1. UNDERSTANDING OUR TIMES
LIVING AS MISSIONARIES
Mark Sayers

2. MISSIONARY SUCCESS
WHERE ARE WE DOING
WELL?

3. ASPIRATIONALS

4. NON EURO MIGRANTS

5. RETURNERS
CRISIS OF MEANING

6. MISSIONARY FAILURE
EVERYWHERE ELSE

7. MISSIONARY MYTHS
CHURCH SHAPE
SAVED BY COOL
BECOME LESS………
GO OUT

8. Happyworld = Friends > Family > Fun
THE HAPPY EGG
SUPERFLAT HappyWorld
My
Story

9. SUPERFLAT CULTURE
1) DISENCHANTED
2) POST-COVENANTAL
3) ME-ISM

10. SUPERFLAT CULTURE
1) DISENCHANTED
2) POST-COVENANTAL
3) ME-ISM

11. A DISENCHANTED WORLD

12. A PAGAN WORLD

13. “If you go back…in human history, you come to archaic
societies in which the whole set of distinctions we make
between the religious, political, economic, social, etc
aspects of our society ceases to make sense. In these
earlier societies, religion was “everywhere”, was
interwoven with everything else, and in no sense
constituted a separate “sphere” of its own.”
A Secular Age. Charles Taylor

14. CHRISTENDOM’S COSMOS

15. REFORMATION

16. NATURAL SCIENCE

17. “The problem is…the separation of God from nature, a
split that began in the late medieval and early modern
period. This resulted in the (perceived) separation of
God from everyday life that is so characteristic of
contemporary secular societies. The main carrier of this
has been modern natural science. Science came to
understand nature as a mechanical system that
operated more or less independently from God. God
was thus gradually (over centuries) removed from the
cosmos.”
The Sacred Cosmos. Terence L. Nichols

18. TRUIMPH
OF REASON

19. COMMODIFICATION OF EVERYTHING

20. MORALLY
INSIGNIFICANT
UNIVERSE

21. WHAT EXISENTIAL CRISIS?

22. SUPERFLAT 2 -
DISTRACTION
& DISTRACTION AND IDLE
IDLE
CHATTER
CHATTER

23. SUBSTITUTIONARY
TRANCENDENCE

24. SUBSTITUTIONARY
TRANCENDENCE
Consumerism, Sex, Travel, Sport,
Home Improvement, Exercise, Food,
Technology, The Environment,
Education, Romantic Love,
Experience, Music, Movies.
“All Sins are attempts to fill voids.”
Simone Weil

25. NO MARKETPLACE

26. SUPERFLAT CULTURE
1) DISENCHANTED
2) POST-COVENANTAL
3) ME-ISM

27. POST-BELIEF? Or…?

28. POST-COVENANTAL

29. TRADITIONAL STRUCTURE
META STATE, NATION, EMPIRE
COMMUNAL
GUILD, CHURCH, VILLAGE, TRIBE, TRADE, LODGE,
FAMILY, MARRIAGE, CLAN, CLUB, ASSOCIATION,
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MARKET, VOLUNTEERS,
UNIONS, FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.
INDIVIDUAL

30. TRADITIONAL STRUCTURE
META STATE, NATION, EMPIRE
COMMUNAL
GUILD, CHURCH, VILLAGE, TRIBE, TRADE, LODGE,
FAMILY, MARRIAGE, CLAN, CLUB, ASSOCIATION,
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MARKET, VOLUNTEERS,
UNIONS, FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.
COVENANTAL
INDIVIDUAL

31. CONTEMPORARY STRUCTURE
META STATE, NATION, CORPORATION, MASS MEDIA,
TECHNOLOGY/INTERNET, UNIVERSITY, CITY.
COMMUNAL/COVENANTAL
INDIVIDUAL INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, FREEDOM,
CHOICE, PERSONAL HAPPINESS

34. SOLIDITY LIQUIDITY

35. ATOMISATION

36. SUPERFLAT CULTURE
1) DISENCHANTED
2) POST-COVENANTAL
3) ME-ISM

37. ME-ISM

38. QUANTAM CHANGE 1962-1970

39. RADICAL
INDIVIDUALISM

40. FREEDOM MYTH

41. CHRISTIANITY’S
PATHETIC COUSIN

42. ME-ISM (Moral Therapeutic Deism)
IMPLICIT & PARASITIC
HINDU ISLAM CHRISTIAN JEWISH
ME-ISM

43. DEFACTO FAITH

44. ME-ISM (Moral Therapeutic Deism)
WHAT IS HOT
1) Purpose of life is personal happiness
2) God is a cosmic butler
3) Morality is not hurting others
4) Everyone gets to heaven bar Hitler
5) Feelings are paramount
WHAT IS NOT
1) Discipline
2) Sin & broader consequence
3) Submission of self
4) Interventionist God

45. WHAT DOES MISSION LOOK
LIKE?
In a dis-Enchanted Culture?
In a post-Covenantal Culture?
For a church infected by Me-Ism?