I was thinking this morning about the transition from a Christendom church to a missional church. In the Christendom church, the church creates “holy” analogues to what’s happening in the culture: we have Christian diet plans, Christian music, Christian film, Christian t-shirts, Christian vacation properties. The goal is to provide a sacred alternative to the profane one out there in the world, and that this alternative will lead unbelievers into the reality of God and his church.
Perhaps we need to re-emphasize the fact that “Christian” isn’t an orientation or marketing adjective; it means “follower of Jesus, carrying her own cross, living the eternal life in the here and now for the benefit of God’s glory and mission”.
As an example – there’s still a huge amount of dialogue about whether or not U2 are a Christian Band. One of the presumptions behind this question is, “if they’re Christian, they’re on our side”, and another one is, “if U2 is a Christian Band, then it’s OK for me to like them and my kids can listen to them.” Books, newspaper articles, magazine stories and campfire debates rage about the topic.
But what if that question isn’t relevant at all, but the questions about U2 become more like these: “What does the music of U2 reveal about God?” “Does the social activism of the members of U2 display the life of God in Christ in ways that we can learn from and do as well?” And, perhaps most importantly, “what meaning do non-Christians find in the work of U2? Where are connections happening, and why?”.
If we looked at things like, “why is our culture so obsessed with horror and violence?”, instead of, “is that movie Christian”, would we learn more about how the story of God might actually become real to our neighbors?
pat loughery 
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