Bold Witness in a Secular Age
By: Rev. Greg Johnson - Director, Revive New England
Missiologist Leslie Newbigin once described post-Christian culture as a society “immunized” to the gospel. Like a person who has received a weakened strain of a virus, the culture has been exposed to just enough Christianity to learn to resist its power. For those of us who came of age in that environment, this gospel-resistant climate has felt normal. We have grown used to doors closing, conversations stalling, and faith being dismissed as irrelevant.
But the times are shifting. A new generation is rising that has not been shaped by Christendom. They haven’t received the same “herd immunity” to the gospel. In many cases, they are not rejecting Christianity—they have simply never encountered it in a meaningful way. And that very absence creates a surprising openness. As the cultural antibodies weaken, space emerges for the gospel to be heard afresh, not as stale tradition but as the good news of God breaking into human history.
In this sense, we find ourselves back in the Athens of Paul’s day. Acts 17 describes Paul walking among the altars and idols of the city until he notices one dedicated “to an unknown god.” From there, he preaches Christ crucified and risen, naming the emptiness of their philosophies and pointing to the living God. Today, our culture too is full of altars—whether to success, self-expression, politics, or progress. And yet behind the searching lies a hunger that these altars cannot satisfy. As people deconstruct their deconstruction, the door is open to a deeper story that holds together meaning, truth, and hope.
What is needed in this moment is boldness. Not brashness or arrogance, but the Spirit-filled courage to step into conversations, to name the questions beneath the surface, and to point people toward Jesus. Bold witness does not mean shouting louder; it means trusting that the gospel is still the power of God for salvation. It means living with confidence that God is already at work in the hearts of those around us.
The task before us is not to lament a culture that has moved on from Christendom but to recognize the openness all around us. Just as in Athens, the fields are ripe for harvest. What remains is for us to speak—clearly, humbly, and courageously—about the One who makes the unknown God known.