypes they have heard about religion. Thus, they choose to disaffiliate, or to keep their own religion at arms length because they feel embarrassed about the past troubles & the pain that has been inflicted to others in the name of religion. For the above reasons I find that young adults would be more likely to empathize with these two passages than they would be with other biblical passages which call for a more aggressive evangelization. At least this might be true of young adults living in the US today. It could be different for other young adults who are experiencing other circumstances in other parts of the world.