Emotional Relevance in Outreach Ministry

In Western history, the Enlightenment sold the idea that humans are essentially rational creatures who need to graduate from their primal emotions. Leaders like Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley knew better, commending Christianity as a faith of “the heart” and leading a Great Awakening. Nineteenth century evangelical leaders, however, drank too much of the Enlightenment Kool-Aid and took an excessively left-brained approach to pre-Christian people. The religious tracts of the time expose this turn. This article invites church leaders to rediscover a more biblical (and Reformation) understanding of human nature and to pioneer in “emotionally relevant ministry” once again