The Missional Church

Tim Keller stuff on missional church.  So convicting, challenging, desirable.  PRAY!!!

5 minute video:



The Need for a 'Missional' Church 
In the West for nearly 1,000 years, the relationship of (Anglo-European) Christian churches to the broader 
culture was a relationship known as "Christendom." The institutions of society "Christianized" people, 
and stigmatized non-Christian belief and behavior. Though people were "Christianized" by the culture, 
they were not regenerated or converted with the Gospel. The church's job was then to challenge persons 
into a vital, living relation with Christ.  
There were great advantages and yet great disadvantages to 'Christendom.' The advantage was that there 
was a common language for public moral discourse with which society could discuss what was 'the good.' 
The disadvantage was that Christian morality without gospel-changed hearts often led to cruelty and 
hypocrisy. Think of how the small town in "Christendom" treated the unwed mother or the gay person. 
Also, under "Christendom" the church often was silent against abuses of power of the ruling classes over 
the weak.  For these reasons and others, the church in Europe and North America has been losing its 
privileged place as the arbiter of public morality since at least the mid 19th century. The decline of 
Christendom has accelerated greatly since the end of WWII.


Read the rest of this amazing 3 page pdf here.