A Peculiar People: the church as culture in a post modern society

A Review of Chapter 10 “The Church as Mission & Message” from the book of A Peculiar People: the church as culture in a post modern society By Rodney Clapp

As a Church, the body of Christ, we are called to go into the world for the mission of evangelism. In the early days of the church there was much persecution, which changes when the Roman government under Constantine became a supporter of the Christian movement.

Christianity has seen it dark days of evangelism in terms of forced conversion both by the Spanish Inquisition and that of the American Indians in the US. In relation to this evangelism, “except in its Anabaptist form the Protestant reformation did not break with the medieval understanding of the church and state and that animated Columbus and the conquistadors.” (161) As the author goes on to say “Who can deny their use of gunpowder against pagans in the burning of incense to Our Lord.” (162).

With the onset of Pietists we move from a Constantinian approach of Church and State to a state where “there are only individual Christians at the mercy of the state and the surrounding culture.

There is stark difference between the Constantinian approach to evangelism with the dark days of evangelism vs. that of the Pietists and our modern day thinking on evangelism. As we move beyond these approaches we must as the author states “understand it once again as the earliest Christians did, as “the persuading of people to become Christians and take their place as responsible members of the body of Christ.” (167)

We are called the body of Christ because through many we are one and are called to be in corporate worship and witness. “faithful and effective Christian evangelism can occur only as part and parcel of Christian culture.” (170)

Christianity cannot be forced and it can not be affected through any government. It must come from the love of one to another in the faith and discipleship of Jesus Christ.