Les Henson
For fifty years, the Western world has been changing rapidly so that we now find ourselves, as the people of God, in a post-everything world. This world brings many challenges, but maybe one of the most significant of all the challenges we face is related to how we choose to live in this post-everything world. Do we buy into the post-everything culture, or do we live counter-culturally within it? There is no easy answer to this question. However, I would suggest that we should seek to inhabit this post-everything culture appropriately when the culture does not contradict the gospel. Where the culture is in opposition to the gospel, we must live counter-cultural lives that radically confront the accepted lifestyle of our time. The difficulty we face is determining which is at odds with the gospel and compatible with it.
Differentiating between the two is not easy because a Christendom form of Christianity has influenced us for so long that we find it hard to separate that which is gospel orientated from the cultural accretions of Christendom. Thus, we need to re-evaluate both the gospel and our Christian faith seriously. I would suggest a small community of believers is the best setting for doing this. Such a group would consist of those determined to address these issues resulting in a practical commitment to live out their faith sensitively and thoughtfully within this post-everything world.
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