Related Papers
The Church as a Restaurant In Search of a Metaphor for 'Church' in a Consumer's Culture
Stefan Paas
What if we looked at the church as a restaurant? Does this metaphor help us to think through important issues like mission, membership, leadership, etc.? Readers are invited to comment on this draft.
The Crisis of Mission in Europe -Is There a Way Out
Stefan Paas
Published in Scandinavian Evangelical e-Journal 3 (2012), 16-51 On the possibilities and conditions for mission in secularized Europe
Ecclesiology in Context: Urban Church Planting in the Netherlands
Stefan Paas
Reflections on the theology and praxis of church planting in secular urban settings in the Netherlands.
'Experimenting with Mission and Unity in Secular Europe: Networking for Mission, Client-Based Mission, and Ecumenical Mission'
Stefan Paas
‘Experimenting with Mission and Unity in Secular Europe: Networking for Action, Client-Based Activities, and Denominational Cooperation’, in: John Gibaut, Knud Jørgensen (eds.), Called to Unity: For the Sake of Mission, Regnum International: Oxford 2014, 186-199
THE SECULAR MYSTIQUE Mysticism and the Future of Faith in the West Eric Pickerill MA Theology, Center for Evangelical and Reformation Theology
Eric Pickerill
Post secular religious practices
Urszula Pękala
Crossroads: An Exploration of the Emerging-Missional Conversation with a Special Focus on Missional Leadership and Its Challenges for Theological …
2012 •
Robert Doornenbal
A Catholic Minority Church in a World of Seekers
Peter Jonkers, Staf Hellemans
Mission from Anywhere to Europe Americans, Africans, and Australians Coming to Amsterdam
Stefan Paas
World Christianity entails a multi-centric Christianity, and mission from anywhere to anywhere. Today, any place can be a mission base and a mission field at the same time. According to Andrew Walls this may lead to a new " Ephesian moment " in Christianity. To what extent this is happening can only be found out, however, by doing actual research into local encounters of different Christianities. In this article three postWar missionary movements to Europe are subjected to scrutiny: American evangelicals, who came to Europe after the Second World War; African immigrants, who started to plant churches in the 1980s; and Australian neo-Pentecostals, who have recently extended their missionary efforts to European cities. Especially, attention is paid to their views of Europe and European churches, their methods of mission, and how they are received by Europeans. This analysis forms the basis of several missiological reflections regarding mission in secularized (Western) Europe, with a view to the realization of " Ephesian moments ". It is demonstrated that the late modern missionary movement to Europe is determined to a large extent by globalizing tendencies, which threaten local expressions of Christianity. Also, some stereotypical pictures of Europe, as they are held by missionaries, are challenged. Different approaches are suggested in order to have a genuine encounter between different kinds of Christianity on the European mission field. Keywords world Christianity – Europe – reversed mission – reverse mission – neo-Pentecostal-ism – revivalism
The Sociology of the Sunday Assembly: 'Belonging Without Believing' in a Post-Christian Context (2017, PhD thesis)
2017 •
Josh Bullock
The Sunday Assembly, a secular congregation with the motto ‘Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More’, took centre stage in the nonreligious marketplace in 2013. Since then, over 70 franchised global congregations have opened their doors to the nonreligious affiliated market. If Britain is displaying how religions can fade, the Sunday Assembly becomes the perfect case study to examine what comes next. This thesis is an ethnographic study of the Sunday Assembly London and utilises 35 semi-structured interviews with members of the congregation. It addresses what the Sunday Assembly reveals about believing, belonging and community, and their relationship with religion, secularisation and wonder. The study highlights generational trends towards nonreligion in the UK and, in particular, how the Sunday Assembly uses existing religious structures, rituals and practices to flourish. It is through this post-Christian transition that religion is understood as a chain of memory (Hervieu-Léger, 2000); that people are still seeking to belong, but do not wish to believe in a religious doctrine, thus ‘belonging without believing’ is transpiring. I argue that the demographic profile of Sunday Assembliers is hom*ogeneous, with similar life experiences and values, the majority of whom once held a religious belief and now do not, are not hostile towards religion, are from the same ethnic group (white British), are typically middle class and seek to congregate, and thus represent a very different nonreligion estranged from its ‘New Atheist’ predecessors. The growth and initial demand of and for the Sunday Assembly indicate that a Christian culture still exists and the congregational community structure is still sought in a post-Christian transition. By rejecting Christianity, but with a heritage of Christian memory still persisting, the Sunday Assembly offers a suitable alternative to a congregational religious community. The Sunday Assembly warrants attention in the 21st century as it offers explanations to the changing nature of the religious landscape and nonreligious discourse in the West.
