Monday, July 04, 2005
Murray, S. (2004) Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World
The book came alive from page 160 after a long description of christendom -
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The end of Christendom will require radical changes in our understanding of mission and church. We have already discovered through the disappointments of the Decade of Evangelism in Britain in the 1990s that 'exhortation and invitation' evangelism is becoming obsolete. This has stimulated a widespread search for more authentic and contextual ways of being church and engaging in mission. But important attempts to reconfigure church and mission, rooted in theological reflection on contemporary cultural shifts, are often hampered by limited understanding of the significance of the shift from Christendom to post-Christendom. Pp3
Post-Christendom includes the following transitions:
From the centre to margins: in Christendom the Christian story and the churches were central, but in post-Christendom these are marginal.
From majority to minority: in Christendom Christians comprised the (often overwhelming) majority, but in post-Christendom we are a minority.
From settlers to sojourners: in Christendom Christians felt at home in a culture shaped by their story, but in post~Christendom we are aliens, exiles and pilgrims in a culture where we no longer feel at home.
From privilege to plurality: in Christendom Christians enjoyed many privileges, but in post-Christendom we are one community among many in a plural society.
From control to witness: in Christendom churches could exert control over society, but in post-Christendom we exercise influence only through witnessing to our story and its implications.
From maintenance to mission: in Christendom the emphasis was on maintaining a supposedly Christian status quo, but in post-Christendom it is on mission within a contested environment.
From institution to movement: in Christendom churches operated mainly in institutional mode, but in post-Christendom we must become again a Christian movement. 20
Whenever movements identify the Christendom shift as the central issue and remove the Christendom blinkers, they rediscover the centrality of Jesus and find traditional approaches to issues such as baptism, church life, evangelism, warfare, economics, the oath and the role of the state need to be revised. 161
Mission and evangelism are not identical, though the rela- s. tionship between evangelism and engagement with political, economic, cultural and social issues has been debated widely. Nor were missionary activities between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries confined to evangelism. but the evangelistic aspect of mission demonstrates clearly the problematic Christendom legacy and the challenge of figuring mission in post-Christendorn.
Evangelism today is deeply unpopular, within and ond the churches. Although the Decade of Evangelism, despite shortcomings, rekindled interest in evangelism, it not remove the aversion many sensitive Christians feel. Despite the abandonment of inappropriate forms of evangelism and the adoption of humble, patient, holistic and textual approaches, rooted in friendship, many still find evangelism problematic. 224
Some doubt evangelism can be rehabilitated. Can this deeply compromised practice be purged and reconfigured? Why not declare a moratorium on it? Why not focus on being faithful communities and trust the attractive power of the gospel to draw others to Christ and these communities? Cannot we work for social transformation without telling the story that motivates us?
These questions should be pondered, not dismissed out of hand. If we do not feel their challenge, we have not understood the Christendom story. Might a'decade of repentance' for the legacy of past centuries be more helpful than another decade of evangelism? 227
W hat might post-Christendom evangelism mean?
Acknowledging the charge of hypocrisy that fourth-century Christians faced for the first time and that remains common - a miserable Christendom legacy.
Confessing our failure to embody the gospel, now and previously, and inviting others to join imperfect pilgrims, not a perfect community. Brian McLaren suggests this approach: 'I'm sorry we Christians have so often put roadblocks up for spiritual seekers through our narrow-mindedness, our failure to bridge racial and cultural and class barriers, and our lack of acceptance ... Please don't blame Jesus for our failure to live up to his teaching and example. And be assured we'll try to do better, with God's help. Please pray for us, okay ?,
Renouncing imperialistic language and cultural imposition, making truth claims with humility and respecting other viewpoints.
Discovering evangelists who 'prepare God's people for works of service' 16 rather than eloquent performers in public events.
Realising churchgoing is no longer a normal social activity; church buildings and culture are alien, and many searching for spiritual reality do not anticipate finding this in churches.
Recognising post-Christendom's diversity and developing strategies for different audiences secularists, spiritual seekers, traditionalists, neo-pagans and others.` Searching for multiple contact points with the gospel in a culture no longer dominated (as Christendom was) by guilt, employing the full range of New Testament imagery and learning to relate the story to contemporary angst and yearnings.
Starting further back than in Christendom, not assuming our language and concepts are understood by the first generation in centuries without significant church connection through Sunday schools.
Rediscovering the 'go' in the Great Commission: reducing over-busy church programmes and equipping members to share faith at work, among friends and in the local community.
