Navigating the Shift
I don’t need to tell you that there is a massive shift taking place in the western world regarding human identity, sexual morality and marriage. That shift is sending shock waves through western Christianity.
Bishops in England are lining up to embrace same-sex marriage and gender ideology. They sense they may be winning a battle that has raged for decades. Meanwhile, the archbishop is silent and refuses to discipline those who reject the church’s teaching.
In Australia, the Baptists of NSW decided to disaffiliate churches and pastors that embrace same-sex marriage. The head of Baptist Mission Australia and the head of missiology and evangelism at the NSW Baptist theological college opposed that move.
This shift is everywhere in the western church and it is not going away. How can we understand and respond to it from a movement perspective?
Here’s the heart of it.
When confronted with a conflict like this the first thing to do is return to our identity. Disciple making movements follow Jesus’ example by placing themselves under the authority of God’s living Word revealed in Scripture, they depend on the power of the Holy Spirit, as they pursue the core missionary task of making disciples and multiplying churches to the glory of God, from where they are, to the ends of the earth.
The way to meet this challenge is to remind ourselves of who we are and remain faithful to our identity in Christ, wherever that leads.
In the next post, we’ll talk about what that looks like.
