Mark Sayers

UNDERSTANDING OUR TIMESLIVING AS MISSIONARIES

MISSIONARY SUCCESSWHERE ARE WE DOING WELL?

ASPIRATIONALS

NON EURO MIGRANTS

CRISIS OF MEANING

RETURNERS

MISSIONARY FAILUREEVERYWHERE ELSE

MISSIONARY MYTHSCHURCH SHAPESAVED BY COOLBECOME LESS………GO OUT

HappyWorld

THE HAPPY EGG

My Story

Happyworld = Friends > Family > Fun

SUPERFLAT

SUPERFLAT CULTURE1) DISENCHANTED 2) POST-COVENANTAL3) ME-ISM

SUPERFLAT CULTURE1) DISENCHANTED 2) POST-COVENANTAL3) ME-ISM

A DISENCHANTED WORLD

A PAGAN WORLD

“If you go back…in human history, you come to archaic societies in which the whole set of distinctions we make between the religious, political, economic, social, etc aspects of our society ceases to make sense. In these earlier societies, religion was “everywhere”, was interwoven with everything else, and in no sense constituted a separate “sphere” of its own.”

A Secular Age. Charles Taylor

CHRISTENDOM’S COSMOS

REFORMATION

NATURAL SCIENCE

“The problem is…the separation of God from nature, a split that began in the late medieval and early modern period. This resulted in the (perceived) separation of God from everyday life that is so characteristic of contemporary secular societies. The main carrier of this has been modern natural science. Science came to understand nature as a mechanical system that operated more or less independently from God. God was thus gradually (over centuries) removed from the cosmos.”

The Sacred Cosmos. Terence L. Nichols

TRUIMPH OF REASON

COMMODIFICATION OF EVERYTHING

MORALLY INSIGNIFICANTUNIVERSE

WHAT EXISENTIAL CRISIS?

SUPERFLAT 2 -DISTRACTION AND IDLE CHATTER

DISTRACTION& IDLECHATTER

SUBSTITUTIONARYTRANCENDENCE

“All Sins are attempts to fill voids.”Simone Weil

SUBSTITUTIONARYTRANCENDENCE

Consumerism, Sex, Travel, Sport, Home Improvement, Exercise, Food, Technology, The Environment, Education, Romantic Love, Experience, Music, Movies.

NO MARKETPLACE

SUPERFLAT CULTURE1) DISENCHANTED 2) POST-COVENANTAL3) ME-ISM

POST-BELIEF? Or…?

POST-COVENANTAL

TRADITIONAL STRUCTURE

META

COMMUNAL

INDIVIDUAL

STATE, NATION, EMPIRE

GUILD, CHURCH, VILLAGE, TRIBE, TRADE, LODGE, FAMILY, MARRIAGE, CLAN, CLUB, ASSOCIATION, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MARKET, VOLUNTEERS, UNIONS, FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

TRADITIONAL STRUCTURE

META

COMMUNAL

INDIVIDUAL

STATE, NATION, EMPIRE

GUILD, CHURCH, VILLAGE, TRIBE, TRADE, LODGE, FAMILY, MARRIAGE, CLAN, CLUB, ASSOCIATION, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MARKET, VOLUNTEERS, UNIONS, FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

COVENANTAL

CONTEMPORARY STRUCTURE

META

COMMUNAL/COVENANTAL

INDIVIDUAL

STATE, NATION, CORPORATION, MASS MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY/INTERNET, UNIVERSITY, CITY.

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, FREEDOM,CHOICE, PERSONAL HAPPINESS

SOLIDITY LIQUIDITY

ATOMISATION

SUPERFLAT CULTURE1) DISENCHANTED 2) POST-COVENANTAL3) ME-ISM

ME-ISM

QUANTAM CHANGE 1962-1970

RADICAL INDIVIDUALISM

FREEDOM MYTH

CHRISTIANITY’S PATHETIC COUSIN

ME-ISM (Moral Therapeutic Deism)

IMPLICIT & PARASITIC

HINDU ISLAM CHRISTIAN JEWISH

ME-ISM

DEFACTO FAITH

ME-ISM

1) Purpose of life is personal happiness

(Moral Therapeutic Deism)

2) God is a cosmic butler3) Morality is not hurting others4) Everyone gets to heaven bar Hitler5) Feelings are paramount

WHAT IS HOT

WHAT IS NOT1) Discipline2) Sin & broader consequence 3) Submission of self4) Interventionist God

WHAT DOES MISSION LOOK

LIKE?

In a dis-Enchanted Culture?

In a post-Covenantal Culture?

For a church infected by Me-Ism?