The Challenge and Opportunity of Our Time
In 1 Chronicles 12:32, the men of Issachar are described as understanding the times and knowing what the people of God should do. In the same way, the church today must embrace our context and understand the time in which we live. A local church like ours exists not as an abstraction detached from the realities of time and place, but as the living body of Christ in the midst of the world. In this respect, any realistic vision of what a congregation is to be and do together must not only be formed by God’s redemptive purposes as revealed in Scripture, but also must faithfully account for the character of the world—the context in which we live.
Considering our global context, the church at the beginning of the twenty-first century faces the unique and profound cultural challenge of pluralization. According to James Davison Hunter, pluralization refers to the increased experience of social, cultural, and ideological diversity in the lives of ordinary people. Because of globalization, migration, and other factors, the ordinary person today experiences the world no longer as a singular or coherent whole in which everyone believes the same things as me, but as a plurality in which a number of different cultures, people, ideas, and practices live together in close proximity.
One of the most distressing aspects of the experience of pluralization is the way that it challenges our established ideas about the world. James K.A. Smith refers to this experience as “fragilization.” Which is to say, “In the face of different options, where people who lead ‘normal’ lives do not share my faith (and perhaps believe something very different), my own faith commitment becomes fragile — put into question, dubitable.” The challenge of pluralization for the ministry of the church in our day, as Hunter describes it, is that “to the extent that Christian believers and the church as a whole engage the world, it will experience the pressures of assimilation to the world.”
Understanding this fundamental characteristic of our global context is deeply important because it frames the context in which we are seeking to live faithfully together as the body of Christ. On the one hand, the challenge of our context means that we will need to cultivate followers of Jesus who are deeply rooted in the historic Christian faith and can courageously, lovingly, and winsomely engage with and live among those who believe differently.
And yet, while this context presents challenges for Christian discipleship today, seen from a kingdom perspective it also provides an incredible opportunity for cross-cultural missions. As a local congregation, we have an opportunity to reach people from many different cultures and welcome them into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus. As a church, may we be solid in faith, and open to all those whom the Saviour calls to himself.