Using this definition, the authors point out that “neither the structures nor the theology of our established Western traditional churches is missional. They are shaped by the legacy of Christendom” and given the fact that the cultural context is no longer conducive to even “member recruitment,” the American church is scrambling to define its mission. Many churches have recently begun to use the term “missional” but this is often nothing but a new word for evangelism operating under the same old assumptions of Christendom. It neither fully considers the post-Christian cultural context or the all-encompassing redemptive mission of God.

Because so many churches still labor under the illusion of Christendom their response to this loss of cultural relevance and missional ineffectiveness ends up being misguided. “The typical North American response to our situation is to analyze the problem and find a solution. These solutions tend to be methodological. Arrange all the components of the church landscape differently, and many assume that the problem can be solved. Or use the best demographic or psychological or sociological insights, and one can redesign the church for success in our changing context.” (Missional Church, p. 2) This inevitably results in the church trying to look like the world in order to be relevant when what is needed is an intelligent and loving representation of the Truth that is relevant to what the world really needs.

The latter requires that the church better understand the cultural context and dominant ideas or worldviews that have shaped the culture. These worldviews, which purport to offer an all-embracing life system, must be met with a Christianity that offers an “equally comprehensive and far reaching power” in the words of Abraham Kuyper. It is, in large part, the church’s present inability to accurately recognize the changing cultural context and assert this all-encompassing view of the Christian faith and message that has rendered the church irrelevant and left it confused with regard to its purpose and mission. The American church must begin to see itself as existing within a “foreign” land and like foreign missionaries, properly contextualize its mission.   

Next week we will examine what it truly means to be “missional” and how it carries out that mission in today’s post-Christendom cultural context. Click here to read Part 2.

© 2008 by S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the founder and President of the Center for Christ & Culture. The Center for Christ & Culture is dedicated to renewal within the Church and works to equip Christians with an intelligent and thoroughly Christian approach to matters of culture in order to recapture and demonstrate the relevance of Christianity to all of life. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, additional resources and other works by S. Michael Craven visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.