Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Gospel ministry in post-Christian culture
the Challenge for the local church
Listening to the context
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Double listening
Two ears one mouthUse accordingly in
mission
Failure to enter the other persons world leaves us like the tourists who keep speaking louder in their own language
To the Mission Context
To the essence of the Christian Inheritance
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Globalisation and ‘Glocalism’
• Globalisation– Increasingly diverse cultures across the globe are subject
to common global issues and culture– Consumerism and commodifcation, subjectivism, new
communication, a reaction against these, Keppel ‘the revenge of God’.
• Glocalism– These are not expressed the same in each locality but are
present in most so one must both ‘think global but act local’ but also listen to the local expression of the global
– One size does not fit all, there are no off the shelf solutions.
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Post-community?
In which community In which community
should church exist?should church exist?
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Post-modernity? Modernity to Postmodernity
I tell my story
I choose my beliefs
I buy my identity
The logic of consumerism
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
0
10
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100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Age in 2005
pe
rce
nta
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of
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pu
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on
under 15
monthly
Post-Christendom?
9% monthly
26% De Churched
65% Non Churched
76% of New Christians Come from 26% De-Churched
finding faith today 1992
This section of the population is older and decreasing over time
Church attendance 2005
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Post-Christendom?
Not just about church attendance– Grace Davie,
- Believing without belonging and vicarious faith• But changing belief• Fading of occasional office• Decline in Christian identity
– Stages in the decline of Christendom not a new way for it to persist
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Belief in God
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1947 1981 1990 2000
life force
personalGod
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Infant Baptism C of E 2007
0102030405060708090
100
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
percentage of births by year
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Church Weddings 2007
0102030405060708090
100
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
percentage of marriages by year
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Christian Affiliation UK
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
date
pe
rce
nta
ge
of
po
pu
lati
on
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Christian Affiliation 2001
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Age in 2001
pe
rce
nta
ge
of
po
pu
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on
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Christian Affiliation
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1981 1999
15-29
30-49
50 +
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Builders (born 20s+30s) in 2005
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
raised inchurch
nowattend
monthly +
christianaffiliation
raisechildren
to believein God
believe in
life force
personalGod
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Boomers (born 40s+50s) in 2005
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
raised inchurch
nowattend
monthly +
christianaffiliation
raisechildren
to believein God
believe in
life force
personalGod
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Gen-Xers (born 60s+70s) in 2005
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
raised inchurch
nowattend
monthly +
christianaffiliation
raisechildren
to believein God
believe in
life force
personalGod
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Gen-Yers (born 80s+90s) in 2015?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
raised inchurch
nowattend
monthly +
christianaffiliation
raisechildren
to believein God
believe in
life force
personalGod
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Post- Secularism?• Post-modernity - multi-faith in a post-secular age
– Post-modern move from truth as fact to truth as experience - From universal truth to true for me may be different to true for you.
– Rejection of objectivity for subjectivity– Personal belief re-enters the public square– Any and every belief …. All are equally unprovable– And so …– All of this much to the annoyance of Richard
Dawkins…….and Christians?
– Religion once more on the agenda but any religion with no way back to Christendom …..indeed is Christianity disadvantaged compared to the alternatives?
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
‘Spiritual’ experience in 2000 Vs 1987
55% saw a patterning of events – up 90%
38% felt God’s presence – up 41%
37% had answered prayer – up 48%
29% felt sacred in nature – up 81%
25% the presence of the dead – up 39%
But what are they But what are they experiencing?experiencing?
25% the presence of evil – up 108%
1987 48% report a spiritual experience - 2000 risen to 76%
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
The ‘excluded middle’
• Paul Heibert– Many traditional religions have a sacred
dimension about the Gods and secular dimension to do with the non-spiritual but also a middle ground of the superstitious and everyday spiritual. He saw this as missing from Christianity,
– This area very much addressed by new spiritualities
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Believe in the soul
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Believe in an afterlife
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Believe in restless spirits
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Believe in Karma
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Experience of fortune telling, Tarot, astrology, psychics, palmists
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Australian Gen Y – like Britain?
Floating 46 %
‘new spiritual’ 23%
Religious 17%
Non believing
14%
Rationalist humanist
Includes neo pagans and followers or frequent participants in the esoteric/occult
Moral relativism, pick ‘n’ mix, truth in all religions but not just one, something ‘out there’ occult and paranormal experienced
BUT open rather than committed or seeing as important
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Japan Britain
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
religiousattendance
reigiousaffilitaion
belief inGod
religiousattendance
religiousaffiliation
belief inGod
percentage population 2000
annual
festivals
monthly
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Consumer Christianity?
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Consumer Christianity?
• God the cosmic therapist?• Cruise liner – or Battleship?
John Wimber
• Church shopping?– Looking for what I get out of it– Looking for the one that does things my way
• Buying religious product?– Baptisms & weddings– Rosaries– Retreats– Christmas Carols
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Network theory and small churches• Culture formed through relationships
– Those around us raise us with views like theirs– We tend to follow these unless we also form relationships with those of
different views– In a multi-cultural setting this can lead to loss of challenging relationships– But minority opinions are kept out and taboos that make such views
embarrassing or offensive are employed– Reversing the Christendom picture?...
• In some cultures very hard now for Christians to enter other networks unless they keep faith quiet.
