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Post Christendom is a bigger reality than post modernism:

We all instinctually get that we are getting pushed to the margins of our society.

He shows the Christendom world view slide. We are no longer at the center of the society but are at the margins. We must now work to gain a hearing. All forms of ministry are contextual: moderns wanted experts and we have them abundantly. They even wanted this from the church. “The Bible says” was enough for Billy Graham to say for authority. But post moderns value contemporary Incarnational imagination. Missional equals Incarnational. It requires an engagement with the world. We need to talk within a conversation. It does not mean you do not get to talk but it happens within a conversation. There are those who are predicting bad times for evangelicalism in America. One example is “The coming evangelical collapse: An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise.”

By Michael Spencer from the March 10, 2009 edition Christian Science monitor. A new study reveals that the biggest exodus is now in the evangelical churches. Baptists are losing the most. As the liberals lost them so now we are. Read the rest of this entry

Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
By Brian D. McLaren; Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 2007;
327 pages

McLaren’s goal in his book is to provide a better “framing Story” than is currently proclaimed as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has been on a journey to discover a larger story, with fresh vision about Jesus and his message that could change everything for us and the world we inhabit.(6) The global village is experiencing crises in prosperity, equity, security and spirituality. Three of these issues: the prosperity system, the security system, the equity system make up the society system as they interact with each other. He explains how each of these systems performs a necessary function but each also has a dysfunction that leads to crisis. The prosperity dysfunction is leading to environmental disaster. The equity dysfunction leads to increased conflict between rich and poor. The security dysfunction leads to armed conflict with ever increasing poorer nations or groups turning to terrorism.

According to McLaren, the problem with the current Christian world view is that we do not have a big enough story that can speak into these issues. We have told ourselves a story that allows everything to remain the same. The story goes like this: we can continually increase our prosperity because God has given us the earth to use without limits; there is inequity because we work hard for our money and God is blessing us. If you want in on the blessing you need to stop being lazy; we are a nation that represents good, some nations are evil we need to use violence to stop them. According to McLaren the stories we tell ourselves about our place in the world, needs to radically change. Much of the book is McLaren retelling the story of Jesus as an “emergent messiah” who has come to save the whole world including the environment. (78) Read the rest of this entry

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