Connecting to a Post-Christendom World: A Word to Leaders
As Christians seek to live out lives of hope and light, we are confronted with people who see our beliefs as increasingly irrelevant. And as much as some of us put our hope in government, institutions, etc., to change our culture, it won’t. The Christian faith cannot be forced. It is up to the Church to do what only the Church can do—point people to Jesus.
We live in a post-Christendom age. In other words, and among other things, Christianity is not the presumed right path in the day in which we live. That means we are at a different place and that’s always a good time to consider how we might connect with people in culture.
The truth is, if Christians are going to make a connection with those outside the Christian faith, it’s going to begin with shared values and move from there. Much of the world treats Christianity as if it were an archaic toy they’ve left behind as they mature. It is shunted off into the attic of their lives. In order to change this belief, we must start with open hands.
As I engage with people, I find many are confused as to why we follow a Jesus who served the hurting and healed the sick, while we ourselves don’t seem to be following suit. It seems that the world expects a certain level of value/care to be evident among Christians that does not naturally emanate from the world.
What I am talking about here is caring—actually caring—for those hurting and marginalized in our society. And we do it because Jesus did it. We do it because Jesus continues to call us to this kind of sacrificial and open love. I firmly believe that only when we care for those the world deems not worth spending time on that we can fully emulate Christ. And once we begin to truly care for people, then those far from God will listen to our words.
Let me offer a few suggestions for how leaders can help their churches to care for those around us, and those different from us.
First, a culturally-relevant approach to ministry and worship may be helpful to bridge the gap between us and those who are far from God, but it’s not enough.
I don't know anything about your church, so I don't know if you’re singing hymns from the 1840s or you’ve got Hawaiian shirts and shoes with no socks. What I can say is this: we can connect with others by living radically different lives. Sure, we are in this world and have hobbies and appreciate things around us, but we are also children of God, salt and light, living lives of worship and adoration. Our goal as leaders is to help our people begin to live incarnationally, i.e. live as agents of God’s mission in our neighborhoods and places of work.
So, I do think that culturally appropriate worship matters. I’ve written on it plenty, and certainly will in the future, but in our post-Christendom culture, evangelistic intent is becoming less and less on a Sunday morning and more and more on the relationships we build during the week.
Second, we can create spaces (like small groups) where love and encouragement occur.
These small groups can be in our churches and geared towards empowering and equipping our people to go out and show and share the love of Jesus with non-Christian friends and neighbors. Or these small groups can be in the community, allowing for safe spaces for those outside the faith to explore and ask questions. These kinds of groups are places where true community happens, and where real and felt needs are met.
Finally, we should move forward together with a common purpose in mind—namely, the restoration of our world to God.
That restoration of all things means that God is moving people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13) and then those new creations are renewing the world around them.
Intentionality of purpose is incredibly important in a world that values tradition less and places greater emphasis on questioning and adjustment for personal gain. We know the world is broken. People around us know the world is broken. What they don’t know is that it’s also lost.
When we point to the restoration of all things, that helps make sense to some around us.
But, brokenness is still real, evident, and all around us—including in our churches.
Once we are able to admit our churches are broken, and we allow them to be places filled with broken people, then we can begin to reach into the hearts of people. Why is the world broken? How can we fix it? What is the answer? Our churches need to remain transparent to a world that sees through the veils and masks of perceived values and moral behavior.
You see, a church without the broken is actually a broken church.
Our churches need to be places where real life change happens. This will be contagious to a world seeking answers and wholeness. We have a message that’s worth sharing and a difference that’s worth seeing.
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