ReThinking Church: Missional Living

The world has been (and is) rapidly changing. Until the Mid 19th Century, the West (Europe and the USA) was defined by Christendom. Under Christendom, the values of culture were defined and shaped by Christianity and non-Christian beliefs and behaviors were considered wrong and shameful.

Tim Keller explains, “The disadvantage was that Christian morality without gospel-changed hearts often led to cruelty and hypocrisy…Also, the Church was largely silent over many abuses of the ruling class over the weak,” and overlooked a great deal of injustices.

The evangelistic strategies of churches have focused on attracting marginally religious people and inviting them to become Christians. Tim Keller continues, “In the conservative regions, it is still possible to see people profess faith and the church grow without becoming missional.”

Many churches have experienced success winning people to Christ who are still familiar with the spiritual heritage. But, the culturally Christian population is a shrinking market. Those who identify as secular--no longer feel the need to identify as Christian--are becoming the majority. Churches are declining and few Christians understand why or what to do about it.

The need is to abandon both the attractional strategy of the modern church and the institutional strategy of Christendom and return to the missional strategy of the early church.

This Sunday, we will continue our series reThinking Church as we consider how to move beyond institutional to incarnational.