We have some friends in a staunchly 5-point PCA church. Neither of them came from that background. There, they joined a small group of couples in their late-20s to mid-30s (a bit younger than our friends). After a year, they had to leave because they could not deal with the extreme fatalism expressed by others in the group. They later moved into a group where they were the younger ones and have not seen these older group members display the same degree of fatalism.

I found this very intriguing, as I would have thought the older group would have been the more fatalistic. But it says something about the younger group, since they’re more versed in new media forms than the older. They may be absorbing the nihilism and cynicism of new media. They’re also more open to the culture, so I suspect they’re picking up the “bad karma” of the general culture. One other possibility: much has been made of the resurgence of hardcore Calvinism among younger folks. The older group isn’t as dogmatic. Might this also contribute to the feelings that nothing can be done?

Hmm…

great article. The dichotomy between church and the world (public/private) is evident in the us against them posture evangelicalism often takes. there is no witness, just exclusion. Rodney Clapp suggest that the retrenching tendancies of evangelicalism are but an illusion to live in an age that is long dead. You touched on this well. The other alternative, the fear, is capitualtion to ways that evangelicalism can only label as liberal. It seems within those two cultural categories, the options are limited.

I like what you say about emerging missional leaders making great inroads through culture, not to be relevant (God forbid), but ministering out of a posture of embrace for the other. It seems that dicotomizing stories (god’s & the world) is not the intent with the missional approach, but it seems to be more about a relaization that we are living in God’s all-encompassing redeeming story (McLaren).

For my strong feelings for not dichotomizing the church and world, I have to say that there still is in me an awareness that there are scripts within our culture that are contrary to God’s dreams for this world. can these stories be seen as the world? I think so, but the perspective for Christinas trying to bear witness in the West should not be one that anticpates everything not evangelically conservative going to hell in a hand basket. Rather, it should be one that seeks engagement and seeks to discern ways in which God is already mischeviously working to redeem all things…here we can be midwives and help something beautiful we can’t control come about…

once again, great post, thanks.