Monday, October 6, 2008

Moving from a Christian culture to the beginnings of Post Christian Culture...We are Heading there

The issue at hand; 'the church in a post Christian culture' has been widely acknowledged by the Western world. We can see evidences of this in Europe in particular where Christianity is simply something of a fad. But can we actually say that this kind of influence is infecting our local context/ place?

We don't have to be experts in this (although research would make our claims more authoritative), just to see the climate of influence the church has over society as a whole. Fewer and fewer young adults are attending church or attend on an occasional basis. Youths in particular are dwindling in numbers, and to think that does not alarm us! Soon, if we continue and allow this to prolong, eventually our churches will end up like the churches in Europe.

What are our current climate in expanding our christian influence at this point of time? This question is one that i would like to answer in the local context that I am presently in.

There is not much i would say in terms of methods. It has always been the standard of holding some sort of 'evangelistic rallies' or christian functions and encouraging members to attend with the hope that they will bring their 'non-christian friends'. This could be understood as 'invitation method'. But as it always goes not many 'non-christians' would feel welcomed because the intent is only that they get converted. Furthermore the context in which we invite is not contextualized. What i mean by this is we explain the gospel in our own jargons which people who are not familiar with those words will not understand a word.

Another difficulty with the 'invitation method' is that we put the 'non-christian' always on our turf. When i explain turf here i mean our church building or our programs. What about going on their turf for a difference? When i say this i have to explain otherwise people might think that i mean condoning going to stripper club, the pub or night club. So i better spell this first for people who think i am crazy. But regardless if we are to reach people now we have to think out of the box. We could either think of attending battle of the band as a bridge to create friendships. I say this because we have a lot of musical talents.

At the moment I just want to leave it here at the moment. Maybe if i am not that lazy i might have some other ideas to plow. Until ideas start pouring in.

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Hopeful Theo

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OIL TOWN, SWK, Malaysia
I'm a student of Theology (currently and will always be one). I'm a student of culture and a student of music as well. I guess you could say life is a never ending journey of learning. Because of that we never stop being students. Just a little something about this blog: Deconstructing The Monkey is all about being a safe space for emerging conversations