• Danger Christians create a protective ghetto that may protect Christians but kills mission
• Ghetto tends to reinforce negativity to the church• But also danger that those in the world lose their faith• We need confident supported Christians who can enter other networks
for effective mission
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Gospel ministry in post-Christian culturethe Challenge for the local church
Listening to God in the history of mission
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Jesus, mission and other faiths• The Vision of the kingdom of God (cf Luke 5-8)
– Radical values of inclusion leading to transformation and reversals of status – the sinful, the unclean, women, the non-Jew ( in spite of Jesus claim to only be sent to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’)
– The use of parables • Making disciples who will make disciples
– The parable of the sower (Luke 8) followed by sending of The 12 (Luke 9) and 72 (Luke 10) as Jesus has been sent (John 17) (apostolic church). To make disciples in all cultures (Matt 28)
• Weakness and vulnerability the marks of the missionary– Sent to be the guests of those they are to witness amongst– Becoming as servants and children (Mark 9)– The small things leading to great change – mustard seed
and yeast in dough
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Crossing culture - The Early Church
• In Jerusalem– The Pentecost Sermon to Jews Acts 2– The Jerusalem church Acts 4– The Hellenists – fresh insight & Persecution
• In Judea and Samaria– The dispersal of the Hellenists– Philip – the Samaritans & Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8
• To the ends of the earth– Peter and Cornelius Acts 10– The Church in Antioch Acts 11– The Gentile mission from Antioch
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Paul does ‘double-listening’
• Acts 14 – Lystra– After healing a crippled man the crowd think Paul and
Barnabas are Hermes and Zeus.– Paul reasons from nature not scripture to explain his
faith….and struggles to communicate
• Acts 17 – Athens– Paul goes round the temples learning about Greek belief
– we see the results in his address to the Areopagus.– He debates with the philosophers in the market
place….and struggles to communicate – they call him a ‘spermalgos’ – someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about!
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Paul’s two sermons
• Jesus is the expected messiah who will fulfil the prophets and law
• He was killed as a sacrifice but rose
• He has been appointed judge and we must now change the directions of our lives
• We are all searchers after God
• The God of the universe doesn’t live in temples
• That God has set a day to judge the nations so we must now change the directions of our lives
• The judge will be Jesus who was raised from the dead
Mission in Christendom is like Jewish Mission
Jews …….and…….Greeks?
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Mission: shift to Christendom
• Early Church incarnate in local culture– Greek Church - Paul uses poetry to Zeus– Roman Church - Jesus as Orpheus– Coptic Church - the image of Isis becomes Mary– Celtic Church - Jesus the Druid (Columba)– Germanic Church - the Heliand
• Christendom one faith one empire– The Saxon Church and the war band– Synod of Whitby - the date of Easter; monks hair– Mission ends within empire, – becomes conquest beyond it
• Modernity evangelism recovered in Christendom– Individuals called to belief in a Christian country– Aimed at intellectual conviction and crisis conversion
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Gospel ministry in post-Christian culturethe Challenge for the local church
Embodying God in today’s world
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
A new Reformation?
400 BC
600 AD
1500 AD
2000 AD
Judaism
Early Chur
ch
Christendom
Reformation
?
Eternal Gospel
Changing expression – David Bosch ‘Transforming Mission’
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Mission in Christendom
• Mission (abroad)
– Cultural export Vs Inhabiting local culture
• Evangelism (at home)
– Calling people back to ‘the national faith’
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Learning from foreign mission
• “Do not call people back to where they were (they never were there)
• Do not call people to where you are, as beautiful as it may seem to you
• But travel with them to a place neither of you have been before”
Vincent Donovan – ‘Christianity re-discovered’
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Changing Mission?
• From: sharing the Gospel in “come to us” mode
• To: Exploring Church in “go to them” mode
Church Missions
Courses
‘Seeker’ Services
To boldly go where no church has gone
before
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
From individuals to all creation
Restoring the whole story of salvation
sin salvation
creation
New creation
Individuals savedIndividuals saved
All creation savedAll creation saved
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
God’s Mission & God’s Kingdom
• The transformation of people linked to the transformation of creation – Romans 8, 2 Cor 5– Reconciliation as a reversal of the fall– Humanity restored to God’s image as missionary to
creation
• Social transformation linked to evangelism – Any Gospel that does not proclaim and seek to bring
about God’s Kingdom fails to understand Jesus and God’s mission
– Any Gospel that does not set people free from sin will never achieve social transformation
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Three levels of mission community
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Who are on the way?
Bounded set ? Or..
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Who are on the way?
Bounded set ? Or…….Centred Set?
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Who are on the way?
Bounded set ? Or…….Centred Set?
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Lessons for sharing faith• People increasingly come to faith through experience rather
than changing thinking• Many people want to grow spiritually and will take support in
this seriously• Sharing faith is welcomed. Telling others what they share is
wrong simply closes the conversation• Most people aren’t interested if Christianity is true but if it is
inspiring and life changing• In the internet age everything is public be consistent• We need to know how we will handle issues of gender, the
environment, evil, other-faiths• Avoid Christian language like sin, salvation, redemption etc
people don’t understand it or misunderstand it – but we still need to talk about them but with different words
• We need to live as if what we say really does work• Remember God transforms people not Christians
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Resources
Steve Hollinghurst Sep 11
Evangelism is…..
• Not getting people to Church ………………..….……..
but getting people to be Church• Not taking God to people …………………………………
but seeing what he is already doing in their lives• Not first about getting people into heaven ……………
but getting heaven into people• Not saving people from the world ..…………………..
but allowing God to transform them
as part of a plan to transform the world also
Your Kingdom come your will be done Your Kingdom come your will be done
on earth as it is in heavenon earth as it is in heaven