Cultural Navigation by BC Yukon Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada

Copyright 2018 by The BC and Yukon District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by the PAOC provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The BC and Yukon District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.

TA B LE O F CO NTE NT S

Forword Ken Russell

Navigating Culture Mick Nelson

The Original Missional Church: Present, Fully Alive, Fearless Hannah Dutko

Understanding Our Times Elyse Brouwer

A Response to Good Faith by David Kinnaman Seth Greenham

Post Christian Canada and the Kingdom of God Michael Wilkinson

List of Contributors

Works Cited

FOREWORD Ken Russell

The contextualization and integration of Christian faith, in a culture that continues to drift from its biblical moorings, remains the greatest challenge of every responsible Christfollower. Our post-Christian culture is quick to define ‘good as evil' and ‘evil as good.' Christ is not opposed to our current culture, nor does He condone the cultural practices that are evil, immoral and unholy. This cultural tension must be handled with great wisdom and proficiency if Christfollowers seek to fulfill the Great Commission with any measure of success. Unfortunately, some perceptions of legalism and intolerance have alienated people from the authentic body of Christ (the church). People who are far from God view ‘the institutional church’ as judgmental, narrow-minded and bigoted. This negative reputation must be corrected. Christians must earn the right to speak ‘grace and truth’ into a secular culture. This gift book provides readers with valuable insights, which help decode our post-Christian culture and allows them to engage the critical issues facing our society today. I hope you are encouraged and enlightened by every chapter, as you seek to understand the culture we live in, and exegete scripture like a workman who handles the word of God correctly.

N A V I G A T I N G C U LT U R E Mick Nelson

Sailing has been a passion of mine for several years. In order to develop my skills for West Coast cruising, I recently took a course called Coastal Navigation. Coastal Navigation is about the art and science of getting a boat safely from one place to another when you have the coastline in view. In the course, I discovered that to navigate skillfully you need to be a little bit of an astronomer, a little bit of a geographer, a little bit of a meteorologist, and a little bit of a mathematician. You need to know something about how the moon affects tides, the wind affects waves, and the land affects weather, as well as how the magnetism of Earth affects your compass. I learned that in addition to this background knowledge, you also need some basic navigational skills. First, you need to be attentive to what you can see. Paying attention to what is going on around you is critical. What you can see are things like other boats, navigational aids, wave patterns, cloud formations, and weather fronts. But you also must be aware of what you cannot see. What is not visible are things like currents, water depths, underwater obstructions, and bottom conditions. You also need to have some ability with the tools of navigation, such as charts, rules, compasses, and tide and current charts. And finally, you need to be adaptable and flexible as you adjust to ever changing conditions. Coastal navigation involves sailing with your eyes 9

open, your intuition turned on, and a willingness to adjust and change course as conditions require. Successful coastal navigation is an exercise in skillfully managing the predictable and the unexpected, the familiar and the foreign, the rules and the exceptions. For creatures that live and move and have their being on land, the ocean is a strange and wonderful world. It has its own beauty, personality, and perils. It is not our natural environment. We are not used to it. If you are going to venture out on the sea and come back to tell about it, then you need to give attention to how it works out there. Coastal navigation helps us relate to and engage this water world, so unlike our own everyday world. We may not all be sailors, but I suggest that we live in a day and age where we all need to be skillful navigators. The world we need to navigate is culture. All of us are ‘aswim’ in a sea of cultures, some of which we participate in, some we are influenced by, and some we observe at arm’s length. I want to argue that we need to develop some competence in the art and science of “cultural navigation” to meaningfully chart our course in engaging culture. The calling of God’s people is to engage the cultures in which they find themselves, in order to communicate the good news about how the love of God can transform cultures so that human beings flourish in the way God intended. The Incarnation most clearly demonstrates that God takes culture seriously. In Jesus, God entered into our world and became one of us. Jesus is the model for successful cultural navigation. My pastoral experience does not make me an expert on culture. As a sociologist, however it does give me a window on cultures, as an engaged participant and intentional observer. Over the years, I have had a number of experiences that have resulted in cultural awakenings, as I have increasingly become aware of the cultural dynamics around me. I remember filling up with fuel at a Shell station in Markham, Ontario when I re10

alized I was the only caucasian on the lot. When most people think of culture, they think of ethnicity. But ethnicity does not tell the whole story. Once, in Montreal I walked several blocks to a venue only to realize that along the way I had heard every language except French and English. But there is more to culture than language. A young adult in my congregation who saw a photo of my 21 year-old sailing self, labeled me a ‘hipster’ born out of time. But age demographics do not tell the whole story. A radio documentary recently aired an interview with the originator of Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi, who explained how this Canadian symbol had been adopted by his community. But symbols alone do not define culture either. Culture in Canada is complex – it is not monolithic, it is multifaceted. Even the visible cultures have subtle sub-cultures with their own perspectives, priorities, and practices. Some cultures in Canada are defined by the tidelines of ethnicity language, demographics, and symbol. But some cultures also cut across these more obvious defining lines and generate locally specific currents of their own by adopting, creating, and merging cultural beliefs and expressions. What is Culture? Charting the Seascape A simple way of defining culture is to think of it as the shared beliefs, values, conventions and social practices of a subgroup or whole society.1 Culture can be described as the patterned ways groups have of thinking, feeling, and reacting to various situations and actions. “Culture provides the values, emotions, belief systems, ideals, ideas, customs, assumptions, and practices for the group.”2 Culture defines for

Tim Keller, Why Culture Matters, Q Ideas, YouTube - https://youtu.be/XWynJbvcZfs. Bob Burns, Tasha D. Chapman, & Donald C. Guthrie, Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us About Surviving and Thriving, (Downers Grove, IVP, 2013), 132. 1

us the horizons of possibility and impossibility.3 We are embedded in culture and we are shaped by culture. Our native cultural responses are so deeply ingrained that we take them for granted and are reluctant to change them. Culture is more caught than taught. We learn it by living. Culture is not benign, nor is it neutral. Culture is both system (what lies beneath the surface) and a set of practices (what we see) that form us even as we live within it. In his book, Everyday Theology, Keith Vanhoozer describes four ways in which culture surrounds and shapes us.4 The first way refers to what we typically see – how culture looks. The other three are less visible – the way culture works. The first way culture impacts us is by constantly communicating a vision of the way life should work. Cultural statements are vision statements, and cultural texts (customs, literature, film, music, fashion, etc.) have the ability to seize our imaginations. Culture communicates a program for making sense of life; a framework through which we understand the world and our own lives in it. The second way culture works is by orienting those who engage it – culture is the logic by which we give order to the world. Cultural texts – the various ways we read, process, and propagate culture – are like maps and scripts that orient us in life and give us a sense of direction. The stories we tell about where we have come from and why we are here will have an important bearing on how we think about everyday life. Culture gives us a sense of where we are and where we belong. The third way culture works is by reproducing – it is continually preaching and proselytizing. Culture spreads beliefs, values, ideas, fashions, and practices from one social group to

Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, (Downers Grove, IVP, 2013), Kindle e-book 29. 4 Keith Vanhoozer, Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends, (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2007), 27-32. 3

another. Culture reproduces or replicates itself when people begin to copy certain cultural traits to which they have been exposed. Culture is a “system of inheritance” based on proximity or contact as opposed to biology. And finally, culture cultivates. Culture is a means of spiritual formation, a process that shapes our spirits, or hearts. Spiritual formation is the process by which the human heart is shaped, oriented, and formed.5 Culture cultivates character traits – the habits of the heart – and in doing so forms our spirit so that we become "this kind of person" rather than "that kind." Vanhoozer notes that culture has a spiritual dimension that predisposes people toward a certain kind of faith. Popular culture – more so than the academy or the church – has become the arena where most people work out their understanding of the true, the good, and the beautiful. The Need for Cultural Intelligence: Getting a Fix on Where We Are Every community has unique coordinates – longitude and latitude – each with its own tidelines and currents, each with its own interweaving and interplay of cultural dynamics. In addition to socio-ethnicity, language, pop culture, and symbol, there are other currents that shape culture: personal, generational, demographic, socioeconomic, organizational, religious, gender and identity, and technological. This means that the Gospel must be contextualized in profession and practice to make sense at each location. That requires cultural intelligence. The authors of Resilient Ministry define cultural intelligence as the “ability to function effectively across cul-

Keith Vanhoozer, 31.

tural contexts.â&#x20AC;?6 It is bringing together cultural discernment and biblical wisdom, in order to understand another culture as well as our own. I may share similar situations with my neighbours but experience them differently. I cannot love my neighbor unless I understand him or her and the cultural world he or she inhabits. I need cultural intelligence to navigate effectively and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;redemptivelyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the cultural sea on which I am afloat. Navigating Culture: Some Essential Skills Nautical charts have standard formatting and labeling features, but they need to be interpreted in order to plot a course. We may all have the same chart but arrive at the same destination by different routes. We may all be Canadians on the outside, but we follow different cultural paths for living on the inside. We need skills in reading and understanding cultural maps. Let me suggest a place to start. We need to engage culture with humility. We need to be honestly aware of the culture we ourselves inhabit with all its virtues and vices. Our lens is not the only one through which to see and interpret the world around us. We need to understand and own the ways in which our own culture impacts how we see other cultures. Then we need to be deliberately paying attention to what we can see around us. The skills of observation coupled with a sincere curiosity allow us to enter cultures unlike our own. And we need to be aware of what we cannot see. Listening is the primary skill for learning about that which is not intuitive to us. We want to hear and value the stories of others that define who they are. And we need to be adaptable. The love of God is our motivation for entering into

Bob Burns, Tasha D. Chapman, & Donald C. Guthrie, 132.

and engaging culture. Cultural currents are always shifting in our world. Could it be that navigating them well, as followers of Christ, we may be required to change tacks (or tactics)? Traditionally, the Great Commission has compelled the church to engage culture with the Gospel. Let me paraphrase it this way, “Go into every culture and make disciples; love your neighbor in their cultural context as you love yourself in your own culture.” When you stop and think about it, it is evident that the Great Commandment is also about outreach and the Great Commission, also about love. I am not suggesting we abandon truth, but that we lead with love as we engage culture in all its forms and expressions. Orthodoxy is the term used to describe the body of right belief that undergirds Christian culture. Orthopraxy describes the body of right behavior that defines Christian culture. But I have recently become aware of a new term, ‘orthopathy’, which describes the right way to feel about others who may be unlike us but are also made in the image of God. It is the love of God that compels us to reach out to and care for those unlike us. This attitude is crucial for effective cultural navigation. Courageously and Confidently Engaging Culture: Getting Away from the Dock God is present through His people in every community – we are here by design. We were built for this. The Incarnation reminds us that God takes cultures and contextualization seriously. We need to remember who we are as the people of God, but we also need to identify with the people God has sent us to love. Our calling as God’s people is to courageously engage culture, maintaining our spiritual identity and loyalty to Christ even as we incarnationally follow him into the cultural contexts to which He has called us. Cultural intelligence 15

includes the ability to discern between cultural preferences and biblical imperatives without assuming that our own cultural background represents the biblical norm.7 Our calling is not to isolation, but to involvement. Our calling is to be ever ready to give a defense for the hope we have. The Good News is not just for some, but for all. Every culture needs to hear the Good News in words and images they can understand and be given the opportunity to respond. God’s love compels us to embody and demonstrate the Good News in culture. To do that, we need to get away from the familiar dock and set sail. The Spirit of God is our ultimate Navigator – we are not alone. We have a chart and a direction. We are equipped to use discernment and cultural intelligence. In his book, Fool’s Talk, Os Guinness reminds us that the point of apologetics is not to win an argument, but to win a soul.8 So let us, “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 4:5-7 ESV).

Bob Burns, Tasha D. Chapman, & Donald C. Guthrie, 147. Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, (Downers Grove, IVP, 2015), 18. 7 8

THE ORIGINAL MISSIONAL CHURCH: P R E S E N T , F U L LY A L I V E , FE ARLESS Hannah Dutko

Recently, I was introduced to David Kinnaman’s first book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters. Although I was initially reluctant to read it, because I had been feeling pastorally weary and could not fathom hearing more about the mistakes I and other Christians are making in our world, I read it anyway. In it, David and his coauthor Gabe Lyons show that young people outside the church have a largely negative impression of Christianity, thinking that followers of Jesus are hypocritical, judgmental, too political, anti-homosexual, sheltered, and too focused on counting salvations rather than caring for the whole person. I was not surprised to find myself overcome with grief while I read this book, weeping over the mess we have made of the Good News. But I was surprised to find myself also overcome with joy – even hope – because of the amazing and beautiful vision the book gives of what the church is called to be and has the potential to be in our culture. So how do we be the people of God in our context? I took this question to the book of Acts, our best example of a church that was undeniably effective in engaging culture. We in Canada are in an increasingly post-Christian setting;

