11.23.09

from the center to the margins..

Posted in hermeneutics, mission, missional order, pluralism, semiotics, transition at 5:00 am by len

Stuart Murray writes,

“Post-Christendom is the culture that emerges as the Christian faith loses coherence within a society that has been definitively shaped by the Christian story and as the institutions that have been developed to express Christian convictions decline in influence.”

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.

“Post-Christendom can easily be perceived as a threat and associated with failure and decline. Our response to the challenges it presents may be to burrow ostrich-like into the remaining sand of familiar church culture, scan the horizon for growing churches that claim we can continue doing what we have always done, or clutch desperately at promises of revival or programs that promise to restore our fortunes. Indeed, the more we understand post-Christendom, the greater may be the temptation to respond in such ways: post-Christendom is not an easy environment for discipleship, mission or church.”

From his paper “The End of Christendom”, Presented at Global Connections Interface Consultation, May 2004.

* * *

Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk note that in the second century in order to belong to the church a person was actually mentored into new habits of life that re-socialized them away from the destructive habits of the world. This focus on formation in Christ-centered community was greatly diminished with the rise of Christendom, when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. Quoting church historian, Alan Kreider, Roxburgh and Romanuk note:“Conversion, which had made Christians into distinct people – resident aliens – now was something that made people ordinary, not resident aliens but simply residents.” (The Missional Leader, 120) Dan Steigerwald comments,

“Consequently, Roxburgh and Romanuk argue, church leaders shifted their work away from forming people into an alternative society exemplifying the power of God’s inbreaking Kingdom to “oversight of orthodoxy, proper administration of the sacraments, and regulation of spiritualized and privatized ethical practices.”

“Later, monastic movements formed “Orders” to deal with laxity in attention to such ecclesial practices (and the associated erosion of the quality of discipleship) as well as the intrusion of worldliness into the church.”

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