Appreciating this dispersed evangelism requires accessible and welcoming, authentic and provocative congregations, expressing faith through holistic mission.
Engaging in conversation rather than confrontation - evangelism alongside others, not declaiming from an authoritative height, through dialogue instead of monologue, listening and speaking, receiving and imparting.
Concentrating on low profile contextual witness, eschewing razzmatazz and large-scale monochrome strategies (Inappropriate in a plural society).
Anticipating longer journeys towards Christ: process-evangelism courses must assume less and last longer than those currently available.
Speaking consciously from the margins and inviting people to a lifestyle that, properly understood (we will need process-discipleship courses), contravenes dominant social values.
228-230
Reconfiguring evangelism will also mean rediscovering the gospel of the kingdom: liberation rather than personal fulfilment, reconciliation rather than Justification, transformation rather than stability; focusing on hope rather than faith; explaining the work of Christ in other ways than penal substitution; announcing good news to the poor and powerless but judgement to the rich and powerful; naming certain sins in some communities and different sins in others; addressing the sinned against as well as sinners. Who knows what good news a church on the margins might rediscover? 232
The demise of Chritendom reduces radically the temptations of power, clearing space for the old story to be retold.` Powerless churches need not wrangle over the relationship between evangelism and social action (this was always essentially about power), but can develop fresh perspectives on seemingly intractable social issues, because things look different from the margins. We can more easily identify with those mainstream society excludes. 244
Our priority must be to rediscover how to tell the story of Jesus and present his life, teaching, death and resurrection recognising past attempts have seriously missed the mark. We cannot continue to present Jesus only as the saviour from guilt few feel in post-Christendom. Nor can we invite people to follow a Jesus who merely guarantees life after death to those who are otherwise comfortable or a Jesus whose lordship affects only a limited range of personal moral decisions. We can no longer present a safe establishment Jesus who represents order and stability rather than justice, who appeals to the powerful and privileged for all the wrong reasons. Nor can we reduce Jesus to dogmatic statements in simplistic evangelistic courses or perpetuate the overemphasis on his divinity at the expense of his humanity that Christendom required.
Instead, we must present Jesus as (among much else) friend of sinners, good news to the poor, defender of the powerless, reconciler of communities, pioneer of a new age, freedom fighter, breaker of chains, liberator and peacemaker, the one who unmasks systems of oppression, identifies with the vulnerable and bring hope. 316-317
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The end of Christendom will require radical changes in our understanding of mission and church. We have already discovered through the disappointments of the Decade of Evangelism in Britain in the 1990s that 'exhortation and invitation' evangelism is becoming obsolete. This has stimulated a widespread search for more authentic and contextual ways of being church and engaging in mission. But important attempts to reconfigure church and mission, rooted in theological reflection on contemporary cultural shifts, are often hampered by limited understanding of the significance of the shift from Christendom to post-Christendom. Pp3
Post-Christendom includes the following transitions:
From the centre to margins: in Christendom the Christian story and the churches were central, but in post-Christendom these are marginal.
From majority to minority: in Christendom Christians comprised the (often overwhelming) majority, but in post-Christendom we are a minority.
From settlers to sojourners: in Christendom Christians felt at home in a culture shaped by their story, but in post~Christendom we are aliens, exiles and pilgrims in a culture where we no longer feel at home.
From privilege to plurality: in Christendom Christians enjoyed many privileges, but in post-Christendom we are one community among many in a plural society.
From control to witness: in Christendom churches could exert control over society, but in post-Christendom we exercise influence only through witnessing to our story and its implications.
From maintenance to mission: in Christendom the emphasis was on maintaining a supposedly Christian status quo, but in post-Christendom it is on mission within a contested environment.
From institution to movement: in Christendom churches operated mainly in institutional mode, but in post-Christendom we must become again a Christian movement. 20
Whenever movements identify the Christendom shift as the central issue and remove the Christendom blinkers, they rediscover the centrality of Jesus and find traditional approaches to issues such as baptism, church life, evangelism, warfare, economics, the oath and the role of the state need to be revised. 161
Mission and evangelism are not identical, though the rela- s. tionship between evangelism and engagement with political, economic, cultural and social issues has been debated widely. Nor were missionary activities between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries confined to evangelism. but the evangelistic aspect of mission demonstrates clearly the problematic Christendom legacy and the challenge of figuring mission in post-Christendorn.
