tuesday reflection for week 1

In our first class gathering, Ryan briefly gave a history of the Transforming Contemporary Cultures class. Beginning with the influence of Lesslie Newbigin, William Shank began teaching this class at Fuller in order to change the Christendom mentallity that the church emodied—still embodies in most areas—at the time to a Missiological mentallity. Ryan clarified these different terms and their approaches to church in culture. In this context, Christendom is characterized as the connection between church in state in which the church receives power from and represents the state. With a Christendom mindset, the church simply invites people to come, and assumes they will come. The idea of presenting the Gospel within the context that the people live is not considered from this Christendom perspective. As a result, the church has begun to dissipate because its teachings no longer speak life into the lives of the people in its community. Consequently, the people begin to find God and spirituality in other life-giving activities. For example, many people today find a level of spirituality—whether they label this God or not—in music, social justice, and/or enjoying frosty beverages and conversation with friends. For these people, God is present and alive in these activities.

The Missiological mentallity attempts to avoid the break down of the church and its community by serving and emodying the kingdom of God in culture. Whereas the Christendom mentallity did not communicate the gospel in culture, the missiological mentallity focuses primarilly on communicating the gospel within the culture. Through this communication within culture, the demarcation between the sacred and secular realms becomes hazy, if not disappearing altogether. This breakdown of the sacred vs. secular becomes key for the church and its survival because it can now take things from culture and, through the guidance of Christ and the Holy Spirit, redeem them by turning them towards God as acts of worship. This process can be seen in many churches today through their emphasis on creativity as a part of worship.

Near the end of class, Ryan summed up the Missiological mentallity with the thoughts of the founder of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller. Ryan said, "A person shouldn’t have to change cultures to find God. Christ coming to all cultures is the beauty of the incarnation." A beautiful statement. If this is the case, which I think it is, then what would a Buddhist Christian, Muslim Christian, Hindu Christian, African Christian etc. look like? How are the cultures of these groups saved when the people begin to follow Christ?