Last time we met up, we talked about the weird take on postmodernism that evangelicals have. They consider this philosophy one of their worst enemies, but they don’t understand even the most basic things about it. Despite that trivial little problem, their evangelism experts have been hard at work coming up with ways for the flocks to totally defeat that enemy! Today, we’re diving into these strategies—and grading their effectiveness.
(This post and its audio ‘cast first went live on my Patreon on 10/24/2025. They’re both available now, but if you’d like early access, please consider joining up!)
SITUATION REPORT: They don’t understand postmodernism, but evangelicals still think they can totally defeat it
While researching our first topic about postmodernism, I kept running into evangelism strategy guides for converting postmodernist heathens. So I decided it needed to be our next topic.
The first of these promises evangelicals “9 Ways of Communicating the Gospel to Postmodernists.” It seems to be from about 2021 on FreeMinistryResources.org, though I found later reprints all over the Christ-o-sphere. It begins:
If we were to sum up the way that much of the world thinks today, one word would express it: Postmodernism. This world view states that there is no objective, absolute truth; that”truth” is what you believe it to be. Something can be “true for you, but not true for me”. So, how can we convey the truth of the Bible and an understanding of the One who is the “way, the truth and the life” to this generation?
To describe postmodernists, who the site concedes wouldn’t likely describe themselves that way at all, the OP offers a variety of quotes they say are postmodernist pushback to evangelism pitches. Here are a few:
- “I’m looking for a truth that works for me.”
- “I don’t like it when people argue about how their group or beliefs are better.”
- “I don’t like institutional religion.”
Amusingly, they also offer “postmodernist” quotes that don’t sound like any pushback I’ve ever heard to evangelism:
- “I’m interested in the values of my group and my community.”
- “I believe in letting others live like they want to.”
- “I do have a vague desire for non-institutional spirituality. But I don’t know how to find it.”
The misunderstandings we talked about last time are on clear display here, as well. Evangelicals are swinging frantically at ghosts. I don’t think they’d know what to do with themselves if they ever actually encountered a real postmodernist.
Any time we see an OP (Original Post) that can’t even accurately describe a problem, their suggestions for overcoming it are sure to be spectacularly off-base. And that’s what is happening here.
Over and over again, I saw the same sorts of evangelism guides online. There must be thousands of different ones. So I picked some interesting ones for us to check out, and here we are.
Strategy 1: If you insist hard enough that your claims are really objectively true, that’s the same as them being true
Cue the beloved evangelical game of Last Ideology Standing! Evangelicals are certain that if they can destroy their targets’ confidence in their current methods of evaluating reality, then their own whackadoo method will become the winner.
This strategy proved to be popular online in the sources I consulted. All the way back in the 1990s, an evangelical book reviewer at Grace Evangelical Society quotes advice from a popular book I mentioned last time, The Challenge of Postmodernism (1995, edited by David Dockery of the Southern Baptist Convention):
More diligently, more fervently, more prayerfully than ever before we need to keep preaching the truth of the Scriptures, inspired by God and suitable for instruction, correction, and reproof. [. . .] In summary, the Apostle Paul’s admonishment is ever the more relevant in dealing with the postmodern context: “when they will not endure sound doctrine”…then “hold fast the form of sound words” [2 Timothy 4:3, but whoa, the author’s really taking some liberties with editing and context with those quotes – Cas]
Similarly, a 2007 post on Modern Reformation advises:
2 Corinthians 4 [link] reminds us of the need to “set forth the truth plainly.” This means teaching that humanity’s biggest problem is that God is angry at our sin and that sin can be paid for in only one of two places: in hell or at the cross. It is only when we understand this that we can see the wonder of God’s grace, discover our true identity, and be assured of eternal salvation. If we love others and trust the Holy Spirit, then we will tell people the truth and trust God to open their blind eyes.
In 2024, a guide from an evangelism site called For the Church offers similar advice:
We must not forfeit objective truth. We cannot give into the postmodernists’ insistence that there is no such thing as truth in the objective sense. This means that we need to reframe the conversation and not let them set the agenda.
In the same For the Church post, the writer quotes apologist Douglas Groothuis to drill down on this idea (though he isn’t completely thrilled with Groothuis’ approach and suggests tempering it with another popular strategy we’ll cover in a minute here, building relationships):
“Since it is impossible to give you any independent evidence for our use of language, or to appeal to hard facts, we simply declare this to be our truth. It can become your truth as well, if you join up.”
