“We have to learn how to evangelize
and plant churches again, and do it from the prophetic margins, not the center,
of culture.” –Dr. Timothy Tennent
I was first introduced to the term ‘Christendom’
as a referent to any place in which Christianity has pervaded culture due to a
dense Christian community when I read “The Next Christendom” by Larry Jenkins.
These communities are those in which Christianity does not exist on the
margins, but is a majority view highly acceptable by persons of that region. In
a more strict sense, the sense I was more familiar with, this term refers to an
official church state, but the broader term, in relation to the more narrowed
sense, makes a great, correlating claim about the area being considered.
If we are labeling a state or nation
with the term ‘Christendom,’ even while that country is not officially
Christian by governmental proclamation, we are saying much about what we think
this area of the world is like, and we are saying it is something like the
official states in some sense. First, as stated above, we are suggesting that
this is a place where Christianity is highly accepted and even assumed to be
socially superior to other religions or worldviews. Moreover, since this is a
state in which Christianity is not persecuted, it is a place where Christians
can relax and interact openly in politics and cultural decisions as a
Christian. It is a place where being a Christian, in an openly religious sense
is not difficult.
As nice as this is, it does come with
dangers, and this is where I think lumping these sorts of nations in with
official church states is fitting. Tragically, being declared Christian by association
with a certain culture leads to nominal Christianity and to an erosion of
evangelical priorities. Whether one is declared Christian in the Constantinian
sense, or one adopts Christianity because it is a social norm, a muddling of
church and state can lead to true faith taking a back seat. Note that I am not
saying that Christendom is or is not a totally negative phenomenon. That is a
topic for another time. I am simply pointing out the fact that Christendom
comes with its risks. Social engineering often replaces moral formation, and
true faith is replaced with religious pretext.
Unfortunately, we are seeing the
fallout of a failing Christendom project right here in America. It is not only
illustrated by the daily decline of evangelical Christianity in the West, a
place where Christianity used to be an assumed reality for almost every citizen.
It is seen in the failings of the church in holding our ground due to the
blindness of many church leaders to the fact of the condition of our society.
There is a glaring neglect for missions and evangelism in so many churches
still today, even while our part of the world is the fasting growing mission
field in existence.
I have heard so many speak of feeling
blessed to have lived in a time when morality in America was taken for granted.
While ‘bad people’ were present, the vast majority of Americans had a respect
for one another, at very least as a social pretext. I acknowledge that this was
surely a blessing in a lot of ways, but, in some ways, I feel blessed to have
been raised during the fallout, where TV is full of pornographic images, even
on regular cable, where men openly treat women like objects, and women speak
with tongues formally reserved for the most base individuals of society.
I certainly do not say this for shock
value, nor do I delight in the openness in which people of today participate in
immorality. Instead, I see a blessing in the fact that I have not been made
delusional by a past that no longer exists except, perhaps, as a façade in
certain areas of the country. Nor am I victim of to that which some of the
older generations fell prey, which is lethargy and negligence due to
ill-conceived assumptions. Christendom can lead to unwarranted assumptions
concerning the need for effective evangelism, or lack thereof. In a culture in
which everyone is assumed Christian, our missional call as the church takes a
back seat. This is surely a huge problem here in America.
There was a time in which I almost
fell into this line of thinking. I was only a child, perhaps just before the
fallout in my area of the world, which might of held on a little longer, but I
can remember coming home from Vacation Bible School in a panic. I figured if I
were really called to evangelize to the lost like the Bible says I should, I
would have to become a missionary, because everyone in my world, so I thought,
was a Christian. It did not take much time out in the real world for me to
become disillusioned. Unfortunately, there are those of generations past that
are still living in the past because they do not interact on a social level
with younger generations that are giving way to pluralism. Instead, these older
generations grew up in an assumed Christian culture where missional thinking
was fanatical or exotic, and church programs and social events replaced
effective evangelism. For many, the church gathering on Sunday morning is as it
always has been, a nice sermon, some songs, shaking of hands, and a filling
lunch with acquaintances, and the true state of Christianity and the
surrounding, declining culture is easily ignored. The assumption of a Christian
norm still persists.
For my generation, at least those
involved with the surrounding culture, we can no longer assume, as once was the
norm, that those we engage with on the streets are Christian. Pluralism is on
the rise, and evangelical Christianity in America, as has already taken place
in Europe, is on the decline. Older generations who still are involved with the
same friends they have always had, the ones they grew up with, do not see the
lash back against Christianity amongst members of my generation, but people my
age see it everyday.
Why is Christianity losing traction?
In our comfortable Christendom, we lost discipline. Comfort led to nominal
religion. Christian education is almost oxymoronic in many minds. The church
lost much of its missional talent and we no longer have persons who are willing
or educated enough to address a non-Christian, post-Christendom world. Frantically,
my generation is trying to make up for lost time, the time in which we should
have been discipled to have a missional heart and real intelligence.
The church by and large does not know
how to be on mission right here at home. For too long we took for granted the
state of the culture, and we are having a hard time fighting for the faith in
this postmodern, pluralistic society. We do not know how to live on the
margins, to be those ostracized for our opinions, and this only compounds the
issue and makes us more and more marginalized. In our blessed comfort, we
unwittingly became indolent and forgot catechesis, the raising up of disciples
through disciplined, robust Christian teaching.
So, when my friend comes to me
frustrated that his church is more concerned with fixing the television in the
social hall than they are with working with a failing budget that gives little
in the way of missions, and this friend only sees a sense of entitlement coming
from an older Christian concerned with secondary concerns over the true mission
of the church, my response is not merely to say that this is one bad egg
amongst well-intentioned Christians. The question my friend is asking of this
church leader is a common question that my generation has concerning many of
our superiors: “How can you not see that you are not focusing on the mission of
the church.” It is a matter of living in two different worlds. We grew up
during the fallout. Many leaders older than us are still living under old
assumptions. It is not a matter of one individual being stubborn or one being
more intuitive or idealistic. It is a matter of generational assumptions,
perspectives, and experiences.
Certainly, we have gained much from
our elders, and many of our elders are just as missionally minded and
exponentially wiser than many of my generation. We owe much to those who raised
us up. But, now we have something to offer back, a new perspective, a call to
regain our missional purpose. We need to call attention to the real state in
which our American finds itself. Some truly do not realize how bad it is out
there. All is not lost, but we must fight.
-TM
