Sermon Tone Analysis

The Gospel and the Changing World

/Global Trends and the Advancement of the \\ Gospel of the Kingdom in the American Context/

 

/Alan Andrews and Christopher Morton/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2006 • The Navigators • P.O.

Box 6000 • Colorado Springs, CO 80934 • www.navigators.org

\\ Table of Contents

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Introduction........................................................................................................................................................... 1

Trends Affecting the Spread of the Gospel...................................................................................................... 2

Initiating Trends................................................................................................................................................... 2

GLOBALIZATION............................................................................................................................................ 3

How Globalization Enhances Our Opportunities to Advance the Gospel...................................................... 4

How Globalization Hinders the Advancement of the Gospel......................................................................... 5

URBANIZATION.............................................................................................................................................. 6

How Urbanization Hinders the Advancement of the Gospel.......................................................................... 7

The Opportunities Urbanization Provides to Advance the Gospel................................................................. 9

Responsive Trends.............................................................................................................................................. 10

PLURALISM.................................................................................................................................................... 11

How pluralism enhances our opportunities to advance the Gospel............................................................... 11

How pluralism hinders the advancement of the Gospel................................................................................ 12

Post-Modernity or Philosophical Pluralism....................................................................... 13

How post-modern thought provides opportunities to advance the Gospel................................................... 14

How Post-Modern thought hinders the advancement of the Gospel............................................................ 15

TRIBALISM..................................................................................................................................................... 16

How tribalism enhances our opportunities to advance the Gospel................................................................ 18

How tribalism hinders the advancement of the Gospel................................................................................. 18

The Implications................................................................................................................................................. 19

Bibliography....................................................................................................................................................... 23

Appendix: A Brief Description of the Gospel of the Kingdom................................................................... 25

Forgiveness of sin and repentance................................................................................................................ 25

The Restoration of Humanity in Relationship to God and One Another...................................................... 25

Salvation to the Families and Nations of the Earth....................................................................................... 26

New Life Beginning Today and into Eternity............................................................................................... 26

Substantial Healing within this life............................................................................................................... 26

Kingdoms in Conflict................................................................................................................................... 27

Restoration of Creation................................................................................................................................. 27

 

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The Gospel and the Changing World

!! Global Trends and the Advancement of the Gospel of the Kingdom in the American Context

/Alan Andrews and Christopher Morton/

 

 

!!! Introduction

 

Culture watchers, such as the late Lesslie Newbigin, believe that in many ways the start of the twenty-first century is closer to the first century than it is to the start of the twentieth century.[1]

The Roman Empire was a highly connected environment that in some ways resembled the globally connected world in which we live.

The empire that Rome dominated was also an incredibly pluralistic environment, united under the Roman emperor.

Whether the thesis is correct or not, many believe that the approach of the early church to advancing the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom is very similar to what we need in the twenty-first century.

Michael Green, in his book Evangelism in the Early Church, discusses at length many of the advantages that the early church had as a result of the unifying influences of the Roman Empire.

He also identifies many of the obstacles that the emerging church experienced in its early years.

After all was said and done, he drew some significant conclusions.

“They went everywhere gossiping the gospel; they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say that sort of thing.

Consequently, they were taken seriously, and the movement spread, notably among the lower classes.”[2]

Rodney Stark, the sociologist and historian from Baylor, proposes a different thesis on the spread of the Christian faith.

While agreeing that Christianity was popular among the lower classes, it was also a full societal movement, including the upper classes and intellectuals.[3]

Both Green and Stark agree on one important fact.

Green points out that, “It was axiomatic that every Christian was called to be witness to Christ, not only by life but by lip.”

Stark points to these interpersonal connections through social networks.

“Social movements recruit primarily on the basis of interpersonal attachments that exist, or form, between the convert and member of the group.”[4]

Believers in the early church were marked by their transformed lives and their willingness to talk to their friends and neighbors about what made their transformation in Christ a reality.

Just as Jesus was incarnate among us, so the early Church followed the mandate of their Lord, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).

In the following pages I intend to point out five global trends that are greatly impacting our world and the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom[5].

I hope to demonstrate that while these trends present both obstacles and opportunities to the advancement of the Gospel, in the end a whole Gospel incarnated and proclaimed to those around us will touch their deepest longings.

We do not live in a terribly resistant culture as much as we live in a profoundly changing culture.

I hope to provide for church leaders an understanding of the shifting sands of our culture, and to propose a way forward.

