Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission (Re:Lit)

by Tim Chester

Much of the decline in the church in the West has been the falling off of nominal Christians.

As a result, what remains may be more healthy.

The number of adults in the United States who do not attend church has nearly doubled since 1991.

Over 3,500 United States churches close their doors every year, and the attendance of more than 80 percent of those remaining has plateaued or is declining.3

Modernity is characterized by an increasing plurality, within the same society, of different beliefs, values, and worldviews.

Plurality does indeed pose a challenge to all religious traditions—each one must cope with the fact that there are ‘all these others,’ not just in a faraway country but right next door.”6

Merely opening our doors each Sunday is no longer sufficient. Offering a good product is not enough.

What is clear is that great swathes of America will not be reached through Sunday morning services.

What is clear is that she did not mean she is a Christian by any biblical definition of the word. To her, “Christian” is a cultural or ethnic label. It is not a declaration of her faith in Jesus as her Savior, or her allegiance to him as her Lord, or her membership of his redeemed people.

The vast majority of unchurched and de-churched people would not turn to the church even if faced with difficult personal circumstances or in the event of national tragedies.18

It is not a question of “improving the product” of church meetings and evangelistic events. It means reaching people apart from meetings and events.

In the United States you can still plant a church by creating a better church experience. If you do this in the United Kingdom, then the best you can do is attract existing churchgoers. That might be a valid endeavor, but it is not evangelistic growth.

We are living not only in a post-Christian context but in a post-Christendom context.

1) From the center to margins. In Christendom the Christian story and the churches were central, but in post-Christendom these are marginal.

2) From majority to minority. In Christendom Christians comprised the (often overwhelming) majority, but in post-Christendom we are a minority.

3) From settlers to sojourners. In Christendom Christians felt at home in a culture shaped by their story, but in post-Christendom we are aliens, exiles, and pilgrims...

4) From privilege to plurality. In Christendom Christians enjoyed many privileges, but in post-Christendom we are one commun...

5) From control to witness. In Christendom churches could exert control over society, but in post-Christendom we exercise influence only through witn...

6) From maintenance to mission. In Christendom the emphasis was on maintaining a supposedly Christian status quo, but in post-Christendom it is o...

7) From institution to movement. In Christendom churches operated mainly in institutional mode, but in post-Christendom we must ...

So why claim that the West is still predominately Christian? Because some Christians want to retain the notion that Western nations are Christian with the privileges and securities this brings. It allows us to continue on the basis of business as

We are no longer living in a Christian culture. Thinking so causes us to go with a "business as usual" mindset instead of the reality of Christ no longer being at the heart of our society.

We are not pessimistic. There are many signs of life. Many churches are healthy. We sense a growing commitment to church planting across all the different tribes of evangelicalism. God’s Word is still being proclaimed. The gospel is still the power of God for salvation. The Lord’s arm is not too short that

it cannot save. The Holy Spirit is alive and well in the world today. Christ will build his church. Our aim in reviewing these statistics is not to make us give up. Our aim is to show that the ways we do mission have to change.

We want to suggest that most of our current dominant models of church and evangelism are Christendom models. This needs to change as we move to a post-Christendom and post-Christian context.

We need to do mission outside church and church events.

Mission must be done primarily in the context of everyday life. An everyday church with an everyday mission.

We may not often be persecuted, but we are marginalized.

We have become strangers because we have become strange! Our values, lifestyle, and priorities are radically different from the surrounding culture. Our faith makes us strangers in our own land. We do not fit in. We are on the margins.

We have become outsiders just as Jesus was an outsider. We are marginal in our culture because Jesus is marginal. The cross is the ultimate expression of marginalization and to follow him is to take up our cross daily. It is daily to experience marginalization and hostility. Being on the margins is normal Christian experience. Christendom was the aberration. Rather than assume we should have a voice in the media or on Main Street, we need to regain the sense that anything other than persecution is an unexpected

We need to wake up and realize we are in a missionary situation. We cannot continue to undertake mission in a pastoral mode. We cannot assume people feel any need or obligation to attend church. We cannot even assume we understand the culture. We need to operate as missionaries in a foreign

We need to discover or recover the sense that if this year we are not imprisoned, then it has been a good year in which by the grace of God we have gotten off lightly.

People are biblically illiterate.

We cannot talk about Jesus and assume that people locate him in a framework of creation, fall, redemption, and future hope. Everything has to be explained.

It is so important to love your neighborhood and its culture. As we sense our growing marginalization with the wider culture, it is all too easy to view it as a threat. But viewing the culture around you as a threat is not a good starting point for reaching people with the gospel.

This act of abstaining from sinful desires will bring Christians into conflict with a culture that does not restrain sinful desires (4:2–4).

“First Peter challenges Christians to reexamine our acceptance of society’s norms and to be willing to suffer the alienation of being a visiting foreigner in our own culture wherever its values conflict with those of Christ.”

Trying to match the world begs the question, If the church is like the world then why bother with the church? The more we become like the world, the less we have to offer.

Programs are what we create when Christians are not doing what they are supposed to do in everyday life.

This is where God’s people are prepared for works of service. But the works of service take place in the

context of everyday

Our faith is animated on Sunday mornings as we sing God’s praise and hear his Word. But it limps along during the week when we live apart from the body of Christ.

The Christian community demonstrates the effectiveness of the gospel. We are the living proof that the gospel is not an empty word but a powerful word that takes men and women who are lovers of self and transforms them by grace through the Spirit into people who love God and others.

individual Christians but between unbelievers and the Christian community. We want to build relationships with unbelievers—not in church buildings where we feel comfortable but on their territory. We also need to introduce people to the

network of relationships that make up the believing community so that they see Christian community in action.

(1) building relationships, (2) sharing the gospel message, and (3) including people in community.20

1) God is great, so we do not have to be in control. We often want to be in control, so we dominate, manipulate, or overwork people. Or we fear things being out of control, so we worry. But God is sovereign. He is in control. Things may not always go the way we want, but God is in control, and he uses everything that happens to us for our good. 2) God is glorious, so we do not have to fear others. We often sin because we crave the approval of other people or fear their rejection. The Bible calls this the “fear of man” (Prov. 29:25). We live to please other people, or we are controlled by peer pressure. The Bible’s answer is the fear of God. God is the glorious one whom we should fear. He is the one whose approval matters most, and he is the one whose approval we have in Jesus Christ. 3) God is good, so we do not have to look elsewhere. Sin often leads to pleasure, but its pleasures are empty and temporary. Only God brings true and lasting joy. The pleasures of sin are quick and immediate. So we need faith to turn to God for lasting joy.

4) God is gracious, so we do not have to prove ourselves. Many people act out of a desire to prove themselves. On the surface they may look impressive because they achieve many things or live good lives, but when things go well they are proud, and when things go badly they are crushed. They may look down on others because this makes them feel better about themselves or become bitter when their hard work is not rewarded in the way they want. It is also this desire that makes us determined to win an argument. The good news is that, while we can never justify ourselves before God, God has justified us through Jesus Christ. Jesus has done it all, so we have nothing left to

1) God is great, so we do not have to be in control.

2) God is glorious, so we do not have to fear others.

3) God is good, so we do not have to look elsewhere.