EFFEKTIVE PERSÖNLICHE KOMMUNIKATION DES EVANGELIUMS IN POSTMODERNEN KONTEXTEN: EINE SYSTEMATISCHE ÜBERSICHTSARBEIT AUSGEWÄHLTER STUDIEN

Abstract

In the form of a systematic review, the dissertation examines international studies that provide a contribution to the topic "effective personal communication of the Gospel". On the basis of the results of international studies, a transfer of relevant, conversion-promoting factors to the postmodern German contexts should be discussed, which then leads to recommendations for communication skills of Christian. The following questions are pointing the way: What do empirical studies say about the effectiveness of personal gospel communication in postmodern contexts? How has this kind of proclamation to be designed to lead to conversion? What is the content and aim of this kind of communication, which leads to conversion? With effective communication, this work primarily means a conversion process that leads to conversion to Christianity. Therefore this work asks first about the how and what of gospel communication so that people enter into a conversion process. The term "communication" is limited to personal communication skills. The question of effective communication of the Gospel is current. That confirm some studies from Germans free-church, and call among other things also the lack of communication ability of Christians as a reason why the gospel can only rarely be communicated intelligibly (for example Frank 2017, Bartholomä 2019). My motivation to answer the research question comes from reflecting some current church-growing-studies. Despite many good international churchbuilding methods, the conversion numbers are at a low level at 1% - 5%. Thematically this work therefore ties to Reimer's (2013a:312) question: "What sense does events have, if the local church has little or no contact to unreached people"? The systematic review was chosen as a suitable method. It enables the reader within a short time a comprehensive overview in condensed form on a specific topic. Furthermore, a review article is characterized by summarizing the results of various studies, from which guidelines can then be drawn up on a specific topic. In a systematic review, the selection of literature is systematically based on defined criteria. The selection criteria and the evaluation of the literature must be clearly defined in order to be based on objective, transparent and comprehensible evaluation criteria.