Books that Rock

Part one: The Shape We're In

Christendom: The Shaping of Things to Come begins with a discussion of Christendom. The authors describe it thusly:

"Christendom is the name given to the sacred culture that has dominated European society from around the 11th century until the end of the 20th... in some countries, the king or queen actually became the head of the church. Overall, Christianity move from being a dynamic, revolutionary, social, and spiritual movement to being a religious institution with its attendant structures, priesthood and sacraments."

Page 8

Think of Christendom as your current church culture. In the US, church is done in a certain way. My home church sits in a theatre like auditorium, is led by a well rehearsed semi-pro worship team, and our taught almost every week by one man, our senior pastor. There are ushers, Sunday School teachers, youth workers, etc. This local church culture is supported by Christian publishing houses, Christian bookstores, music download sites, etc. This is the "face of Christendom" in the US. To the non-Christian most of it seems pretty odd, and not very relevant. (Please don't construe this as a criticism of my home church. I'm just making some observations).

Which brings me to the question: "Does the fish see the fishbowl?" Not usually. Because this is our church culture, in which we were raised, we don't usually see it. This culture has been spread by Western missionaries (inadvertently, and God, in his sovereignty allowed it to be so) so that around the world, many churches share this specific culture. I can say with certainty, that a believer from one of our Hong Kong churches would feel right at home in an American church. And, I might add, I think there is something wrong with that. The gospel has not been indigenized, clothed in local culture, but rather transplanted. How much of what we do on any given Sunday is really essential to what we call "church"? How much has been passed down to us and accepted without evaluation? What are the basics, the essentials that you must have in order to have "church"?

I once went to an Indian museum (Warm Springs ?) in central Oregon. During my tour the elders of the now dying tribe, shared how their people believed in God and thanked him for his provisions in special harvest ceremonies (the woman gathering the harvest were not allowed to eat one nibble until the entire tribe had held a thanksgiving service to God). Then the white man came, took their land and pushed them onto a reservation. After moving to the reservation the missionaries came and set up a school for the children. The children, however, didn't change fast enough, but clung to their Indian culture, so the missionaries with the government's support, took the children from their families and made them live in a boarding school. They were forced to wear white man's clothes, cut their hair and speak the white man's language. Rather than being allowed to follow Jesus as an Indian, they had to essentially become an Anglo- European to become a Christian. This is Christendom.

Charts are always simplified and thus tend to simply issues into black and white. The authors say there is a new kind of church emerging now (I don't know anything about the Emergent Church movement, so please don't overreact to their use of the word "emerging". They are solidly evangelical and declare in the beginning of their book their commitment to the fundamentals of the faith).

Well that is all I am going to say in this post.

Think about it: How is Christendom different from following Jesus? Can I be a fully devoted follower of Jesus, without taking on all the trappings of Christendom?

Labels: books, change, Christiandom, church leadership

# posted by Unknown @ 11:31 AM