The Contrast that Clarifies...

There seems to be a great fear about mainstream society moving away from Christian values. I can understand that. I have four children who will grow up in a country that no longer takes for granted what I have as standards for morality. But I'm wondering if we are working too hard at the wrong issues. In their book The Shaping of Things to Come, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch make a good case for refocusing our energies on mission.

Since the time of Constantine the church has had a central place in society. For the bulk of that time it was the driving social and moral force. Frost and Hirsch refer to this period as Christendom. They are not talking about Christianity, but about the power and influence that Christianity has had in the eyes of the average individual. Christendom was great, but today it's more accurate to describe Europe and a growing section of North American as Post-Christendom. Some people may react to that critique of North America. It is true that there are many "Christians" in North America, but you have to question why it is not making a difference in the moral stance of North American culture. Frost and Hirsch claim that the church is living in an era like that of the early church. We are not the driving force in society. And we, like the early church, need to adopt a missionary posture. Instead of worrying about fighting the trends in society, we need to be the church. We need to work within a culture that is foreign to what we know to be true.

I've said all of this because I think that it's important that we don't see the defeat of our moral agenda as the defeat of our God. Sometimes declining morality actually helps to clarify what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Several months ago I was working on a powerpoint presentation for our church. I couldn't get the text to stand out enough and was getting frustrated by it. Everything looked muted. One of our tech people at the church came over to help me out. In about two minutes he solved my problem. In order to help the text "stand out", he used a shadow edge for each of the letters. The darkness all around them made them clear. I learned that day that it's the contrast that clarifies. And maybe that's what God is doing in our society today. Maybe He's allowing things like gay marriage to help the church be more than just a place we go on Sunday. It's the contrast that clarifies. Maybe instead of spending our energy trying to utilize the political process to accomplish our goals we need to be the church, follow Jesus, and help others to do the same.