This should not be a time for pessimism, though there are certainly trends that could lead us in that direction, but a season for understanding of our times (1 Chronicles 12:32).

We must realize that our day is one that requires a demonstration of the transformed life in Christ.

Integrity, authenticity, and relationships really matter.

Our proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom must be vitally linked to genuine relationships and the transformation of our lives.

!!! Trends Affecting the Spread of the Gospel

 

Our world is incredibly connected today through technology, knowledge, trade, immigration, and so forth.

As a result of this connectivity, we see numerous major trends.

These trends arise either because of the positive realities of the connected world or because of a reaction against such profound connectedness.

For the purpose of clarity, these trends can be divided into two major types of trends: Initiating Trends (those that have been the catalyst for change in the world) and Responsive Trends (those that have arisen because of the change initially brought by the Initiating Trends).

!!! Initiating Trends

 

To say the world has changed has become a catch phrase in the past decades.

This world is not the same as it was in the centuries leading up to it.

The world of the 21st century has been building over the past five hundred years, but these changes have sped up in the past century thanks to two initiating trends: globalization and urbanization.

!!!! GLOBALIZATION

 

Globalization is a controversial word because it means different things to different people.

It can represent everything from selling McDonald’s hamburgers in Beijing, to multicultural people from varying social economical groups converging on the internet, forming informal communities around the world.

On a deeper level, globalization can be seen as a negative, culture-destroying force where smaller communities are swallowed up and sometimes eradicated in the name of progress and productivity.

Consider for a moment a story I recently heard.

One day, a young man went to Starbucks to meet his friend.

While there, they discussed globalization and the implications of this trend in modern day society.

The more they talked the more they realized how far reaching globalization really is.

The point was magnified when the men discovered one of them was wearing shoes that were made in Indonesia, a shirt sewn in Bangladesh made with cotton grown in Uzbekistan and sunglasses that were manufactured in Brazil.

The story becomes even more amusing when you understand that this man drove his Japanese car to Starbucks where he ordered an Ethiopian coffee that he drank as he read the London Telegraph on his laptop that was manufactured in Malaysia and supported in India.

At a less humorous and more scholarly level, Peter Beyer notes in his book Religion and Globalization, “Globalization . . . is more than the spread of one historically existing culture at the expense of all others.

It is also the creation of a new global culture with its attendant social structures, one that increasingly becomes the broader social context of all particular cultures in the world, including those of the West.

The spread of the global social reality is therefore quite as much at the “expense” of the latter as it is of non-Western cultures.

Globalization theories cannot describe contemporary global society as simply the extension of a particular society and its culture (that is, as one part becoming the whole) because these also change dramatically in the process.”[6]

We live in a world that has an emerging and changing global culture.

The more connected the world becomes, the more complex and dynamic the global culture becomes.

This is a process that has been underway for sometime, and is not going to abate.

As Thomas L. Friedman describes it in The World is Flat, the world has entered into a new phase of globalization, whose history he briefly characterizes as follows: the years 1492 to 1800 were “Globalization 1.0,” which was driven by “countries and muscles”; the years 1800 to 2000 were “Globalization 2.0,” which was driven by “multinational companies” and came in two parts, the first marked by “falling transportation costs,” and the second by “falling telecommunication costs”; the years beginning in 2000 are “Globalization 3.0,” which will be marked by the empowerment of “individuals.”[7]

!!!!! How Globalization Enhances Our Opportunities to Advance the Gospel

Reflect with me back to the nineteenth century when Adoniram Judson, the Congregationalist missionary, traveled to Calcutta after God called him at the Haystack Revival.

During his four-month boat trip from Providence to Calcutta, he and his partner concluded they no longer believed in the Congregationalist position on baptism.

With no other options available to him, Judson sent his wife back to the United States, on his behalf, to seek new support.

Each trip was four months in length, meaning that more than a year elapsed from the time they left Providence until they were set up and ready to minister under their new agency in Calcutta.

Now, fast forwarding to the present—a time where I believe Judson would have been amazed.

Instead of a four month voyage across the ocean, today he could fly from Providence to Calcutta, including layovers, in approximately 26 hours.

Instead of having to part company with his wife for almost a year, Judson could send an e-mail from one of a dozen internet cafes in Calcutta and have a response from his mission agency regarding his change in views on baptism.

It is apparent that globalization provides opportunities that would not have been contemplated 100 or even 50 years ago.