Yes, they just need to keep insisting that they have the only path allowing real access to objective truth. At some point, it’s got to start working!
Grade: F
Repeating things over and over will just annoy an evangelist’s targets. It reminds me of street preachers screeching nonstop judgment at passersby.
Strategy 2: Ignore the claims to focus on narratives and storytelling
However, many sources head off in a different direction. They want their recruiters to focus on narratives and storytelling. See, they think Christianity—and their version of it in particular—tells a story that people can use as a grand lens through which they can view everything in their lives. So they evangelize through storytelling—notably, through their own testimonies about being Christian.
Our 9-item listicle OP from FreeMinistrySources.org puts storytelling at the forefront in its guide to evangelism:
- Postmodernists accept the value of stories from all cultures. [No they don’t – Cas]
They will not reject the narratives in the Bible and your story (testimony), too, when you can relate how God has helped you in practical ways. [And it will be interpreted as the Christian thinking their god helped them – Cas]
Chuck Swindoll reminds us: “The sceptic may deny your doctrine or attack your church, but he cannot honestly ignore the fact that your life has been changed.” [LOL oh yes we can – Cas]
We can convey a lot through our own stories, and God’s story, without pushing our own dogmas. Teaching can come later, once bridges and relationships have been built.
For a 2015 writer for Equip.org, that’s the very first instruction he gives for the evangelism of “postmodern leavers” (people who’ve disaffiliated with Christianity for what the writer considers postmodern reasons):
In a postmodern world, metanarratives are suspect, but personal perspectives are sacrosanct. [No, they’re not. – Cas] Whatever you experience or feel deeply will be respected. [LOL no, it won’t. – Cas] You are authorized to tell your story. T. V. Thomas, a Malaysian-born evangelist who speaks on university campuses all over the world, told me, “Young people might say, ‘Don’t tell me anything about Christianity.’ But they don’t mind you telling them your story, because it’s your story.” [It really depends on what we’re defining as “telling your story.” If it’s unwanted and forced into a conversation, they’re gonna mind quite a lot. – Cas]
A 2018 story from 1517.org echoes this suggestion to use storytelling to snag recruits:
The Church makes itself plausible not because it has the better argument than others, but because it tells the better story. While it’s true that Christianity has one big story about human life and purpose, and that postmoderns reject big stories, it’s also true that postmodernity leaves people thirsty for meaning and purpose. If any one big story will save postmoderns, it’s the narrative of Scripture.
Unfortunately for him and evangelicals in general, the “narrative of Scripture” doesn’t give people meaning and purpose unless a lot of factors are true at once for them: Christians having societal and cultural dominance and coercive power; no other pesky religions and philosophies making roughly the same claims; no easy access to debunking tools and outside perspectives; and no widespread understanding of the major differences between objective reality and religious claims about reality. That 2018 writer is describing a world that hasn’t existed since well before World War II.
Grade: D-
Storytelling is indeed a great way to share information and build rapport. It even works as a recruitment tool! But the stories need to be authentic. Evangelicals’ stories just aren’t. The tall tales Christians tell about themselves don’t reflect Christians in the real world, nor their religion.
Strategy 3: Building relationships with the targets
By far, the most popular strategy I saw online involved friendship-style evangelism: building up a solid friendly relationship with the evangelism target, slowly getting them involved with church activities and “fellowship” (Christianese for hanging out together, but in a Jesusy way), and drawing them into belief by osmosis. As progressive Christian John Shore so astutely put it in 2015, the vibe is “I love you; Now change.”
As we saw earlier, our 9-item listicle OP thinks storytelling is a great way to build relationships. In addition, it says, evangelicals should try to truly understand and show respect for their targets’ opinions. But the “pertinent questions” it suggests to help evangelicals do that made me laugh right out loud. They’re as obvious as an Amway rep complimenting your shoes at a Target store. These questions are obviously about creating an opening for a sales pitch. Here are some of these “pertinent questions”:
- Do you ever think about spiritual things?
- Where are you at on your spiritual journey?
- Do you ever pray?
- Do you ever think about God?
- What do you do in your free time?
- Can I pray for you?”
