I am still thinking about evangelism. I am beginning to slowly conclude that the quest for a method/model/technique/way of doing evangelism - even how to do it in the post-modern mileau - is completely wrongheaded. I think and pray, and pray and think, and think and pray, and pray and think, well, you get the drill. And noanswer comes. I am beginning to think the reason why is that I need to quit being concerned about, "how to reach post-moderns", "how to form a church that reaches post-moderns", "does Alpha work for post-moderns", etc., etc. What I need to do is make a friend or two or three, and ask God to show me how to be a faithful witness to him or her. No model, no technique. If my friend is 73, a WW2 vet and thinks all gen Xers are a bunch of whining hippies, then I need to learn how to love him and be a witness to him. If my friend is a practicing Jew who does not believe in God and who wears birkenstocks and protests the war in Iraq, then I need to learn how to be a faithful witness to her. When it comes to forming a community to reach these kinds of folk, I think that is the wrong way to frame the issue. I need to pray that God will work in their lives so that the WW2 vet, war protester and me, a 38 year old republican male who loves the Beatles AND FORM US INTO A CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY!!! The diversity we bring to the community is what Christian community is about!!! There is no "model" for Christian community in a post-modern context. Maybe - and this is our little secret - the reason we don't how to do ministry in the post-modern context is because we are not supposed to "do ministry in the post-modern context." We are supposed to ministry with Bob, Jane, Ashley, Herb, Paulos and Kerry. Isn't one of the lessons of the incarnation that God relishes the scandal of the particular?!? Maybe God wants is to quit asking these kinds of questions and get about the business of being disciples and being friends and see what emerges from particular contexts. Doesn't mean we don't learn from each other, but each of our communities is a different mix of people - so maybe the "models" are as numerous as the communities.