Times have changed. Some things that worked before do not work now. There are new methods and new ways. There are new perspectives. There are new generations of people as well as older generations. What worked for previous generations seem to be different than what works for newer generations. This appears to be true with the Gospel and primarily it is due to changes in the culture.
Although the Gospel has not changed and God has not changed, the generations of people who are hearing the gospel now have changed and the culture people now live in has changed. And because times have changed, methods have changed, perspectives have changed, and generations have changed, it is time to consider changing how the Gospel is presented. This is what Gospel Reset - Salvation Made Relevant, written by Ken Ham, aims to do. Although not an exhaustive resource on the topic of making salvation relevant, Gospel Reset provides a richness for understanding how times have changed culturally in the United States. Specifically, Gospel Reset identifies Biblically how to identify the culture of the past and the culture of today. Understanding the culture of yesterday and the culture of today, Christians can have a better strategy of sharing the Gospel.
Ken Ham does a good job of using scripture to relate to the culture changes. For example, Ken Ham identifies that the past culture in the United States lived in an "Acts 2-type" culture. That means that most people in the generations prior to millennials (in this book, those born between approximately 1982-2002) were raised in a "Christian" culture. From an Acts 2-type culture perspective, this is related to Peter preaching a sermon on the day of Pentecost. Peter spoke about God, how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and how to be saved. Peter though was speaking to a group of people (Jews at that time) who had a foundation in the history of God's word. They knew when "God" was mentioned, it was the one true God of the Bible. They knew they all were sinners because of Adam's rebellion in the garden of Eden. They were waiting for a Savior. Because of their foundation, the Jews could easily related and receive Peters message of the Gospel (whether they chose to or not).
Ken Ham related how the Jews received the Gospel message from Peter in Acts 2 to how the people in the past within the United States used to respond to the Gospel message. Ken Ham used the Billy Graham crusades as one example of this. However if Billy Graham were to preach the same sermons today, it is unlikely as many people would follow. Why? Due to a culture change.
Today's culture is centered around millennials. Millennials have not been raised in a Christian culture. It is sometimes termed a "post-Christian" culture. The primary reason is because of Government education. Unlike previous cultures, Christianity was more influential, even in Government schools. However today, Government schools are heavily focused in humanism and anti-christian teachings. Add to this anti-Christian media, music, and movies and the Millennial generation is bombarded by a humanistic, secular culture. Millennials do not recognize the One True God of the Bible, but many. Truth is relative. There are many ways to Heaven (if it exists at all). Atheism is on the rise. So if the Gospel message were to be preached to this generation in this culture, they will not connect with it very well at all.
Hence is why Ken Ham relates today's culture and millennial generation to an Acts 17-type culture. In this chapter of the book of Acts, Paul is preaching on Mars hill. This community was Greek and believed in many gods. Paul could not use the same strategy that Peter used in Acts chapter two because their foundation was different. Paul had to go back to the beginning to introduce them to when God created, back to the fall of man, so they could determine they were sinners and needed to be saved.
These two Biblical scenarios is much of what the book discusses. The book does provide a solution to the issue, of which I will let you find out for yourself. The book though achieves what it set out to do which is why and how we need to reset our thinking on how to share the Gospel with a generation of people who have no biblical foundation and have their minds being indoctrinated with humanistic teachings.
However I will say that if you want to learn more about this topic, you must also pick up two more books and they are: Already Gone - Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It and Why Won't They Listen - The Power of Creation Evangelism.
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