Most of us now have a computer at home and through it are connected online to the mass of information available electronically from throughout the world. Many of us even have online access through smart phones in our pocket. Although this would have been unimaginable thirty years ago, this is the world in which we now live and the young adults of today have never really known any different.
Reading the gospels, it is clear that Jesus generally spoke to people in language which they could understand and using illustrations that they could immediately connect with. He spent most of his time with common people in everyday places. Although he taught in the synagogues and the temple and spoke with the religious leaders there, much of his teaching was done in the fields, on the mountainsides, in the market place and in people’s homes. He wanted to get his message of salvation through to people so he met them where they were. It seems very likely to me that Jesus told parables about lost sheep while in sight of a flock of sheep!
I sometimes wonder what parables Jesus would tell if he was walking among us in Britain today. Would we hear him tell the parable of the intermittent broadband connection or the parable of the lost mobile phone? Would he use electronic media as well as personal face-to-face communication? I don’t know, but I am certain that he would be speaking to us in everyday modern English, using examples that would immediately connect with his listeners.
As churches and as individual Christians, we need to communicate the unchanging timeless message of the gospel to those around us in ways which they will hear and understand. At Hartley Wintney Baptist Church we have just launched a website, so that people who search for information online can find us. It explains something of what we believe and what we do and invites people to come and meet us to discover more.