christopherhildreth

Once upon a time the very center of the idea of Christianity was to “get to Heaven”. Books were written, messages preached and people have actually died on the premise that this idea of getting into Heaven was the center of the gospel.

The institution of Christianity is currently undergoing a broad evolution in terms of the concepts that have drifted from center to side and those that were either on the side or not on the grid at all moving to center.

The concrete idea of “Kingdom” is moving to center in many places on the landscape of Christianity. This is different than the Kingdom Now movement of a few years ago. This current idea has a foundation of experiencing the fullness Christ promised in living this life. There is an intense focus on “being” Christ to the world. The areas that are leading in influence and the areas that are being influence by global culture tend to be areas that “mainline” denominations would not typically be associated with.

This has to be separated from the Emerging or Emergent church. There are many “white steepled churches” that are actively involved in bettering their community and taking lead roles in the “greening” of their towns and cities.

The key, and I talk a lot about this, is that this process is not stopping and hasn’t stopped. In the future the things that we have placed in the center of our belief will be replaced by things that are being placed on the sides today.

The essence is that this great fermenting of Christianity is a living activity, and as long as we are having conversations about what belongs in the center and what should be moved to the side, the dream of the community of Christ is still going strong. 

This entry was posted on March 2, 2008 at 2:44 am and is filed under Belief, Context, Creativity, Cultural Ideas, Influence. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.