12 Cities 12 Conversations – Boston

Panelists Derek Webb, Jena Lee Nardella, Os Guinness, Sara Groves, Dan Cho and Gordon Hugenberger.

Last night Monica and I joined 400 other Bostonians for a conversation on the impact of Christians upon our culture. The evening was called 12 Cities 12 Conversations and is part of…you guessed it….12 conversations happening all over the US in 12 cities as a build up to the 2010 Lausanne Conference in South Africa. I want to share one thing I was encouraged about and one criticism I had.

I was greatly encouraged by the desire to listen to non-western theologians and the particular awareness that the individualism of America has negatively impacted Christianity and culture. At the first Lausanne conference, evangelical mission was redefined by Latin American voices like Rene Padilla. This was the first time the evangelical movement sought to combine both biblical justice and proclamation. We are still reeling from that first meeting. American Christians need to humble ourselves and listen to the prophetic voice of the church in the global south.

One criticism I had was that modernity was proclaimed to be the cause of all the problems in the American Church. My good friend and future New Testament scholar Chris Stroup wrote me after the evening and said that the modern world is what has even allowed this conversation to happen – flying to South African, communicating with Chinese pastors, social justice in developing countries, etc. I would suggest that maybe the problem is closer tied to global consumerism than modernism. Of course I need to unpack that…but those are my beginning thoughts.