the influence of Christian beliefs and values is starting to fade. But in Acts we find a brand new spiritual community in a pre-Christian culture that had not yet been influenced at all by Jesus’ church. And yet Luke tells us over and over that “the churches grew daily in numbers,” in reach, and in authority (16:5, 6:7, 12:24, 13:48, 19:20 NIV). What qualities of the early church were essential to their mission in the world? Reading through Acts reveals that the “original missional church” was present in the world, fully alive in the Holy Spirit, and fearless in sharing the Good News. Reification Before moving on, I would like to introduce a key concept that will later help us apply these characteristics of the early church to our own settings. The single most important word that I learned in five years of full-time graduate work, a word that gave me an entirely new angle from which to look at my life and specifically at my leadership in the church, is “reification.” It simply means “making something real.” When you reify something, you are using an action or a thing to make something that is abstract into something real and tangible. For example, I may have compassion for my sick friend, but my care is not reified until I give him a card or bring him a meal. Doing those things reifies compassion. I first heard the word reification from David I. Smith, who teaches at Calvin College and directs the Kuypers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning. He has been using the concept of reification for years to help him improve the effectiveness of his and others’ teaching strategies. Early in his career, he had a class in which he was committed to helping his students participate and learn from one another. Ten weeks into the semester, he was devastated to discover that the students did not even know each others' names. 18

What he valued and what he had been saying to them about collaboration was making no impact. One day he came to the stunning realization that despite his lofty ideals, he had a very concrete obstacle – the furniture! Like many classrooms, David’s was permanently arranged with all the students seated in rows facing the teacher, who was standing. Despite what he said, his furniture was reifying the authority of the teacher rather than the importance of learning from fellow students. In contrast, David I. Smith knew another teacher who truly understood the concept of reification and used it to inform his educational practices. This teacher was passionate about his students learning to value the Sabbath and to start taking a Sabbath every week, so he spent class time building a biblical case for Sabbath-keeping. But he did not stop there. He also never assigned anything due on Monday. THAT is reification.1 James K. A. Smith echoes this idea in his most recent book, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Much of his work can be summed up in the assertion that “virtues are habits that take practice and repetition.”2 Similarly, the work of Étienne Wenger, the Swiss anthropologist from whom David I. Smith first distilled the concept of “reification,” suggests that our individual and collective practices may be conveying messages other than those intended. If our habits communicate an alternate message, the content can become irrelevant and the learning outcome can even be the opposite of our intention.3 So how does reification relate to our role as leaders in

David I. Smith, “Communities of Practice” (class lecture, Called to Teach: Teaching as a Christian Practice from Regent College, Vancouver, BC, June 29, 2010). 2 James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2016), 187; note that as far as I know, he never uses the actual word “reification,” but the concept is clearly evident in his convictions about discipleship and church life. 3 Etienne Wenger, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 58-59. 1

God’s church? Here we return to James K. A. Smith because this is his heart. “If you are someone responsible for leading the people of God in worship,” he says, “the implications are further ramped up” because you are “responsible for the care of souls and responsible to curate hearts by planning and leading worship that undertakes this formative task.”4 Learning is not simply based on the content that we pastors teach and preach from the pulpit. Learning happens throughout the entire congregational gathering time comprised of our interaction, our singing, the atmosphere, and every one of our stated and unstated rituals. The way we serve communion, the way we give announcements, the way we talk to people in the lobby – all of these are reifying certain values, whether we are aware of them or not. All of these are forming the people of God. I see this idea of reification as a spiritual seed that the Lord wants to plant in our hearts to help us fulfill the incredible mission He has given us: to share His love and make His name known in our communities. Let it bear great fruit. Present in the World We now will return to how we can learn from the early church’s fruitful engagement with culture. One of the most prominent characteristics of the New Testament first believers is that they were present in their world – think of Peter and John, Paul, Stephen, Philip, Apollos, Priscilla, and Aquila. They shopped, had conversations with strangers, spent time in the temple, had dinner with friends, traveled to other regions, and stayed in others’ homes. All the while, they were discerning their settings and testifying to the gospel wherever they were. The believers were present, not only as individuals,

James K. A. Smith, 83.

but also as the church as they spent time together in small and big groups, meeting daily in public places as well as in homes, eating meals together, worshipping together, and growing in favour with others because of their Christian virtues, including their extreme generousity. This was the church being present in the world as the church. These aspects of being present to the world as the church are not earth-shattering, and we as leaders may already be living out this missional trait in many ways. Maybe you intentionally spend time in the marketplace, have regular dinners with people who do not know Jesus, or have decided where to live based on your love for your community. Of course, we must lead by example in expressing our priorities in our own lives and families, but it can be easy for lay people to assume that you are doing these things simply because you are a pastor. Modelling alone then, is not sufficient. Using the lens of reification helps us evaluate how we do things in our corporate gatherings when we come together to be formed as the people of God. While there is no one right way to reify an abstract concept, some habits will better instill our core values than others. To spark ideas, here is one way to reify being present to the world. Paul Stevens, known for his passion for eliminating the hierarchy of clergy and laity, asks a challenging question of us as pastors. If we believe that every member of the body of Christ is called to mission, why are pastors, church staff, and the occasional missionary the only people standing at the front of the church, speaking and having authority? Among other things, he suggests interviewing one lay person every week during the service about their faith and their life in the world, asking, â&#x20AC;&#x153;What are the issues you face in your daily work? Who are the people God has called you to reach? How can we pray for you?â&#x20AC;? Paul Stevens says that when you pray for that person, asking for empowerment and boldness, you have just commissioned her for the ministry she is called 21

to in the world. By doing that, a church can change its culture and reify its missional priorities.5 Sometimes, effective reification looks at the big picture and the structure of a congregational service, but sometimes reification is in the little things. For instance, pastors want to cultivate God’s heart for “the last, the lost, the least, the leftout and the looked-over.”6 And that may come down to something as basic as who we talk to in the lobby. Are we preoccupied with the most “together” people who seem the most interesting and contribute the most to church life? Or do we also engage the timid ones, the ones who make us feel awkward, the ones who appear rough around the edges? This is just one example of how we can ask God to show us the big and small changes we can make to better reify the priorities He has given us in our congregations.7 Fully Alive in the Holy Spirit The believers in Acts were present in the world not as invisible Christians wearing cultural camouflage but as followers of Jesus, fully alive in the Holy Spirit. They were filled with the Spirit in Acts 2, but that was just the start. They spoke in tongues, some of which were other human languages through which they shared the gospel. They gave testimony to the resurrection with great power. They laid hands on others to receive the Holy Spirit. They received discernment