Evangelism today is deeply unpopular, within and ond the churches. Although the Decade of Evangelism, despite shortcomings, rekindled interest in evangelism, it not remove the aversion many sensitive Christians feel. Despite the abandonment of inappropriate forms of evangelism and the adoption of humble, patient, holistic and textual approaches, rooted in friendship, many still find evangelism problematic. 224
Some doubt evangelism can be rehabilitated. Can this deeply compromised practice be purged and reconfigured? Why not declare a moratorium on it? Why not focus on being faithful communities and trust the attractive power of the gospel to draw others to Christ and these communities? Cannot we work for social transformation without telling the story that motivates us?
These questions should be pondered, not dismissed out of hand. If we do not feel their challenge, we have not understood the Christendom story. Might a'decade of repentance' for the legacy of past centuries be more helpful than another decade of evangelism? 227
W hat might post-Christendom evangelism mean?
Acknowledging the charge of hypocrisy that fourth-century Christians faced for the first time and that remains common - a miserable Christendom legacy.
Confessing our failure to embody the gospel, now and previously, and inviting others to join imperfect pilgrims, not a perfect community. Brian McLaren suggests this approach: 'I'm sorry we Christians have so often put roadblocks up for spiritual seekers through our narrow-mindedness, our failure to bridge racial and cultural and class barriers, and our lack of acceptance ... Please don't blame Jesus for our failure to live up to his teaching and example. And be assured we'll try to do better, with God's help. Please pray for us, okay ?,
Renouncing imperialistic language and cultural imposition, making truth claims with humility and respecting other viewpoints.
Discovering evangelists who 'prepare God's people for works of service' 16 rather than eloquent performers in public events.
Realising churchgoing is no longer a normal social activity; church buildings and culture are alien, and many searching for spiritual reality do not anticipate finding this in churches.
Recognising post-Christendom's diversity and developing strategies for different audiences secularists, spiritual seekers, traditionalists, neo-pagans and others.` Searching for multiple contact points with the gospel in a culture no longer dominated (as Christendom was) by guilt, employing the full range of New Testament imagery and learning to relate the story to contemporary angst and yearnings.
Starting further back than in Christendom, not assuming our language and concepts are understood by the first generation in centuries without significant church connection through Sunday schools.
Rediscovering the 'go' in the Great Commission: reducing over-busy church programmes and equipping members to share faith at work, among friends and in the local community.
Appreciating this dispersed evangelism requires accessible and welcoming, authentic and provocative congregations, expressing faith through holistic mission.
Engaging in conversation rather than confrontation - evangelism alongside others, not declaiming from an authoritative height, through dialogue instead of monologue, listening and speaking, receiving and imparting.
Concentrating on low profile contextual witness, eschewing razzmatazz and large-scale monochrome strategies (Inappropriate in a plural society).
Anticipating longer journeys towards Christ: process-evangelism courses must assume less and last longer than those currently available.
Speaking consciously from the margins and inviting people to a lifestyle that, properly understood (we will need process-discipleship courses), contravenes dominant social values.
228-230
Reconfiguring evangelism will also mean rediscovering the gospel of the kingdom: liberation rather than personal fulfilment, reconciliation rather than Justification, transformation rather than stability; focusing on hope rather than faith; explaining the work of Christ in other ways than penal substitution; announcing good news to the poor and powerless but judgement to the rich and powerful; naming certain sins in some communities and different sins in others; addressing the sinned against as well as sinners. Who knows what good news a church on the margins might rediscover? 232
The demise of Chritendom reduces radically the temptations of power, clearing space for the old story to be retold.` Powerless churches need not wrangle over the relationship between evangelism and social action (this was always essentially about power), but can develop fresh perspectives on seemingly intractable social issues, because things look different from the margins. We can more easily identify with those mainstream society excludes. 244
Our priority must be to rediscover how to tell the story of Jesus and present his life, teaching, death and resurrection recognising past attempts have seriously missed the mark. We cannot continue to present Jesus only as the saviour from guilt few feel in post-Christendom. Nor can we invite people to follow a Jesus who merely guarantees life after death to those who are otherwise comfortable or a Jesus whose lordship affects only a limited range of personal moral decisions. We can no longer present a safe establishment Jesus who represents order and stability rather than justice, who appeals to the powerful and privileged for all the wrong reasons. Nor can we reduce Jesus to dogmatic statements in simplistic evangelistic courses or perpetuate the overemphasis on his divinity at the expense of his humanity that Christendom required.
Instead, we must present Jesus as (among much else) friend of sinners, good news to the poor, defender of the powerless, reconciler of communities, pioneer of a new age, freedom fighter, breaker of chains, liberator and peacemaker, the one who unmasks systems of oppression, identifies with the vulnerable and bring hope. 316-317
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