The transforming world...

Every so often, the world goes through a radical transformation—a transformation that affects the way that people think about the world and experience life. This has taken place many times in human history, as when the world had to adjust with the fall of Rome ushering in the Middle Ages. It was nothing new when the world adjusted again during the Renaissance, and so on through the Reformation and the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment resulted in the modern atmosphere of the twentieth century, which relied on scientific method and human reasoning.

Today, we find ourselves in a world that is going through another radical transformation. People are thinking differently. Human reasoning is no longer trusted, and the scientific method has been dethroned from its pedestal of authority. The entire western world, which has been impacted by a Judeo-Christian worldview, is fast becoming an unchurched post-Christian world. Tom Clegg and Warren Bird (in their book Lost In America) claim that the unchurched population of the United States is now the largest mission field in the English-speaking world and fifth largest globally.

During two thousand years of Church history, the Church, by God's grace, has adapted its form of ministry to different cultural settings. Throughout all of these adaptations, God has been faithful in preserving the proclamation of the Gospel. Even in our day, while the forms of ministry may be different, the Truth of Jesus Christ is never changing.

The rethinking of church...

To continue to be effective in proclaiming Jesus Christ to the world, we need to view everything around our current context as a field for mission. In the Greater Boston area, we are surrounded by people who embody this post-Christian culture. Here at Newton Presbyterian Church, we have a great opportunity and even an obligation to do whatever is necessary to make sure that the message of Jesus is heard by these people.

Culture has shifted. As a result, the church is no longer at the center, and is no longer an accepted or respected institution within our culture. In order to fulfill our mandate to bring the timeless message of Jesus into this changing context, the church should rather see itself as a mission post within our culture. As a result of this mission, the church is called "to a new openness to the possibilities and perils of its institutional forms in order to ensure the faithfulness and usefulness of these forms to God's activity in the world."

This new, developing world is one that is not unlike the world in which the early Church developed. Therefore, we need to reexamine carefully the forms and practices of the early Church. Understanding the vintage faith of the many who have come before us will help us be the Church, faithfully and effectively, in our emerging context.

There are many great churches ministering to modern-minded people, but we must also be passionate about emerging generations who aren't connecting with current forms of ministry and thinking. To this end, a number of us have been gathering leaders of all ages together to think about how God might be calling us to be the Church in this cultural situation.