R. Paul Stevens, “Equipping the Whole People of God for the Dispersed Life” (class lecture, Christian Education and Equipping: Empowering the Whole People of God from Regent College, Vancouver, BC, February 4, 2011). 6 Rev. T. Larry Kirkland, Sr., O.J.: Made in America, film series, directed by Ezra Edelman (ESPN Films: 2016). 7 For more ideas specifically related to being present, see David Fitch’s Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission, 2016. From fostering reconciliation to cultivating love for children, he shares many deep yet practical ways that we can reify our missional values as a church community and make the most out of corporate disciplines that form us to fulfill our calling individually and together. 5

and prophesied into situations and over people. They healed, cast out demons, and raised the dead. They were delivered from evils like prison and death and received grace to endure suffering for the sake of the gospel. We believe all this, but we have trouble living it out. David Kinnaman says that “the Christian faith today is perceived as disconnected from the supernatural world – a dimension that the vast majority of outsiders believe can be accessed and influenced.”8 A child in my community suffers from terrifying nightmares, and another sees ghosts. The distressed parents use dreamcatchers, burn sage, and consult mediums, not realizing that only Jesus can bring freedom from spiritual oppression. If we really saw the Holy Spirit working in our churches, it would be a great apologetic to unbelievers. Prayer is one way to reify our conviction that the spiritual world is real, supernatural power is real, and that Jesus is Lord of it all. We must build time for prayer into our services, not just for prayer needs, but for open-ended engagement with God. In addition, we can teach people in our congregation how to pray for one another, since sometimes praying for someone else can build our relationship with God even more than being prayed for. We can also provide time with no distractions, songs without words, even silence so we are able to listen to the Lord. When we see the apathy some people in our churches have toward their relationship with God, we may be tempted to condemn them with unhelpful rebukes, saying, “We are passionate about hockey, Facebook, politics – shouldn’t we be just as passionate for Jesus?” But it would be more constructive to reflect on how we can weave habits of spiritual intimacy into our corporate worship, giving people space for the Holy Spirit’s work. Along the same lines, the

David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007), 123. 8

Pentecostal tradition of “coming to the altar” is an important ritual that reifies surrender. With our bodies, we leave our seats to kneel at the altar, to lay down our pride and our agendas and submit to the Lord in prayer, giving Him time to do whatever He needs to do in our lives. When we do such things that reify the significance of prayer in our weekly gatherings, we will start to see lay people fully alive with the Holy Spirit throughout the rest of their week, engaging culture with discernment and power just like the believers in Acts. Ray Duerksen of the catalyst network Church Renewal in Steinbach, Manitoba, gives another exhortation to pastors. He notes that from the pulpit we urge others to depend on God’s work in their lives, but when people come to us for advice or counselling, we talk a lot, pray a little, and spend no time waiting on the Lord. Instead, he encourages us to give less advice, to spend more of the meeting time in prayer, to encourage the person to pray, and to make space to listen to God together.9 What does this approach reify? It demonstrates that we as clergy do not have all the answers, that God is the one who works, and that lay people can hear from the Spirit of God as well as we can, especially about their own circumstances. These are statements we can and should make from the pulpit, but our teaching will be more effective if we also reify our convictions in this way. Fearless in Sharing the Good News Lastly, we are to be like the believers in Acts: present in the world, fully alive in the Holy Spirit, and fearless in sharing the good news of the Gospel. This fearlessness is central to

Ray Duerksen, “Church Renewal” (presentation, PAOC BC/Yukon District Conference, Christian Life Assembly, Langley, BC, March 8, 2016). 9

Acts, which begins with Pentecost, continues with the disciples proclaiming Jesus in the temple and before the leaders in Jerusalem, and concludes with Paul pleading to preach to Caesar. This fearlessness can be seen in Peter, Stephen, Philip, and Paul, as they share the Word of God and their own testimonies amid great persecution. We, too, occasionally experience persecution. But sometimes we are just fearful. When we run up against unspoken rules that we should not be talking about Jesus, that religion is taboo or to be kept private, we can become timid. I was recently in a local coffeeshop, talking with a lady who works there who is a Christian, and I was fighting the feeling that I should keep my voice down, as if it were inappropriate or tactless to be talking about Jesus in public. I am often the opposite of fearless. But there is “no fear in love,” as we know from 1 John 4:18, and “perfect love casts out fear.” Do we love people enough to tell them about Jesus? According to David Kinnaman, younger generations in North America are deeply entrenched in sin and hurt, and as a result, are often unhappy, unsatisfied, and struggling in their relationships with friends and family.10 And yet we are afraid to offend them by mentioning Jesus. In an article in the Atlantic entitled “Listening to Young Atheists”, an atheist student from Dartmouth comments on evangelism. Notably, he does not say “don’t bother me with your religion,” but instead says, “I really can’t consider a Christian a good, moral person if he isn’t trying to convert me.”11 If we truly love other people and truly believe that Jesus is Lord and that He can give us the best life possible – let alone that He promises to bring us through death into resurrection – then we cannot let awkwardness, resistance, and social taboos keep us from sharing the good news with

Kinnaman, 129. Larry Alex Taunton, “Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity,” The Atlantic, June 2013. 10 11

other people. So how do we reify fearlessness in sharing the good news? As with all of these values, strategy will depend on the specifics of each congregational setting, but here is one idea. Sometimes in our gatherings, we are so programmed (or so chaotic!) that we leave no space for people to testify to the good news. We all need space to share the big story of how Jesus found us, the small story of where we are in our journey that week, and our spiritual gifts for the congregation. When people get a chance to share these things with the church, whether in a larger or smaller setting, the entire body is encouraged and strengthened in faith. More than that, those sharing have had a chance to practice – almost like role-playing – which makes it less of a leap to share all of that with their neighbours, family, coworkers, and beyond. As leaders committed to the growth and multiplication of the church, we must be intentional to reify the value of each person’s gifts and God-story, so that no resource goes untapped in our pursuit of the Great Commission. In so doing, we fulfill our scriptural calling in Ephesians 4:12 to “equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” The book of Acts ends like this: “For two whole years Paul stayed [in Rome] and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ – with all boldness and without hindrance!” (Acts 28:30-31). Paul was present to the world, fully alive in the Holy Spirit, and fearless in sharing the Good News. May we be as well!

U N D E R STA N D I N G OUR TI M E S Elyse Brouwer

“...Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsman under their command.”1 Through this short description of the men of Issachar in 1 Chronicles, we are reminded of the value of knowing and understanding our cultural context. Part of David’s troops, who came “to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him,”2 were men who were wise enough to understand their times and discern what their nation needed to do. If David valued an “understanding of the times” as an asset to his army, we would be wise as Christian leaders to value it too, and seek to develop a greater understanding of the times we are living in. The cultural landscape of Canada continues to change, and as it does, its impact on the church is not to be ignored. If we want our churches to be effective, therefore we need to thoughtfully and prayerfully engage our culture. There are several challenges, however, that we can encounter as we seek to engage our Canadian context effectively, which will require a great deal of humility, intentionality, and love to overcome. In order to tackle these challenges, Canadian Christian leaders need to act in three ways. Firstly, we will need to develop a nuanced, biblical understanding of how Christianity and culture relate to one another, both gen

1 2

1 Chronicles 12:32 (ESV). 1 Chron. 12:23 (ESV)..

erally (as the church universal) and specifically (in our local churches and neighbourhoods). Secondly, we will need to broaden our perspectives by intentionally engaging with different worldviews. And thirdly, we will need to build meaningful bridges to our culture, by exploring how the principles and values of the biblical narrative can be understood and applied in our local contexts. The relationship between Christianity and culture has been a tumultuous one. Some Christians, in the name of cultural relevance and seeker sensitivity, have adapted so thoroughly to the culture around them that they are virtually indistinguishable in word, thought, or deed from their secular counterparts. This sparks panic among other Christians, whose instinct is to respond by rejecting the idea of cultural engagement entirely. Both of these extreme responses reflect a deep misunderstanding of the nature of culture itself, and we cannot begin a constructive discussion regarding cultural engagement if we do not understand what culture is. We need to prioritize the task of fleshing out a deep, biblical understanding of culture, because if we take the time to develop a thoughtful, biblical perspective on culture, it will inevitably be reflected in our community outreaches, the health of our churches, and the tone of our various ministries. After all, our churches each have a unique culture of their own; the greater our understanding of culture, the more intentional we can be about shaping the culture of our church communities. As we reflect on a biblical understanding of culture, it will inevitably lead us to consider the culture of our surrounding communities. This is especially important as the cultural landscape of Canada continues to change. For example, consider the impact of immigration on the religious communities of Canada; a church within a community that has a high percentage of immigrants could see an increase in the number of families attending, with the younger generation

also more likely to attend with or without their parents.3 This could mean that a church that intentionally engages with the immigrant demographic in their neighbourhood could experience a dramatic generational and ethnic shift in their congregation; an “understanding of the times” that could lead to more fruitful ministry as a church community. Canada is made up of multiple generations with incredibly diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences which they do not leave at the door when they cross the threshold of the church. In his memoir, The Pastor, Eugene Peterson affirms that ministry is “a most context-specific way of life: the pastor’s emotional life, family life, experience in the faith, and aptitudes worked out in an actual congregation in the neighbourhood in which she or he lives – these people just as they are, in this place.”4 As leaders and ministers, we have a responsibility to exegete our communities, just as they are (not necessarily as we wish they were), as diligently as we exegete Scripture. Integrating our concern for the biblical gospel with our consideration of culture leads to what Timothy Keller calls a “contextualized biblical gospel theology,”5 a middle ground in which we are “contextualizing to the culture around us so that people there will hear the gospel, but we’re not capitulating culturally.”6 Our journey towards discovering this middle ground should begin with asking questions about our own faith tradition, such as: What is a biblical understanding of culture? What does God teach us to value? What does He show us about morality and identity? What are human beings created for? We must also begin to ask questions of the

Aaron Hutchins, “What Canadians Really Believe: A Surprising Poll,” accessed 6 June 2017, available from http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/what-canadians-really-believe. 4 Eugene Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir, (Harper Collins, 2011), 53. 5 Tim Keller, “To Transform a City,” accessed 6 June 2017, available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2011/winter/tim-keller-transform-city.html. 6 Ibid. 3

culture around us, both in our local contexts and the mainstream culture of Canada. Such questions might include the following: What are the values and beliefs of the wider culture? What is of paramount importance to the people living in our communities? Is it individual choice? Peace? Social justice? Freedom? Happiness? How do these values run counter to, or perhaps align with, biblical values? As we do the hard work of thinking seriously about the culture of our churches and the communities in which we minister, it is also important for us to recognize the ways in which our perspectives may be limited. It can be easy for us to become entrenched in our own ways of thinking, based on our own experiences. Our social circles tend to be comprised of people who talk like us, dress like us, and think like us; furthermore, even the content that we see on the internet (particularly on social media platforms) can be filtered based on what we want to see, creating a “filter bubble”7 tailored exclusively to our preferences. This is good news for a parent wanting to keep mature content away from the eyes of their children, but bad news for those of us whose perspectives and preferences need to be challenged. When we are surrounded by only the opinions and content that affirm our pre-existing beliefs, it can be difficult to understand (and be open to) the thoughts of those who disagree. We can become trapped in our own echo chambers. Adding to this particular challenge is our (often unintentional) subscription to stereotypes or generalizations about a particular people group or culture. While it is helpful to understand commonalities among certain groups regarding beliefs and behaviour, generalizations should not determine how we think about different cultures, particularly in

Eli Pariser, “Beware Online ‘Filter Bubbles,’” accessed 6 June 2017, available from https://www. ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles. 7

the cultural mosaic of Canada. Every ethnicity, generation, religious group, etc. is made up of individuals with unique stories, perspectives, and experiences. We need to avoid making assumptions, and instead, choose to see every individual on their own terms. In You Lost Me, David Kinnaman begins his study of the Mosaic generation (18 to 29 year-olds) with a statement that affirms the individuality of every person they interviewed for their research: “Every story matters. And every type of story matters.”8 Yes, there are demonstrated patterns of thinking and behaviour within every culture, based on the shared values and beliefs of that particular group, however, we need to remember that every person we minister to cannot be reduced to a stereotype. We need to view them as the uniquely designed human beings they are. From my point of view, this means that we need to commit to moving past generalizations and commit to building genuine relationships instead. We need to be intentional in our engagement with different perspectives and stories, and listen to them with humility and love. We may never be able to sit down with every single person in our church or in our neighbourhoods, but this is why intentionality is so key in overcoming this challenge; we need to set aside time for conversation and dialogue with those of different perspectives and take the initiative in building relationships with them. If we are not intentional and purposeful in our pursuit to engage with people of different cultures, it is likely that we will find ourselves surrounded by “yes-men”: people who only say what we want to hear, and affirm what we are already doing.

