Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

not know what it means to be independent, or self-supporting, which is one of the most
basic ways Missiologists identify healthy churches around the world.
I am still not convinced that the use of “post-Christian” is the best way to describe
Christianity in the West -- something Murray agrees with -- especially when compared to
terms like ‘post-Christendom,’ ‘de-Christianization,’ or Christian socio-political disestablishment.
To my mind, ‘post-Christian’ refers more accurately to a place like
Laodicea in Asia Minor, where the church once was, but no longer is. Contemporary
Turkey, for example, is less than 1% Christian, but was once a region where the church
prospered. Many Western nations are less culturally ‘Christianized’ than they have been
for a long time, but they are not devoid of faith adherents, and therefore cannot accurately
be described as ‘post-Christian.’ It may seem like semantics, but it is an important
Missiological distinction. The church should be a dynamic organisation, as is its nature
as movement, again: Ecclesia reformata secundum verbi Dei semper reformada -- “the
church once reformed is always in the process of being reformed according to the Word
of God” (Guder, 2000:150). David Bosch adds:
The church is itself an object of the Missio Dei,
in constant need of repentance and conversion;
indeed, all traditions today subscribe to the
adage ecclesia semper reformada est. The
cross which the church proclaims also judges
the church and censures every manifestation
of complacency about its ‘achievements’
(Bosch, 2000:387).
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Lack of Purpose
Christendom could never properly place Christ at the centre of all things, because it
was always distracted by state interests and its own carnal weaknesses; much like pre-
Exilic Israel. The decline of the faith in the West can be directly attributed to
Christianity’s compromise with the prevailing culture, especially so as to have peace with
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa