I'm in Pasadena as part of a seminar for the MAGL (M.A. in Global Leadership). We've been reading through quite a few books, and wanted to share a few gems from them as I come across them. A little quote from a book called Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost:

"'Christendom' is the name given to the religious culture that has dominated Western society since the fourth century... The death of Christendom removes the final props that have supported the culturally respectable, mainstream, suburban version of Christianity. This is a Christianity expressed by the "Sunday Christian" phenomenon wherein church attendance had very little effect on the lifestyles or values or priorities expressed from Monday to Saturday. This version of Christianity is a fascade, a method for practicioners to appear like fine, upstanding citizens without allowing the claims and teaching of Jesus to bite very hard in everyday life. With the death of Christendom the game is up. There's less and less reason for such upstanding citizens to join with the Christian community for the sake of respectability or acceptance. The church in fewer and fewer situations represents the best vehicle for public service or citizenship, leaving only the faithful behind to rediscover the Christian experience as it was intended: a radical, subversive, compassionate community of followers of Jesus."

Labels: missional, missional church