This week I am in Barcelona Spain. This is a beautiful city and the culture is quite inviting. It reminds me in many ways of New Orleans. I felt home. Now if I could just speak the language.
I’m here interacting with missionaries from Western Europe for the week. I hope to be able to do some podcasts speaking with some of these folks who are reaching those living in a Post-Christendom world. We are seeing the beginnings of that post-Christendom movement in the US. We are dialogging about how Americans are being reached and how we Americans can learn from those in Western Europe. The real dialog begins on Tuesday, though we spent yesterday arriving and walking all over the city. Today, it has been more of enjoying the city and learning what is happening in Western Europe.
I hope to blog some about our dialog, sharing what we can learn.
In the meantime, pick up a copy of an excellent read: POST-CHRISTENDOM: CHURCH AND MISSION IN A STRANGE NEW WORLD.
This book discusses the end of Christendom, where the Christian story was known and the church was central.‚ The book invites Christians in western culture to embrace marginality and discover fresh ways of being church and engaging in mission. While the transition from modernity to postmodernity has received a huge amount of attention, the shift from Christendom to post-Christendom has not yet been fully explored.
This book is an introduction: a journey into the past, an interpretation of the present and an invitation to ask what following Jesus might mean in the strange new world of post-Christendom.‚ Drawing on insights from the early Christians, dissident movements and the world church, this book challenges conventional ways of thinking. For those who dare to imagine new ways of following Jesus on the margins, it invites a realistic and hopeful response to challenges and opportunities awaiting us in the twenty-first century.
