Thursday, February 27, 2020

Effectively Preaching to Younger Folk

Most preachers admit this. It's hard to preach to today's younger people. Even harder to keep their attention. And most difficult of all, have them coming back, over and over again, to hear more. But that's not true of Andy Stanley. He communicates in a conversational style to transmit the Gospel.

He began his ministry about 25 years ago and founded North Point Ministries. Today, NPM is bound together by seven churches in the Atlanta, Georgia area and another 25 or so churches around the globe. Together, they serve between 70-75,000 persons a week, and more on TV and other forms of communication. He has authored more than 20 books and has a gift of being truly original.

"Why?" is the question he often asks, where many others are still stuck in the "How?"  The "Why?" questions get attention. "Why?" questions deal with deep-seated life issues. "How?" questions don't engage nearly as much. He asks, "Is this unique?" "What would make this unique?" The drift of his conversations show him to be a student, ready to receive criticism, ready to recognize better ways to engage deeply with young persons' deep questions of life. Asking someone, "Why do you do this, or Why do you think that?" helps establish deep-reaching dialogues.

His mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and engage with unchurched people who love to come back to hear more.

Thanks, Andy, and thousands of other men and women who patiently listen to the deepest questions of youth and ask the "Why?" questions to learn what is going on in their hearts and minds. And then in turn ask the  "Why?" questions that get beneath the buzz of popularity, temporary blitz, broken relationships and all the subtle ways we cover over our brokenness and waywardness. 

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