Post-Christendom?

"The end of Christendom where the Christian story was known and the church was central invites Christians in western culture to embrace marginality and discover fresh ways of being church and engaging in mission."
Stuart Murray Williams 
Post Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World

Having sat through lectures by Stuart Murray-Williams and having spent time with him on a mission trip to India I have a lot of respect for his propositions and his teachings. However, a recent trip to the USA after an absence of about 10 years, my head full of thoughts and ideas formed during my time at Bible college, I began to call into question the sweeping assertion that church is no longer central to culture in the west. I am not going to be guilty of hypocrisy by stating that all is well for the church in the USA, but I do claim that there are many societies throughout the glorious 50 United States of America, where one could claim that the Church is still central to life, culture and the psyche of individuals. Once claimed, it is easy to produce the evidence to support that case! I spent the past two weeks in California, which probably doesn't support that notion, but even there, amongst the rich and poor, the multi-racial, the old and the young, there is still the vestiges of Christianity and Christendom, and one does not have to go looking for it! If one ventures further afield to other states that I know well, particularly Minnesota (where I lived for a while), North & South Dakota, Idaho, Illinois, one might be surprised to find that Church and faith is still the very bedrock of those societies. Yes there are other cultures and faiths present who do have an influence and perhaps that influence is having an effect on that bedrock, but one cannot argue that Christianity and the Church is no longer central to much of what happens here. Post-Christendom may be used as a battle-cry by many in the Church here in the UK, but for me it's not one that is yet suitable for the USA, they should not be accepting marginalisation but should be fighting maintain and strengthen what they already have.

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