The Post-Christian Condition

POST-CHRISTIAN: WHAT IS IT?

With every passing day, we are repeatedly reminded that our times are considerably different than our childhood days. The way people think and process information is distinctively different than our parents’ and grandparents’ era. While our forebears processed thought in an age of industrialism and modernized manufacturing, today’s world engages information from mindsets powered by high technology, social media, performance cultures (sports, pop music, chic glamour, cinema, etc.), globalism and secular diversity.

WHAT DOES POST-CHRISTIAN MEAN?

It used to be in times past that communicators in general, and preachers and teachers, in particular, would bank on “the power of the Word” to break every barrier and to connect the listening heart with the spoken truth. Nowadays, some of the same people continue to advocate the same reasoning for homiletics, evangelism and discipleship, only to see declining influence and fruit from these approaches. What does this mean?

WHY IS IT SIGNIFICANT?

Most people readily acknowledge that our culture engages information distinctively different than previous generations. Our times show considerable difference from the previous century’s world wars, economic depression, industrial expansion and choices in music, movies and fashion. Today, many people feel this change has degraded their country, their values, and their way-of-life. Yet with all this transformation, few, if any, new communicative strategies have surfaced to compensate for this generation’s different thinking and philosophy in ways that will impact and influence them towards Judeo-Christian morality and faith.