Alan Hirsch Has Seen The Future, And We’re Not Ready For It

1 Comment 18 January 2010

The United States is an aggressive exporter of culture. People around the world watch Lost, listen to Jay-Z, and drink Starbucks coffee. It would be easy to assume that America’s influence is one-way, that we are going in our own direction culturally. But our time in Europe has shown us otherwise. The postmodern, post-Christian, globalized worldview reflected in every part of society there is the coming (and already present!) reality in the United States.

This should not be news to any of us. We’ve been talking for years about postmodernism and worldview shift. But when we look at the evangelical church in America, one thing is clear: we’re not ready for it.

It isn’t enough to buy a MacBook and wear think-rimmed glasses. Your church can’t start a new program to “reach” this “demographic.” It isn’t about candles, coffee, or a cool name. Ministry in a post-Christian context means radically changing your understanding of church, the gospel, and how it’s communicated.

What does this future mean for your church? How can the church you plant be ahead of the curve in this worldview shift? Let’s learn from ministry in the European context. The Upstream Collective is proud to partner with Alan Hirsch, influential thinker, writer, and communicator about all things missional, for a one-time event at this year’s churcplanters.com Velocity Conference. We’ll discuss the challenges that you currently face in ministry and church planting, and we’ll present relevant insight from work in Europe.

Back to the Future: Lessons from Post-Christian Cultures is a pre-conference session at the churchplanters.com Velocity Conference in Atlanta, GA on February 22-23, 2010. Register for the conference and the pre-conference session here. For more information, visit the Velocity Conference site or post questions in the comments section below.