THE LOSS OF "CHRISTENDOM" IS A GOOD THING...

Christendom" (when culture and Christianity are largely in sync) is over in America. And that's a good thing for the church and a good thing for the culture. One of the most destructive historical events for the church was its legalization and state sanctioning by Constantine in the 4th century. All of a sudden there was an enormous influx of non-Christians bringing lots of ideas into what was, at the time, a purer and stronger and more unified church that had experienced incredible growth. That incredible growth was fueled by the persecution of the church. "The blood of the martyrs were the seeds of the church" was a common way to understand that persecution of Christians multiplied and strengthened the church in those first 300 years.

We have experienced a fairly rapid divorce between our culture and Christianity. Within my (relatively short haha:) lifetime (I'm 41) I've seen Christian values in our culture completely disintegrate. The arc of our culture has been completely opposite of the arc of my life. We have just traded places. Before I met Jesus, I was incredibly immoral and skeptical about any kind of religion (maybe even a little antagonistic to be honest). I didn't believe there was a god, I didn't go to church, I didn't know a thing about the Bible, and all I wanted was to live life and enjoy every experience - whether it was legal or not. So right now, culture and I have switched places over the past 25 years. Honestly, meeting Jesus and becoming a Christ-follower has been the greatest and most life-changing and fulfilling and long-lasting experiences of my life. I measure my life by the moment I met Christ. There's the Gibson that was "BC" (before Christ) and the Gibson that people know after I met Christ. And those two people are really different.

That's a bit of my story. What about yours? Take a few minutes to read this helpful post from Tim Brister about the loss of Christendom (when culture and Christianity are in sync) and let it shed some light on where you are today. How do you feel about the changes? Do you have a positive outlook on the loss of Christendom? Why or why not? I'd love your feedback! Email me and let me know what you think... Gibson

"The loss of "Christendom" (when culture and Christianity are in sync) is better for the church and better for the culture. Here's a great post that helps make sense of what's happened at what is happening in our culture from blogger Tim Brister: http://timmybrister.com/2015/07/posture-in-post-christendom/"