David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church...and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011), 27. 8

Christian leaders tend to spend a lot of time theorizing about what the unchurched want; we read books, listen to lectures, pore over every statistic we can find, and more. However, we can spend so much time theorizing about how we can engage the unchurched that we neglect to ask questions of those we want answers from. There are real, flesh-and-blood people outside our church doors who need the gospel, and we can either hypothesize about what it would take to engage them more effectively, or take the risk of asking them themselves. Why guess when we can ask? A great example of asking for answers from those we want to reach can be found in the book Jim and Casper Go to Church. As Jim Henderson takes atheist Matt Casper to several different churches and listens to his thoughts, he draws several important insights about the church from their time together. He talks about certain relational habits that Christians need to practice in order to engage the unchurched effectively – what Casper calls “defending the space.” He says, “Jesus was a master dialogist... He didn’t use power to overcome; He used kindness to overwhelm. Defending the space happens when listening trumps talk and reflection trumps reactivity.”9 If our posture as Christ-followers was one of listening and learning, perhaps we would find that others would be much more willing to listen and learn from us too. As we listen and learn from those who think and behave differently from us, we need to be mindful to build meaningful bridges where we can, instead of burning them by fighting culture wars. In another study he conducted, aimed at discovering what young unchurched people think of Christianity, David Kinnaman observed that Christians are more

Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well- Meaning Christians (Barna Books, 2007), 129. 9

often known for what they oppose, rather than what they are for.10 We are defined, for example, by our opposition to homosexuality11 and science.12 In our pursuit of truth, justice, righteousness, and morality, we can unintentionally foster a mentality of “us-versus-them.” We can play all the best music, utilize the newest technology, and even spend as much time as possible in our communities, but ultimately, all our efforts to engage with the cultures around us will come up short if our approach lacks humility, patience, and love. Jesus commanded us to be “in, but not of” the world, not against and above it. There are certainly aspects of Western culture that we cannot affirm as orthodox Christians, but as we seek to show our world the relevancy of the gospel, we need to pay attention to those values and beliefs of the surrounding culture in which God’s character and work is already being revealed. There are certainly existing values within our Canadian context that have been shaped by Christian assumptions, moral standards that find their roots in Judeo-Christian belief. We can affirm the growing concern amongst younger generations for social justice, and the desire to care for those who are marginalized, because we worship the God who commands us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with Him. We can affirm the fight for gender and racial equality, because we believe in the God who created all people in His image with inherent dignity and value. In fact, the concern for equality should be one area that we as Pentecostals are intentional about speaking up for, because of the equality and indiscriminate nature of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The pouring out of the Spirit on “all flesh”13 among sons and daughters, young and old, servant or

David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007), 26. 11 Kinnaman, UnChristian, 91. In fact, Christians are seen as being repressive of sexuality altogether; see Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 153. 12 Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 131. 13 Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17-18 (ESV). 10

free, can send a powerful message to a culture that has long struggled with oppression and socioeconomic inequality, because radical equality has long been a defining characteristic of the Pentecostal tradition.14 We may not agree on everything, and in many ways, we will differ with our unchurched counterparts on how these values should be practiced in society. This should not, however, cause us to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Wherever we can, it is in the church’s best interest to build bridges between Christians and the culture around us in order to shine a light on where God is already at work in the world. It would be a beautiful and powerful picture of the Gospel to the world if Christians became known more for what they are for, such as the love, compassion, and grace, rather than for what they are against. Finally, as I reflect on the ways Christianity can impact culture, I am reminded of the many men and women throughout history whose Christian convictions led them towards culture and were used by God to transform it. Ultimately, Christians are meant to not only engage with their surrounding culture, but to be prophetic voices within it, leading people towards their Creator. Leaders such as Josephine Butler, Martin Luther King Jr., William Wilberforce, and countless others made a major impact on the world they lived in, because they were able to see the relevance of Christ to their culture, they believed in the power of the gospel to transform it, and then acted on that conviction in the power of the Spirit to lead the people of their culture to a better way – God’s way. They are not the exception, but the rule. Ever since the explosion of the Christian moment in the Greco-Roman world, the gospel has been at the centre of movements of

Jonathan Hill, The History of Christian Thought (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 312. Describing the events at the Azusa Street Mission, one onlooker noted that “the colour line is washed away in the Blood.” 14

liberation, equality, and justice. From the inception of the church, the gospel has â&#x20AC;&#x153;prompted and sustained attractive, liberating, and effective social relations and organizations,â&#x20AC;?15 and it continues to do the same today. As we seek to understand our times and engage the people around us for the sake of the gospel, we must face the challenges of cultural engagement head on. We need to develop an insightful, perceptive, and biblical understanding of the relationship between Christianity and our culture, and allow it to transform our approach in our local contexts. We must dialogue with those of different perspectives, listen to their stories, and learn from them. Finally, we need to build bridges between Christianity and culture instead of burning them, and in order to be prophetic voices within our culture, witnessing to the transforming power of the gospel in our world. As we take these steps, may we do them as a people convinced of Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desire to transform Canada, willing to follow Him faithfully in the cultural context in which He has placed us.

Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 211. 15

A R E S P O N S E T O G O O D FA I T H BY DAVID KINNAMAN Seth Greenham

In their book Good Faith, David Kinnaman of The Barna Group and Gabe Lyons of Q Learning Communities present the conclusion that Christians in America are increasingly viewed as irrelevant and extreme through the use of empirical data and lived experience. This, they propose, is a result of a cultural change from a biblically-based morality toward a morality based on self-fulfillment. This shift in morality produces a subtle understanding that “...any competing morality – say, a religion – that seeks to constrain someone’s pursuit of personal fulfillment must itself be constrained.” They assert that this shift produces a challenge in Christian community engagement; not only does our broader community find Christians unappealing and dangerous, but Christians are shying away from speaking to people who disagree with them, due to the tension. In response to this challenging cultural environment, Good Faith attempts to provide a road map on how to engage the non-Christian world in this environment. By calling Christians to Good Faith, which is defined as love (towards God and others), belief (biblical orthodoxy) and life (integrating love and belief in everyday life), they exhort Christians to cultural engagement through reflective questioning: What is wrong? What is confused? What is right? What is missing? They illustrate that Christian and secular leadership needed to make space in the public square for those who disagree

on issues of morality and faith. They acknowledge the choice many Christians face is to assimilate or to accommodate. Kinnaman and Lyons advocate for Christians to accommodate, which they describe as, â&#x20AC;&#x153;a confident (intentional) living alongside those with whom you disagree.â&#x20AC;?1 Kinnaman and Lyons tease at what it might mean to live out good faith in a host of cultural hot button issues: Sexuality, Race Relations, Family Relationships, and Right to Life. In charting a way forward, they recommend five ways (theology, ministry, relationships, politics and the public square) to be faithful by asking questions around the divisive issues. In contemplating the future, Good Faith calls churches to be grounded in Scripture, to see people rather than ideologies, and to make disciples who bless the world. In reading this book, I found myself asking, are Christians in Canada viewed as irrelevant and extremist? In my position as chaplain at a major Canadian university, I would acknowledge that at times secularists have accused me of both. But with the growing break-down of society, the church as a social safety net is undeniable, specifically the celebrated efforts of the Salvation Army and Union Gospel Mission. On many of our campuses, it is the churches that are acknowledged as the harm reduction advocates and frontline workers around campus drinking culture. Also, in looking at the American data, a distinction can be made as Canada continues to flourish in accepting new immigrants, which fosters a greater sense of religious diversity featured/celebrated in the public square. As I read Good Faith, I was conscious of the reality that in Canada there is a shift toward some of the hot button issues. We are used to having gay marriage in this country. Our theological debate is based more on whether or not God

