In this sermon, Rev. John Stott rhetorically describes the nature of the postmodern challenge to preaching ministry in a postmodern world in the twenty-first century.

Open-minded tolerance, which immediately introduces us, of course, to.the postmodern mood.  In this age, we are told that the false teachers pursed the truth (...) always is learning, but never able to acknowledge the truth.  Later on the apostle write to the people who have  the pathological condition called itching ears. They always wanting to listen to something new and different. They sat on the fence. They refuse to come down on either side. (….)  And these people the apostle is describing is Keeping all the time open-minded. There is no limit to their open-minded.    (….)   But far from doing that  their mind is so open that there is no keeping in it. So, unprincipled tolerance is their watchword.   The postmodern mood tells us that there is no such thing as metanarrative, as universal truth, but everybody, each one of us has our own truth which is culture-conditioned, you have yours and I have mine, and the last thing we are committed to do is to try to convert anybody else to our opinion or to our truth. That is open-minded tolerance.  But it is incompatible with the gospel.  

+  © copyrights reference:  This audio clip is partially recorded for quotation by Dae Ryeong Kim from Rev. John Stott's sermon, "Timothy for the 21st Century"  at the Fuller Theological Seminary on October 8, 1998.  One may quotes this audio clip by referring to "Media services Audio Tape 2705ab. Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary."