Introductory Exercise

• State your name and answer the following questions.

• Why did you choose to participate in this course?

• What are you most hoping to get out of it?

Getting Oriented: What, Why, and How?• “How to Witness”• Why do we witness?• How do we witness?

• “A Secular Age”• What is secularism?• Where did it come from?• How does it impact our faith and witness?

• Looking Ahead• Five aspects of a secular age; five practices for modern witnesses

The Mission of God and the Reason for Witness“The Bible renders to us the story of God's mission through God's

people in their engagement with God's world for the sake of the whole of God's creation…Mission is not just one of a list of things that the

Bible happens to talk about, only a bit more urgently than some. Mission is, in that much-abused phrase, ‘what it's all about.’” –

Christopher J.H. Wright

“The church doesn’t have a mission. The church is mission.” – Stanley Hauerwas

In Word and Deed: A Biblical Approach to Witness

• Two Mistaken Approaches• In word alone: the “tract” approach• In deed alone: the “St. Francis” approach

• A Biblical Approach• Christians bear witness by speaking about what God has done in Christ.

• Bold speakers: Peter, Paul, and Apollos• The necessity of speech: Romans 10:14

• Christians bear witness by living “questionable” lives.• Lives that adorn the doctrine of God (Titus 2:10)• Lives that provoke questions about the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15)

Twofold Christian Witness“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with

thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to

speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that

you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

Colossians 4:2-6

The Witness of Christian Living in the Early Church

“Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country language or custom…nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do

they speak some unusual dialect…but they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship.

They live in their own country, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners…They live

on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted…They are poor, yet they make many

rich…They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor…They are cursed, yet they bless…”

- Epistle to Diognetus 5

The Witness of Christian Living in the Early Church

“Why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism? I believe that we ought really and truly to practice every one of these virtues…For it is disgraceful that

when…the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us.”

- Emperor Julian to the Priest Arcasius

With Culture in Mind: A Missional Approach to Witness

A Secular Age: Mapping Our Culture

Secularism: What it is

• Secularism—“You keep using that word.”

• Secular 1: emptied public spaces

• Secular 2: declining religious belief and practice

• Secular 3: a new way of seeing and experiencing the world

• Seeing the world: In a secular age, all people, even religious people, think of belief in God as one option among others. They think that it is possible, if not plausible, that God does not exist.

• Experiencing the world: In a secular age, it is possible to experience life “fully” without reference to God. “A secular age is one in which the eclipse of all goals beyond human flourishing becomes conceivable.” – Charles Taylor

Secularism: Where it came from• Taylor’s genealogical approach

• Imagining the past• In 1500, the existence of God was unquestionable, spiritual forces were at

work, and the world was filled with echoes of eternity.• Stotternheim, 1502 vs. Speculator, 1999

• How did we get here?• “Subtraction” stories: the inevitable answer• Taylor’s genealogy: the contingent answer

Secularism: What it feels like

• Taylor’s phenomenological approach• “…what I want to do is focus on the different kinds of lived experience…on

what it’s like to live as a believer or an unbeliever.”• Aspects of a secular life• Living with doubt• Fullness without God• Experiencing malaise• Feeling “cross-pressured”

• Example: “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”

Review1. How to Witness

A. Christian witness and the mission of the churchB. In speech and in life: a biblical approach to witness

2. A Secular AgeA. Charles Taylor’s map of modern cultureB. What is secularism? Where did it come from? And what does it feel like?

3. Why Should You Care?A. To understand the culture in which you are called to bear witnessB. To understand the challenges you face as you live out you faith in a secular

age

Looking Ahead• Witness in a Storyless Age• Witness in a Disenchanted Age• Witness in a Humanistic Age• Witness in an Authentic Age• Witness in a Hungry Age

Discuss!