COPING WITH CULTURAL SHIFT IN POST-CHRISTIAN AMERICA (Part 3)

Continue with us in our conversation about Coping With Cultural Shift in Post-Christian America. Need a quick refresher? No problem, you can read Part 1 & Part 2 of the series here in the blog section of our website.

Let’s get to work with another important piece to the puzzle of what Post-Christian culture is about.

Post-Christian … a term referencing the period of time we live in where Christianity no longer has the dominant influence it once held as the prevalent worldview (how we look at the world) in our nation. In today's America we find ourselves primarily being influenced by a secular humanist philosophy for life. We may not even see how such influence is taking root.

In this secular view of life God and His organized Church are considered essentially a non-factor. They are “crutches” earlier generations and weaker people lean on to cope with life. For those who see the world through the lens of secularism, they view themselves as having evolved beyond such thinking and really have no need of organized faith as they have known it. They believe the utopia they seek can be achieved on their own.

One significant help in sharing the Gospel in a Post-Christian world is to know what the term, “Post Christian,” references and how people with a secular worldview think, feel, and believe. Hopefully this series is assisting you in both of these aspects. It really does make a difference because it changes everything about our approach in sharing the Good News with people of our day. 

It is extremely helpful when we are able to grasp what author Mark Sayers says: “Post-Christianity is not pre-Christianity; rather Post-Christianity attempts to move beyond Christianity, whilst simultaneously feasting upon its fruit.” (Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilence)

What Mark Sayers references is that the people of a Post-Christian world are not the pagan people of the past, who knew nothing of the one true God or never considered God in any form. The people of the Post-Christian era have most likely spent some time in thought about religion, might have experienced faith by being a part of a local church or watched it online, and they may have even considered themselves to be a believer.  

The big difference from the pagans of the past is they have some general understanding of the Christian faith and have moved beyond it. They have checked it out, maybe even bought into it for a while, but for various reasons rejected what they saw and moved on in life. In short, they are not necessarily unlearned and may even try to fulfill some Christian ideals (without a co-dependance on the organized church or even have God in the picture at all).

This changes the entire conversation we need to have with people who hold such a worldview. Instead of assuming we know what it is they think or believe and formulate the perfect answer for them … we step back and use a coach approach in evangelism and learn to ask good questions.

Then we listen a lot so we are able to carefully discover exactly what they are thinking about in life, spiritual concerns, and God. It is less about us dispensing information and more about the discovery of what they are thinking. So when we do share, we have greater substance to contribute. Once understood, we can interact more effectively with them rather than tell them unsolicited information they have no real interest in.

In general, we have found this people group to be interested in conversations about spiritual life, God, and other types of disciplines a person may consider to guide them. Often we find their lives to be a mosaic of the pieces they picked up along the way. Many of them contain parts of traditional forms of faith learned in earlier years, along with other concepts they found as they journey through life. Exploring, considering ideas, learning new perspectives, and expressions of spiritual life are of great interest.

They are people who have a form of faith as they put their trust in something … be it science, politics, finance, position, etc. Discover their treasure and you will find where their heart lies. Then we can share the Good News as it applies to them.

Our first endeavor in a discipling relationship with people of the Post-Christian culture is to befriend and get to know them; it’s to discover where they are actually at in life. We are thinking about your neighbors, co-workers, a roommate, or even a family member. They are everywhere we go and in every aspect of society, even in the church we attend.

Then, once we understand them a little bit better than we did before, we can start to share from what we know. We can share meaningful ideas about the Good News that Jesus Christ has come near to them in ways that connect and communicate with those we are discipling. This creates opportunity, and opportunity can open the door to belief.

The scripture says that the goal is to make disciples: people who believe Jesus is the Messiah. They are people who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in all areas of their lives. We see it happening in Acts as the Church is given life, and we can see it today as this same Church adapts and continues to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Join us in knowing the people of our day and lead them into this radical new life.