Hopefully you read my earlier blog post beginning to explain "Three Worlds."
Let me continue explaining this revolutionary approach to missions.
In addition to having an in-built system of support and accountability (our Three Worlds Team), we will be living and working within three very different worlds of Christian faith.
And no, I don't mean "Catholics, Baptists, and Church of God folks."
The three worlds of Christian faith are these:
1.) The Traditional Church
2.) The Post-modern/Post-Christendom Church
and
3.) The Non-Western/Acts 2 Church
The Traditional Church is the Church in which I was raised, and (largely) the Church in which I have ministered over the past decade. This is the Church that is established and accepted in its local context. People understand you when you say, "I'm going to Church," and they don't automatically look down upon you for doing so. This is the Church that still (largely) exists in the MidWest of the USA. But it is on the decline as the society around it continues to evolve and morph into something other than Mayberry (RIP Sheriff Taylor).
The Post-Modern/Post-Christendom Church is the Church in which we will largely be working in Europe. It is the Church that struggles to exist and maintain its identity as distinctive and holy in the midst of an ever-encroaching surrounding culture of Secularism. The culture around this Church is no longer understanding and accepting of the Church. People are less likely to understand you when you say "I'm going to Church," and if they do, in light of scandals and the ongoing science-faith battle, they are more inclined to look down upon you or write you off as uneducated. This Church has a struggle on its hands to make inroads with the surrounding culture(s) and display the Church to be something positive and something worthwhile in the 21st Century.
The Non-Western, or Acts 2, Church is the Church that is largely comprised of new believers, many from outside "the West," and many who don't struggle to reconcile Christian faith with their historical culture. Faith is easy for this Church and they have little difficulty believing in a supernatural God who works in ways Science and Reason cannot make sense of.
I want to be very clear about something.
All THREE of these expressions of the Church are right.
The issue is not that one's better than the other, and we're trying to support just that one while quietly allowing the other two to fade into oblivion. That's not the case at all! The reality is that since all three exist, we must seek to support and strengthen all three, and allow the Spirit to continue to blow as it will.
Within the context of the Netherlands, and Europe/TME, Christy and I (and Sofie...) will be forced to operate within and minister to all three of these different worlds of Christian faith regularly.
In addition to doing this because it is what the Lord has called us to do, and in addition to supporting and equipping specifically the "Post-Christendom" Church because they need help navigating their secular culture while maintaining their distinctive, holy (Gk.: "set-apart") faith, let me tell you one more reason why what we are going to do is important.
The Traditional Church of Today is the Post-Modern/Post-Christendom Church of Tomorrow.
With the de-evolution of Mayberry here in the MidWest (USA), for example, the Role of, the Identity of, and the Importance of the Church is ever changing as well.
Hopefully what we will experience, and the responsive methods we will develop can be effective in ministering to the Post-Christendom Church of Today in Europe/TME. And hopefully this experience can better lead us to help guide the Post-Christendom Church of Tomorrow, which is currently the Traditional Church of Today.
Stay Tuned for Part Three of Three Worlds Explained.
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