Future of Christianity

The Future of Christianity
(Guest prescher - Revd David Coffey at St Mary's Bourne St)

‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you’ (Matthew 6:33)

Thank you for the privilege of sharing with you at St Mary’s today. As a regular reader of the Friends of St Mary’s emails-I feel at home among you. It is a further sign of your kind hospitality that you have included for the Communion Motet, Ave verum corpus by my beloved Edward Elgar. You will be aware that Nick Mercer is a good friend of our family dating back to our days together in ministry in Torquay. In our circle of friends Nick represents the highs and lows of life. High church worship and low life culture!

We rejoice with you in Nick’s new appointment within the diocese of London and we pray that he will know God’s blessing on his life and ministry for this challenging ministry.

You have given me the subject of The future of Christianity and I find this a daunting task for two reasons. First it’s a presumptuous undertaking for anyone to speak on the future of Christianity. Second it’s normally impossible for a Baptist to say anything significant in 11 minutes. The Baptist doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is grounded in our congregations enduring very lengthy sermons!

But given that what emerges in the future of Christianity is always configured out of the fragments of its past and the divine promises for the future , I think there are three significant indicators to draw upon this morning.

The first is that Christianity does not seem to plant churches that last for ever-so we must expect the death of some churches as well as the birth of new ones. Kenneth Scott Latourette in his magisterial work A history of the expansion of Christianity concludes that the story of Christianity through two thousand years is not one of steady progression, It’s a story of advance and recession-not irreversible progress. Andrew Walls supports Latourette when he observes: ‘The homelands of Tertullian and Augustine are no longer thriving Christian centres’. In our own country urban churches have become furniture stores and rural chapels are sold as holiday homes. It is a sombre reminder that whilst the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, the local and national expression of the community of Christ has no divine right to survival.

The second indicator is that the geographical centre of gravity for Christianity is always shifting-so we may anticipate the continuing marginalization of the Western Church in the global family of Christianity. Philip Jenkins has chronicled that in our own life time there has been a massive shift of numerical influence from the northern to the southern hemisphere. The growth in Africa has been relentless. In 1900 Africa had just 10 million Christians out of a continental population of 107 million—about nine percent. Today the Christian total stands at 360 million out of 784 million, or 46 percent. In the same century church going and Christian commitment plummeted in Western Europe. It is estimated that by 2025, 50 percent of the Christian population will be in Africa and Latin America, and another 17 percent will be in Asia.
Those proportions will grow steadily. By about 2050 the leading nations for Christianity, apart from the USA, will all be Southern: Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and the Philippines. Reverse flow mission will probably be the norm and the United Kingdom could be re-evangelized by missionaries from the southern hemisphere.

The third indicator for the future of Christianity is more positive. The Church at all times and in places is always made up of people. Christianity thrives on people gathering in the name of Jesus Christ and believing his promise to be present among believers when they gather for worship in his name. The church thrives where people gather in order to be scattered. Gathered by Christ around word and sacrament in order to be scattered in the power of the Spirit as salt and light in the service of the Gospel.

I have seen this principle at work in every part of the world and remember with deep admiration the courageous witness of disciples of Jesus in every conceivable cultural context. I remember Daniel a village pastor in Namaroi, Mozambique where the country had been ravaged by fifteen years of civil war and ten years of drought. I said to Daniel, ‘what did you do when faced with another year of famine and warfare? . He replied ‘I prayed’. ‘And the next year’, I enquired. ‘I prayed with tears’, he said. I gently pushed him further by asking- ‘And the next year’? ‘I prayed with tears and waited in hope’, was his strong response.

The discipleship church is the most vibrant evidence of Christianity and I suggest that the followers of Jesus in a violent world hold the key to the future of Christianity. The death of the Christian West and the global shifts of Christianity may be beyond our control, but Christian discipleship is indelibly our calling and vocation, but we will to need to redefine discipleship for the future of Christianity. John Howard Yoder suggests there four essential marks of the 21st century disciple which he summarizes as baptism, discipline, holiness and martyrdom.
Baptism-, because in an age which revels in self-fulfilment, we proclaim a Gospel of self-denial.
Discipline-because in a permissive and individualistic age, we proclaim a Gospel which gathers us into an accountable community.
Holiness- because in a command free culture we proclaim a Gospel of grace which simultaneously enslaves us to Christ and liberates us for a life of freedom
Martyrdom- because in a therapeutic culture that seeks to eliminate pain and discomfort, we proclaim a Gospel that empowers us for cross bearing and suffering.

Discipleship has been the underlying theme of our lectionary readings this morning and a close study reveals they support the Yoder quartet of essential marks. The passage from Joshua is about wholehearted faith- ‘choose this day whom you will serve’.





Walter Brueggemann has framed a prayer around this theme of what God expects from those in covenant fidelity with him:
We will be your faithful people-more or less
We will love you with all our hearts-perhaps
We will love our neighbors as ourselves-maybe
We are grateful that with you it is never more or less, perhaps or maybe
With you God it is never yes and no-but always yes
Clear direct unambiguous and trustworthy

The passage from Galatians draws out another aspect of discipleship- namely the need for a disciple to die in order to live: ‘I bear in my body the marks of Jesus’ writes the Apostle Paul. Eugene Peterson suggests that the language of circumcision and uncircumcision in Galatians represent two ways of life. The morally earnest life loaded with rules and regulations and the fun loving carefree spirit that wants to release potential in whatever way feels best at the time. Both lifestyles are arguing for freedom and they are both unfree because they are so desperate to hold on to life at any cost. Petersen says, ‘They are not free to die because their own life is all they know and all they believe in’. This is the heart of what Yoder means by ‘martyrdom’. We can be empowered by the Spirit to live a Gospel lifestyle within our culture that includes self denial, cross bearing and suffering.

The gospel reading from Matthew is about single minded discipleship: ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness’. The passage is a contrast of competing ambitions between the basics of life (money food drink and clothing) and the prior claim of the Kingdom. The ambition to acquire the basics of life exposes the disciple to a twin challenge: What is it I value above everything else? And what are the things I worry about? The challenge to be single-minded and seek God first above everything else is the distinctive badge of discipleship. This is the call to holiness which Yoder included in his quartet. To be holy is to be different for God’s sake. We can retain our expansive ambitions, but they are secondary to our prime ambition to seek the reign of God’s Kingdom. After all, as John Stott observes,’ there is something inherently inappropriate about cherishing small ambitions for God’.

As to the future of Christianity in our Western society, the numerical strength of the institution may go on declining; the social influence of the church may weaken; but the presence and witness of vulnerable disciples will always be the sign and foretaste of God’s eternal Kingdom which one day will be seen in its fullness. Meanwhile, let us go forward into the world knowing, in the words of Peter Taylor Forsyth, ‘there is nothing in all the raging valley-neither the devilry of the world, nor the impotence of the Church-that can destroy our confidence ,quench our power or derange our peace’ in God’s eternal purposes which are assured in Jesus Christ our Lord.