Doing Church in a Post-Christian World

As we move into the New Year, the steady march into a post-Christian culture continues ... and with it, the angst and anxiety of church people who long for "the way things were" when society and culture reflected respect for and support of "Christian" values and practices. The days of Christendom are gone, never to return (in spite of the power-politics of the Christian right). The clearest evidence of this reality is the nation-wide decline among historic denominations, including The UMC. And there are many other facts that could be cited.

I grew up in the era of Christendom. It was my native land, my "home." My training to serve the local church was from the perspective of Christendom. My career has been lived out in the end of the Christendom era and rise of the post-Christian culture. That journey has led me to the following thinking.

A religious culture shaped by Christendom centered around key elements:

• an emphasis on belief supported by scripture (proper belief, including proper belief about the Bible and Jesus),
• an emphasis on church membership,
• an emphasis on morals (proper behavior),
• functioning out of an attraction model, i.e., offer a better version of what others are offering (worship, preaching, youth program, children's program, music program) as a way of attracting new members (consumer-oriented churches), 
• functioning out of "come join us" thinking,
• appealing to people "like us." 

While this way of doing church was common, it did not prepare us to live in a post-Christian world. Most of us still don't have a clue how to do so. We live with anxiety over the membership/attendance decline in our churches. We live in fear of the future we anticipate if the decline is not reversed. Our focus is on survival. Our way of functioning is to continue to do things the way we have always done them, expecting a different outcome (the definition of insanity in the recovery world). We lament "the way the world has changed," criticizing the younger generations and sports on Sunday and ... We are envious of the megachurches and their success in reaching younger generations while discounting their worship as "religious entertainment" or "Christian rock concerts." We point the finger of blame at everyone but ourselves and our antiquated way of doing church.

Living in a post-Christendom world calls us to recognize how the world has changed. It calls us to recognize that our old way of doing things no longer works (even though it once "worked" for us and probably still does for some of us as individuals). It calls us to think differently. (Albert Einstein is credited with saying "we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.") It calls us to learn. It calls us to adapt and (gasp!) change. It calls us to risk and experiment. (See Tod Bolsinger's Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory, 2015.) In short, it calls us to change the culture of our churches.

Living in a post-Christendom world is an unprecedented opportunity. It is an opportunity to refocus on who we are as the followers of Jesus and on what we are called to be/do. It is an opportunity to break free from the restraints of institutional, building-centered Christianity. It is an opportunity to experience the vitality and joy of loving as Jesus loved as we walk in relationship with God.

I pray we won't miss this opportunity.