If anybody ever asked me anything from this list, I’d automatically assume they were trying to convert me. But here’s For the Church in 2024:
[W]e should remember that relationships are vital to postmodernists. In their mind, it is only through a relationship that one can see that you are genuine and not a hypocrite who is simply seeking to control people by sharing your metanarrative. The more people can see your love and hospitality, the more they might be willing to hear you share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, a 2021 blog post from evangelical pastor Putty Putman claims that kindness to a neighbor in a time of great anxiety led to her entire family joining his church. Another evangelical, Mark Tittley, thinks postmodern heathens won’t be able to resist a “faithful, loving, hopeful” church community.
And a 2005 essay on Bible.org claims that an ex-Christian lesbian melted under platonic kindness from a Christian man. However, the story ends by specifically saying she didn’t reconvert. Most evangelicals would reject the entire story for that reason alone. Making heathens like them doesn’t make them want to join and support evangelical churches.
Grade: MEGA-F for FAILTASTIC
As I discovered to my lasting pain, one cannot make friends with a salesperson or recruiter. The goals of friendship and scoring a sale are diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive. For the most part, once the prospect finally makes the recruiter realize they’re never joining up, that ends the fake friendship then and there.
Worse, though, evangelical churches in particular are not “faithful, loving, hopeful” communities. That’s gotten more and more true throughout Christianity’s decline. Instead, they’re full of people who love power—wielding it, using it to ignore the rules, hurting others with it—or who want to find safety and certainty by cozying up to the powerful. They’re not there to be kind to the marginalized, help the community, or even become better human beings overall.
Basically, if evangelicals could do anything these evangelical writers suggest, they’d never have gone into decline in the first place.
The fight of their life, but they can’t even understand what it’s about
The evangelicals who wrote today’s OP insist that postmodernists don’t believe there is any “objective absolute truth,” but that’s not a postmodernist thing at all. Postmodernism just advises extreme care when assessing truth claims. In addition, the site tells us that postmodernists think “all value systems, beliefs, and lifestyle choices” are “equally valid,” but that isn’t true either. Almost no source quoted today demonstrates any understanding of postmodernism at all.
Obviously, this sneering mischaracterization of postmodernism isn’t about “objective absolute truth at all.” They know nobody’s trying to claim that 2+2=5, or that Earth has 15 moons. And only Republicans seem happy about ketchup being classified as a vegetable in school lunches.
No, something else offends evangelicals about “objective absolute truth.” Modern people no longer grant evangelicals primacy over other religious groups. More and more people evaluate evangelicals’ truth claims using real-world guidelines and tools. They no longer use the tools evangelicals would vastly prefer—like apologetics and personal revelation.
Unfortunately for evangelicals, those truth claims go way past Creationism or the Great Flood. Worse, though, evaluating them doesn’t even require the carbon dating of fossils or testing an olive tree’s ability to withstand a three-month submersion in seawater, an experiment one person actually performed!
But the problem evangelicals face goes way, way further than the veracity of the Bible’s myths.
Here’s what they’re really up against
Unfortunately, Christian claims in general just don’t stand up well against reality. Now, that isn’t the dealbreaker some people might imagine. No supernatural claims stand up well against reality. That most especially includes theistic religions.
Christian claims are numerous, though, even once we stray away from their sourcebook’s lack of scientific and historical credibility:
- Prayer does nothing in reality except making some folks feel better about having prayed
- Christians are decidedly not better people than non-Christians; in fact, many are horrifying monsters
- Christians’ relationships (familial, marital, romantic, friends-based) don’t work out better than those of non-Christians
- In catastrophes, Christians don’t escape harm more often than non-Christians do; in fact, when it comes to hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes, it sure seems like Yahweh has it out for his followers
- No physics-defying or otherwise dramatic-seeming miracle has ever been verified as supernatural in origin—nor have any supernatural agents, divinities, or realms
- Any dramatic conversion testimony can be considered fictional, especially if it involves miracles
- Almost no Christian churches do meaningful amounts of charity; in the evangelism-focused ones, all of their charity is tied to somehow forcing evangelism on recipients
- In general, the more fervent the Christians, the less they care about pretending to take Jesus’ charity and kindness commands seriously
Evangelicals’ particularly-bombastic claims look even more ridiculous by comparison with simple reality. But their leaders train them to ignore reality.
Because they can’t process reality, they can’t face serious questions. So they’re certainly not going to be able to handle serious answers. And they definitely won’t be able to put those answers into action.
So, today’s topic represents good news for everyone who ain’t evangelical!
NEXT UP: Two women, two different Southern Gothic horror stories about evangelical marriage. First, we’ll meet Courtney and watch her quest for motherhood and love—at the cost of her soul. See you soon!
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