john drane post christendom mission
TRANSCRIPT
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