Kinnaman, Good Faith, 112.

blesses these unions. More broadly, will the Charter force us to legalize polygamy? Or will provincial bodies force pastors to solemnize same-sex unions? We are entering into a season that demands a Christian response to the legalization of marijuana, something we can perhaps glean from our American brothers and sisters in Washington State and Colorado. In terms of race relations, the post-colonial reconciliation with First Nations and hospitality to new immigrants are capturing attention in the Canadian context. With these differences in mind, how do we apply Good Faith in a Canadian context? I appreciated the exhortation to Hospitable Engagement with our neighbours whether we agree or disagree with each other. In thinking about this, I was pondering how to respond as a Christ-follower to the legal challenge concerning the Trinity Western Law School Application. Seldom in the Christian discussion has the question been asked, “How do we bless those who are persecuting us? How do we love our ideological enemy?” Instead, we are largely talking about how we defend our rights. I wholeheartedly endorse the call in Good Faith for biblical orthodoxy, but wonder how it would be achieved in a church that is increasingly biblically illiterate. I see many of the best youth group grads come to university without a rudimentary biblical understanding, many failing to have even read the New Testament or even the Gospels, despite attending youth group and church faithfully throughout their school years. At the book’s conclusion, I wish that Good Faith’s section on vocation had been developed more. There is a great need for churches and spiritual leaders to grow in knowledge and application of how to live out the good faith at work for the 95% of Christians in the marketplace. Good Faith asserts that Christians are viewed as irrelevant, and extreme. It calls us, in spite of this, to engagement with people who are ideologically different than us. Kin39

naman and Lyons encourage us to a radical love, and a strong belief, as we live real, authentic Christian lives amongst our neighbors. It is my hope we can answer that call in our context.

POST CHRISTIAN CANADA AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD Michael Wilkinson

I have the privilege of responding to the articles written in response to the American author David Kinnaman and colleagues who are currently writing about the social changes in the United States and their impact on American Christianity. Kinnaman is the president of the well-known polling organization, The Barna Group, which has published numerous findings that speak to church leaders and ministry in America. Barna has its detractors who question the methodology of its research and the interpretation of its findings, but that is not my purpose for writing this response. I have been asked to reflect upon the observations of those who recently listened to Kinnaman speak at a PAOC BC and Yukon District Conference in 2017 and offer some thoughts on those observations. In one way, I get to summarize those desparate, yet related observations. In another way, I get to use them to propose my own reflections on Canadian social change and its impact on churches. There is much research to show that Canada has changed. There is much research to show that churches have also changed as they respond to broader social trends and ask what all this means for ministry. Some trends appear to be more important than others. Some changes, which brought incredible moral panic, like the changing of divorce laws in the 1960s, have become accepted on the whole by the church

es. With all social change, some is intended, and some is accidental. Most of us can never fully imagine the unintended consequences. And yet, here we are, once again pondering the meaning of the most recent changes and how the churches might respond. Some of those changes include the dramatic decline in participation within local congregations, the growing number of people who say they have no religion, which is highest in British Columbia at about 45%. This is higher than anywhere else in North America, and approaching rates observed in Europe. There are many other changes that I will not even attempt to address. Having said that, let me applaud the authors for attempting to think theologically about those changes and how churches might respond. What follows are my reflections from the observations of those writers. Firstly, the metaphor of sailing and navigating by Mick Nelson is a powerful metaphor that highlights the various ways in which churches can think about culture. Sailing can be both a highly satisfying activity with the salt water splashing in your face and the heat of the sun on your body. Spending time on the water, for some, can be exhilarating and quite enjoyable. For others, it means sea sickness and fear. And even for the most experienced sailors, it can be a challenge when the winds change, and the currents move you in directions you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t intend to go. All the articles included here in many ways are like sailing and offer reflections on both the exhilaration and the concern over shifting currents in Canadian society. Secondly, the call by Elyse Brouwer to understand the times with a contextualized Christianity, is one that resonates with me. Canada is a multicultural society that continues to be settled by not just Europeans but people from all over the world. It is a settler society that at one time dreamed of itself as a bi-cultural society, only to be challenged by the nonFrench and non-English settlers from other European societ42

ies to recognize that Canada was far more multicultural than bi-cultural. Over time, multicultural Canada has come to mean something more than pan-European, as greater numbers arrive from other continents not considered in the 1960s. Canada today is more post Christian than it was in the past, meaning that the Christianity represented in this country is less tied to its European form and increasingly de-Europeanized as Christians arrive from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in growing numbers. But it also means Canada has welcomed people who religiously identify themselves as Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Muslims amongst others. As well, it means there are growing numbers of Canadians who do not identify with any religion. The European form of Christianity that has for so long dominated the landscape needs to be recognized for what it is: a form of Christianity that was once linked to the colonial powers of Great Britain. If there is any good to come out of the decline of the British Empire, it is that Christians in Canada can start to imagine a Christianity that is not linked to the Empire and one that is truly a de-colonized Christianity. And yet, if there has been an uncoupling of Christianity from the Empire, we are still left with the residue of a form of Christianity that has linked power with faith, capital with Christ, violence with the cross, and bloodshed for the indigenous peoples that the Empire came to conquer. There is much healing to happen in a land that was conquered by colonial Christianity. And it ought to begin with a thorough examination of what historically has occurred and the problems of too closely aligning the Kingdom of God with the kingdom of this world. The issue about how closely tied Christianity is with any state is raised when questions about the American experience is thought to be applicable to Canadian churches, and if so, how Kinnaman believes the strategy for American churches to move forward during their period of social change is to be addressed in theology, ministry, relationships, politics and 43

