POST-CHRISTENDOM – ‘N ANTWOORD

Ek het nou reeds vier keer my gedagtes oor Post-Christendom neergepen. Hier en hier en hier en hier. Ek dink steeds dat ons eerder vroeër as later sal moet besef dat ons nie die post-moderne mens in ‘n post-Christendom konteks met modernistiese bedieningstyle gaan bereik nie. Ons gaan dalk daarin slaag om tot ‘n mate ons eie te behou maar, statistiese navorsing oor hierdie saak is duidelik daaroor dat in elke generasie ‘n kleiner persentasie kerk toe gaan. Gaan lees gerus HIER.

Die vraag is: Is daar ‘n alternatief?

Ek twyfel nie daaroor nie. Daar is hoop. Een gemeente wat my hoop gee is St Thomas Gemeente in Sheffield. St Thomas kerk het twee kampusse. Die een (Crookes kampus) is die vinnigste groeiende kerk in Europa en die ander (Philadelphia) is die grootste kerk in Europa.  Mike Breen is die man wat op ‘n wonderlike manier deur die Here hiervoor gebruik is.

Die werkswyse is missionêre geloofsgemeenskappe of Missional Communities. Op hulle webblad word hierdie groepe so beskryf:

A Missional Community or missional communities (also called Clusters, Go Communities, Mid-Sized Communities, Mission Shaped Communities, MSCs) are generally groups of 20 or more people who are united, through Christian community, around a common service and witness to a particular neighborhood or network of relationships. These differ in size and scope from typical Small Groups that are often made up of approximately a dozen people with a focus on internal fellowship and Bible Study. Missional Communities do place a strong value on life together, the group has the expressed intention of seeing those they impact choose to start following Jesus, through this more flexible and locally incarnated expression of the church. The result will often be that the group will grow and ultimately multiply into further Missional Communities.