January

January 25, 2017

Reaching a Post-Christian Culture Through the Power of Your Story

“Jesus was a storyteller. He used the language of the day, agricultural language and fishing language, to connect with His followers and disciples.”  -Drew Belz These words, from a recent article in byFaith, remind us that the changing mindsets of our times demand a form of communication that touches people where they live.  People thirst today for relationships, meaning, hope, and encouragement to help them in the struggles that they face.  And oftentimes personal storytelling and its real-life effects provide inspiration and courage along the way.  Stories present us with the lives of real people who face real problems and […]
January 19, 2017

“We Saw Clearly That The Lord Was With You”: How the Church Should Act in a Post-Christian Culture

Every Wednesday, I enjoy participating in a Bible study with a sizable group of passionate men who love to study the Scriptures and to talk about its application to daily life.  For the last few months, we have studied and discussed the Book of Genesis.  This week we found ourselves applying the truths of Genesis 26 to our lives. Mind you, Genesis 26 is not the “hottest” chapter in this narrative-rich book.  It doesn’t command attention like the Creation account, the marriage of Adam and Eve, the Fall, the Tower of Babel, and Abraham’s life and events.  But in the […]
January 13, 2017

Post-Christian America: My! How Things Have Changed and What To Do About It

This week, an excellent essay, written by Michael Dimock of the Pew Center, discusses with statistical research the many social and cultural changes that have taken place over the eight years of the Obama Presidency.  Regardless of how you view our outgoing President and our incoming President, it is important that we recognize some of these significant changes over the past eight years and attempt to formulate in our minds the ways we can take the gospel to the shifting mindsets of our post-Christian culture. What has changed in America’s mindset and culture over the last presidency?  Dimock says: “the country is […]
January 6, 2017

In the Post-Christian Mind, Fiction is the Substance of Things Hoped For, the Conviction of Things Not Yet Seen

In a recent article in The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber analyzes several pop-culture TV shows and movies (The OA, Westworld, Stranger Things, Doctor Strange) and concludes that the “search for the metaphysical” (afterlife) is alive and well in the minds of viewing audiences.  This analysis aptly points out that in our post-Christian culture, there is an obsession with a different kind of spirituality-search than what existed several decades ago.  In these days, spirituality involves a search for realities beyond what you can SEE with your physical eyes.  Meaning is created from your own fantasy and the living of this experience in what is […]