Post-Christendom Mission

Aims for this session

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
 • 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
Born before 1945 rabbits did not vibrate.
• We got married first and then lived
together.
 • 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 never heard of FM
radio, tape decks, • We were before day care and
electric typewriters, group therapy.
word processors and • A chip meant a piece of wood and
guys wearing earrings. the word software had not been
invented.
• 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
 No wonder we’re confused …
Christendom Modernity

New Christendom Late modernity

Post-Christendom Post-Modernity

Liquid Culture Multiculturalism

Enlightenment Pluralism

Emerging cultures
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 lifestyles

Other spiritualities

Other ways of being church

Other forms of leadership

Other ways of nurturing our faith

 “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
People today …
Distrust Institutions
Are losing interest in ‘associating’

Celebrate Diversity Trust our own judgments

Accept fragmentation

Process information holistically

Are most interested in what works

Follow relational leaders

 New expressions of old challenges …
Who am I? Identity

Where am I? Locality

Where do I belong? Community

Who am I responsible to? ??????

Genesis chs 1-4

What do people see as important?
Life is a Journey
all experiences are valid as contributing to who we are

Choice and tolerance

experimenting with life as a way of understanding

Inclusion
organizational structures = power = control

Leadership
equality, accountability, transparency, consultative
Media
Music as wallpaper
narrative is central (movies, dramas, soaps, adverts, news …)

Experience is primary
drives understanding

Social and environmental justice

Lifestyle
‘self-fulfilment’, integrity, ethical focus

Fascination with the ancient

wisdom vs knowledge
Reimagining the Mission

in a liminal space
 ‘No problem can be solved
from the same consciousness
that created it. We must
learn to see the world anew.’
‘Insanity is doing the same thing
over and over again and expecting
different results.’
Albert Einstein
“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 Journey
all experiences are valid as contributing to who we are

What do we mean by ‘conversion’?

Choice and tolerance

experimenting with life as a way of understanding

Discipleship as play

Inclusion
organizational structures = power = control

Who is the greatest? The first and the last

Leadership
equality, accountability, transparency, consultative

Neither from above nor below, but alongside

Media
Music as wallpaper
narrative is central (movies, dramas, soaps, adverts, news …)

Tell the story or believe the dogma?

Experience is primary
drives understanding

‘Follow me’
Social and environmental justice
Creator and co-creators

Lifestyle
‘self-fulfilment’, integrity, ethical focus

Holistic discipleship
Fascination with the ancient
wisdom vs knowledge

Take scripture more seriously

Relationships vs programmes
Who can be a leader?
Learning in community
Small is beautiful
What is ministry?
Orthodoxy & orthopraxy
Church styles, mission & spiritual nurture
How to live? What to believe? How can I know?

Behaving Believing Belonging

Younger Older Charismatic

Emerging Traditional

Post-modern Modern Cultural Change

Leviticus
Proverbs Acts
Paul: Romans
Ecclesiastes Paul: Corinthians
Gospels
Revelation