the public square, as pointed out in the article by Seth Greenham. But, is this an appropriate strategy for Canada? Greenham asks some very important questions. First, I agree that theology needs to be reconsidered, and since theology is always about the church’s reflection on God and what God is doing in the world, then where is the kind of theologizing taking place that asks, if Canada is a post Christian society: Where is God? What does God look like? How is God embodied in our everyday lives? Likewise, I think this kind of theological reflection has logical implications for ministry. I often hear Pentecostal leaders say we are only interested in applied or practical ministry. However, you can only apply or make real the abstract. Applied theology does not exist except in relation to the type of theologizing that occurs in some systematic way. Or to put it another way, applying theology is about making real the theological reflections of God’s being in our contemporary post Christian world. The abstract and the practical are linked. Second, building relationships always sounds reasonable and there is much conversation in coffee shops and teaching in congregations about the importance of building relationships with non-Christians. And yet I always wonder if this is, in fact, occurring. I always cringe when I hear how those relationships are used in shallow ways to reflect a low level of friendship that ought to be characterized by concern for the other, even when the other does not respond to the pleas to come to church or the salvation message that Jesus is the only way. Shouldn’t hospitality extend beyond any set time frame or one that only counts conversions in annual statistical reports? Or to put it another way, why reduce God’s mission to evangelism, when hospitality itself is a vocation Christians can give their lives to in service to God? Third, I don’t have much faith or hope in Christians in politics and the public square, as do our American cousins. The separation of church and state does not mean churches 44

are without influence, but sometimes all that political noise gets in the way of the good news of the gospel. And quite frankly, the culture wars in the United States, which on occasion slip over the border into Canada, create more controversy than light. Numerous studies demonstrate very clearly that Canadian Christians do not share the same assumptions as American Christians about politics and the state. In the end, I see no value in any attempt to legislate Christian faith into the Canadian social system. I am not inclined to believe that Christ is against culture nor that the Kingdom of God is in some way in jeopardy with every law that is passed that creates moral panic within the pew. Then what should the churches do? Hannah Dutko considers the vast sea of social change and the churches in Canada with a very important observation on reification; an idea about making real the abstract. Dutko looks to the example of the early church in the Acts of the Apostles and asks how does the Holy Spirit make real those things we value, like hospitality and generosity in everyday life? This is a very good question that ought to be reflected upon by all PAOC leaders, with what Dutko calls the fearlessness or courage to make real everyday faith. Reification contains within it one way the imagination of the churches and its leaders can be ignited as they re-imagine a new church for a new society. Finally, my own views are more in step with Lutherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two kingdom view, whereby the Kingdom of God is held in tension with the world. What this means is that while we live in two worlds, we never forget that we are not part of this world, but all allegiances are with Christ and his Kingdom of the Good News. It is not a kingdom that is bound by geography, but one that is de-territorialized, meaning it is within, but beyond, and not bound by geography. It is a kingdom to which we give our lives as we live in the world, even though we are not of the world. To be clear, I am more Pentecostal than Reformed and while the old-time Pentecostals recognized these two worlds, 45

the call to come out of the world is not the call of Luther or Wesley. Rather, the call is to be in the world extending the good news of the gospel, that another world is to come and is already here as evidenced by signs and wonders. It is not a world in which we are at home, or one which must simply be transformed into a better version of this world. The Kingdom of God is far more radical. The Kingdom of God is characterized by possibility â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the idea that Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activity in the world opens up possibilities for imagining new life, hope, healing, hospitality, generousity, and a world to come. No world system, especially our modern western world, remotely comes close to the eschatological hope we might experience now and yet long for to come. I believe the new heavens and the new earth, another beautiful metaphor in Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Revelation, inspires our imaginations to be even more creative than we could possibly ever be.

CONTRIBUTORS Elyse Brouwer is the Connections Pastor at WestWinds Community Church in Surrey, BC. She is a graduate of Summit Pacific College (B.A.), and is currently pursuing her M.A. at Regent College. Hannah Dutko is Co-Lead Pastor of Oceanside Community Church in Parksville, BC. She is a graduate of Evangel University (B.A.), Missouri State University (M.A.), and Regent College (M.Div.). She and her husband, Joseph, have three young children: Anya, Amos, and Junia. Seth Greenham is the Pentecostal Chaplain at Simon Fraser University, and serves as the Director of University Christian Ministries at SFU for BC Campus Ministries. He is a graduate of Central Bible College (B.Th.). Mick Nelson is the Director of Discipleship at Broadway Church in Vancouver, BC and has also served in the BC and Yukon District at Glad Tidings Church in Victoria, BC. He is a graduate of the University of Manitoba (B.A.), Central Pentecostal College (Dip. Theo.), Lutheran Theological Seminary (M. Div.) and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (D. Min.). Michael Wilkinson is a Professor of Sociology at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC. He is a graduate of Eastern Pentecostal Bible College (B.Th.), Carleton University (B.A.), Wilfrid Laurier University (M.A.), and the University of Ottawa (Ph.D.).

WORKS CITED Burns, B., Chapman, T. D., & Guthrie, D. C., Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us about Surviving & Thriving, Downers Grove, IVP, 2013. Crouch, Andy, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, (Downers Grove, IVP, 2013). Duerksen, Ray. “Church Renewal.” Presentation, PAOC BC and Yukon District Conference, Christian Life Assembly, Langley, BC, March 8, 2016. Fitch, David E. Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016. Guinness, Os, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, (Downers Grove, IVP, 2015). Henderson, Jim and Matt Casper. Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians. Barna Books, 2007. Hill, Jonathan. The History of Christian Thought. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Hutchins, Aaron. “What Canadians Really Believe: A Surprising Poll.” Accessed 6 June 2017. Online: http://www.macleans.ca/society/ life/what-canadians-really-believe. Keller, Tim. “To Transform a City.” Accessed 6 June 2017. Online: http:// www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2011/winter/tim-keller- transform-city.html. Keller, Tim, Why Culture Matters, Q Ideas, YouTube - https://youtu.be/XWynJbvcZfs. Kinnaman, David, and Gabe Lyons. unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007.

Kinnaman, David. You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church... and Rethinking Faith. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011. Kirkland, T. Larry, Sr. O.J.: Made in America. Documentary film series. Directed by Ezra Edelman. ESPN Films: 2016. Peterson, Eugene. The Pastor: A Memoir. Harper Collins, 2011. Pariser, Eli. “Beware Online ‘Filter Bubbles.’” Accessed 6 June 2017. Online: https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_ filter_bubbles.33. Smith, David I. “The Call of the Christian Educator.” Lecture, Regent College, Vancouver, BC, October 10, 2010. Smith, David I. “Communities of Practice.” Class lecture, Called to Teach: Teaching as a Christian Practice from Regent College, Vancouver, BC, June 29, 2010. Smith, James K. A. You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2016. Stevens, R. Paul. “Equipping the Whole People of God for the Dispersed Life.” Class lecture, Christian Education and Equipping: Empowering the Whole People of God from Regent College, Vancouver, BC, February 4, 2011. Taunton, Larry Alex. “Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity.” The Atlantic, June 2013. Vanhoozer, K. J., ed., Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends, Grand Rapids, Baker Books., 2007. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.