God Still Speaks (Part 3)
When we reflect on the call to be missionaries to the University District Village our hearts are captured by the world of Post-Christian America. Now, some 10 years later, we can see God’s genius at work … revelation has come, growth and maturity have taken root in us, and our understanding of what He said expands the vision He gave us. The result is we talk and live differently as the Holy Spirit disciples us!
God still speaks and sends people just as He has done with us. Sometimes He speaks in riddles and images we don’t immediately comprehend. Other times He talks with clarity and precision. In all of it, we find a voice of unity and love with a great concern for people who do not believe.
Post-Christian is a worldview we didn’t understand at the beginning of this journey and at times found ourselves frustrated with those who held this approach to life. Our reactions were often times not real good as we misunderstood so many things. Once the Holy Spirit got involved He changed the way we think about this people as we started to learn a different way to live out our faith among them.
So, welcome to the culture of Post-Christian thought. We feel the effects and experience the struggle without knowing exactly what it is we are engaging or why we feel the things we do. It is almost like shadow boxing with a ghost (not the Holy Ghost), as you never know exactly what to do, or not do, next.
The reality is that this post-Christian era is something most Christians really do not understand or are able to make sense of … at least for those who come from a more traditional approach to their religious experience with God.
Many Christians are unaware that the people living all around them share in some part of this worldview. It is present with the neighbors who live near us, the people working next to us, the social groups we join, or the schools we participate in. We even find them sitting next to us in our faith gatherings.
In short, this is a worldview promoted through the ideas of secular humanism. The ideas and thoughts of this worldview have been shared for generations through the “pulpits” of the universities all across our nation. The course has been changed.
Meanwhile, we (the church) were engaged in withdrawing through our extractional activities of creating a Christianized version of a utopian society, which was built out of a strong church culture. And what were the propagators of this worldview doing? They were busy influencing the students who came through their classrooms, and each year they sent out their newly acquired followers into every sector of American life.
The people of this enlightenment type of thinking became pretty good influencers who successfully challenge the status quo and offer an alternative narrative to consider. And people believe it; they follow it; they live it. We might go so far as saying, it is the Post-Christian equivalent of evangelism. It is, in some ways, another gospel all together.
This isn’t theory or science fiction. It’s what we see happening in real time everywhere people live. We see it in universities, entertainment, the workplace, governments, and our next door neighbors all across our nation.
Instead of withdrawing and extracting, we as followers of Jesus need to better learn how to be in the world while not being of the world. We aren’t talking about some stuffy, pious religious version of this idea. We are talking about ordinary people living incarnational lives, who are Gospel fluent and live with Gospel intentionality. This would change everything!
When we think about the words the Holy Spirit spoke to us in 2011 as He began to nudge us towards a new assignment in our lives, we find a different excitement than we had before. The words, “University District Village,” ignites our hearts as they warm us up to the people of Post-Christian America.
God Still Speaks, and we are more convinced of this than ever before. In fact, we believe He may be speaking to multiple people right now and challenging you to a new life with Him. If so, contact us and join the cause.