Post-Christendom Mission

Discuss our own attitudes to Christendom and its demise

Reflect on the changing cultural scene as it affects

everyday life

Identify challenges in relation to effective mission

Connect all this with the way people now express

their spiritual search

Aims for this session

• We were born before television,

penicillin, frozen foods, xerox, plastic,

contact lenses, Frisbees and the PILL.

• We were born before radar, credit

cards, split atoms, laser beams,

electric blankets, air conditioners,

drip-dry-clothes - and before we

walked on the moon.

• In our time, closets were for clothes,

not for ‘coming out of’.

• Bunnies were small rabbits and

rabbits did not vibrate.

• We got married first and then lived

together.

Born before 1945

• Designer Jeans were scheming

girls, and ‘having a meaningful

relationship’ was getting on with

our friends.

• We thought ‘fast food’ was what

you ate during Lent, and outer

space was the back of the Riviera

theater.

• We were before house-husbands,

gay rights, computer dating, dual

careers and commuter marriages.

• We were before day care and

group therapy.

• A chip meant a piece of wood and

the word software had not been

invented.

• We never heard of FM

radio, tape decks,

electric typewriters,

word processors and

guys wearing earrings.

• In our day, cigarette smoking was fashionable, GRASS was

mowed, COKE was a cold drink and POT was a cooking utensil.

• ‘Rock Music’ was a grandma's lullaby and AIDS were helpers in

the principal's office.

• We were certainly not before the difference between the sexes

was discovered but we were surely before the sex change.

• We made do with what we had.

• And we were the last generation that was so dumb as to think

you needed a husband to have a baby.

• No wonder we are so confused and there is a generation gap.

www.crab.rutgers.edu/~deppen/born45.htm

Christendom Modernity

Enlightenment

Post-Christendom Post-Modernity

Late modernity

Liquid Culture

Emerging cultures

Pluralism

Multiculturalism

New Christendom

No wonder we’re confused …

In small groups

What do you think about

Christendom?

Remember that for most people ….

… culture hasn’t changed at all

they’ve never heard of Christendom…

those who have don’t care about it …

The gospel invites us to look forward

Tracking a changing culture …

…. challenges in everyday life

Does anybody agree with the

philosophers?

• ‘incredulity toward metanarratives’Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1993), xxiv

• ‘The concept of truth as absolute, objective and universal has gone ... Ultimately, truth is what we make it to be.’Douglas Groothuis, Truth Decay (Downers Grove: InterVarsity 2000)

“Nothing seems to work the way it used to”

‘I honestly tried the churches, but they just couldn’t speak to me … All I want is reality. Show me God. Help me to understand why life is the way it is, and how I can experience it more fully and with greater joy.’George Barna, Baby Busters (Chicago: Northfield 1994), 93

‘It was sobering to attempt to join a church in a new place where no-one knew who I was to discover that one of the key lay people in the church was incredibly rude to me several Sundays in a row, aiming to discourage me from joining.’

Steven Croft, Jesus’ People: what the church should do next (London: CHP 2009), 34

“There must be other ways of doing things”

Other spiritualities

Other ways of being church

Other forms of leadership

Other ways of nurturing our faith

Other lifestyles

“We want to be more spiritual”

‘I often wonder if religion is the enemy of

God. It’s almost like religion is what

happens when the Spirit has left the

building … The Spirit is described in the

Holy Scriptures as much more anarchic

than any established religion credits.’Bono, on www.beliefnet.com

Follow relational leaders

Accept fragmentation

Are losing interest in ‘associating’

Distrust Institutions

Trust our own judgments Celebrate Diversity

Process information holistically

Are most interested in what works

People today …

New expressions of old challenges …

Who am I?

Where am I?

Who am I responsible to?

Identity

Locality

Community

Genesis chs 1-4

Where do I belong?

??????

What do people see as important?

Life is a Journeyall experiences are valid as contributing to who we are

Choice and toleranceexperimenting with life as a way of understanding

Inclusionorganizational structures = power = control

Leadershipequality, accountability, transparency, consultative

MediaMusic as wallpaper

narrative is central (movies, dramas, soaps, adverts, news …)

Experience is primarydrives understanding

Social and environmental justice

Lifestyle‘self-fulfilment’, integrity, ethical focus

Fascination with the ancientwisdom vs knowledge

Reimagining the Mission

in a liminal space

Albert Einstein

‘Insanity is doing the same thing

over and over again and expecting

different results.’

‘No problem can be solved

from the same consciousness

that created it. We must

learn to see the world anew.’

“If the only tool you have is a

hammer, you tend to see every

problem as a nail …”

Abraham Maslow

The conceptual age needs …

‘creators and empathizers, pattern

recognizers, and meaning makers …

artists, storytellers, caregivers,

consolers, big picture thinkers’

Daniel H Pink, A Whole New Mind (New York: Riverhead Books 2006)

Life is a Journeyall experiences are valid as contributing to who we are

Choice and toleranceexperimenting with life as a way of understanding

Inclusionorganizational structures = power = control

Leadershipequality, accountability, transparency, consultative

What do we mean by ‘conversion’?

Discipleship as play

Who is the greatest? The first and the last

Neither from above nor below, but alongside

MediaMusic as wallpaper

narrative is central (movies, dramas, soaps, adverts, news …)

Experience is primarydrives understanding

Social and environmental justice

Lifestyle‘self-fulfilment’, integrity, ethical focus

Fascination with the ancientwisdom vs knowledge

Take scripture more seriously

Tell the story or believe the dogma?

‘Follow me’

Creator and co-creators

Holistic discipleship

Who can be a leader?

Learning in community

Small is beautiful

Relationships vs programmes

What is ministry?

Orthodoxy & orthopraxy

How to live? What to believe? How can I know?

Younger

Emerging

Older

Traditional

Charismatic

Leviticus

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Gospels

Revelation

Paul: RomansActs

Paul: Corinthians

Church styles, mission & spiritual nurture

Post-modern Modern Cultural Change

Behaving Believing Belonging