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KICKOFF SERIES

8/27/2013

1 Comment

 
A Benedictine monk friend of mine, Dom Anthony of Christminster Abbey, occasionally e-mails me articles by a Christian writer named Michael Craven. The man is extremely insightful, so I'm kicking off our blog with a series of articles by him. I hope you find them worthwhile.


          Christians in America: Out of Touch and Out of Reach                  
                                                                                               By Michael Craven                                                           FIRST IN A SERIES

According to a report produced in 2013—“Christianity in its Global Context, 1970–2020: Society, Religion, and Mission"—researchers at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, offer a timely overview of the changing demographics of Christianity and Christians’ activities over the past forty years.

In summary, missiologist Todd M. Johnson and his team found that 20 percent of non-Christians in North America really do not “personally know” any Christians. Christianity Today points out, “that number includes atheists and agnostics, many of whom are former Christians themselves and more likely to have close Christian contacts. Without that group, 60 percent of the non-Christian population has no relationships with Christians” (Emphasis mine). This despite the fact that 80 percent of Americans self-identify as Christians.

CSGC research associate Gina Bellofatto notes that small but burgeoning movements have arisen to initiate purposeful interreligious dialogue and community service projects. However, according to Bellofatto, “They're still rare compared to the apparent apathy among Christians about befriending non-Christians, especially if it means reaching across neighborhoods and towns into more ethnic enclaves.”

Clearly, a century-plus of evangelistic campaigns aimed at “getting people saved” has failed to propagate the Christian faith in any meaningful way. Instead, too many churches in America are characterized more by a suburban social ethnicity built around shared values and religious consumerism than any sense of kingdom mission.

Jeff Christopherson, vice president for the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Missions Board, echoed this sentiment in saying, “We hide in our own evangelical ghetto,” and “we go to churches that would only be welcoming to people that think like us.”

This makes sense when understood through the church’s contemporary theology of escapism—this idea that the primary goal of the gospel is to provide one entrance into heaven when one dies. While eternal life in the age to come is indeed a promise of the gospel, the reduction of the gospel of the kingdom to nothing more than this has left the church without any relevance to life in the here and now. By reducing the gospel to the acceptance of a few facts about Jesus, which then determines one’s eternal state, Christianity loses its most powerful claim: that of Christ’s kingdom come to bear upon this world. It is through the rule and reign of God pressed into the world by the people of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that sin and all its damage is confronted and relief is found.

This is the story of Western civilization—the world touched by the church in every area of life—where humanity has experienced unprecedented flourishing. Despite our checkered past, Christians have throughout history risen up against countless evils bringing real reform to a broken world defaced by sin.

The Christian church has confronted political tyranny that oppressed God’s creation with the principles of liberty rooted in the imago Dei. The historic church was the first institution on earth to declare slavery unjust, to develop concepts central to individual economic freedom, to provide health care to the sick and dying, to offer humane rules of warfare, to educate the masses, and to establish as virtues the concepts of mercy and compassion. The church didn’t do this because they thought it a good way to win converts. Rather, they understood that the world ruined by sin was being set right by Jesus, the king who declared his Lordship over all the earth, and that to follow Jesus meant sacrificial participation in his kingdom-renewing work.

Without the Christian/kingdom influence of the last two millennia, the world would have remained in its brutal state. To believe otherwise is to be both historically ignorant and to believe that human progress is the natural orientation of mankind.

© 2013 by S. Michael Craven
1 Comment
usar4me
7/26/2014 01:21:32 pm

The great commission has lost its base in the Church.. and the fellowship of communion has become a traditional act rather than a deep spiritual experience.

I fear that many are hardened to the moving of the Holy Spirit and for many reasons have become desensitized to the call in their life... Living breathing faith... alive in the Spirit that moves mountains and opens vast vistas of experiential union with God is lacking in the lives of most Christians today.

It is a true blessing too find real communion with the Lord... and his Body in the Earth. One cannot describe the peace it imparts or the comfort it brings to the soul of man... too, reach out in Spirit to touch the divine. Too, breath in the very essence of holiness thru communion with God and His people.

The Church of today... lacks that personal and deep spiritual walk with God... because of the lack of commitment to prayer, fasting and periods of deep meditation and study. I find it a joy to listen to the psalms put to music too become immersed in a sea of tranquility as the Word of God ministers to my soul.

It is the duty of the strong in faith to bear up the weak... too, reach out in spirit and truth to guide them into the deep things of the Spirit. I have always admired the ancient context of the Orthodox Church its traditions, music, artifacts and dedication by its ministry to the doctrine of the Apostles ...

I want to thank you for your invitation to this site and I will be visiting it from time to time as the Lord leads... I do have a question.. where does the Orthodox Church stand on Ephesians 4:11... do they believe that all five of the ministry listed there operate today? I would be interested in knowing.

God Bless you and yours with peace, prosperity and health... now and forever Amen.

My email is usar4me@hotmail.com

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    Our worship space is a humble but plucky little chapel on our converted porch.  I spend a lot of time pondering, there.
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