Mission in an Age of Zombies

The church is living through an epidemic, a time of deadly serious threats.
The situation in which Christians find themselves is best understood as a time
of deep existential threat to the faith. If we are to think through this crisis in
the church’s mission today, the church needs honestly to see itself as living in a
time of plague. How the church responds to this situation is in many ways the
chief question of the day. How does a church respond to a culture around it
infected with a deadly pestilence?

A plea for missions from a church official was published recently. The author
made the usual encouragements that the church engage those outside the
church. The article relayed statistics and breakdowns of Generation X, Y, and
Z, the rise of the “nones,” how this should alarm the church, and how ecclesiastical
leaders ought to craft the Christian message to appeal to those demographics.
What was striking about the piece was the imagery that the author
used to portray the church’s situation. He wrote that unfortunately many
congregations isolated themselves, that many had a “fortress mentality.” His
contention was that so many Christians and church leaders spend their time
inside the walls of the church where it is comfortable and not venturing out
into the world, that it hinders the mission to the lost. The author wished to persuade
his readers to take the battle into the field, to abandon the fortress and
go on the attack.