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From Volume 7, Number 1, Summer 2000 How the Celts Did Evangelism Editor's note: The following article is a referral about a book we had planned to review in this issue. Canon Kevin Martin of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas sent an e-mail to his colleagues recommending Dr. George Hunter's book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism. He has given us his kind permission to reprint it. It is very heartening to see church leaders discovering the resources of Celtic Christianity for the Body of Christ in our times. Mission: Resources, Ideas and Innovations How the Irish Did Evangelism Recently, Tory Baucum, an Episcopal Priest doing a Ph.D. at Asbury Seminary, gave me a copy of George's Hunter's new book. George is the author of Reaching Secular People and The Church for the Unchurched. These are two essential books for those interested in mission work to the secular world. Now he has added The Celtic Way of Evangelism. Celtic culture has been big lately as seen by River Dance. A number of books on Celtic Spirituality have also appeared. One reason the Celtic Church may be given such press is how little we know about it. As one commentator has quipped, the lack of documentation about the Celtic Church allows modern authors to "read into" the experience what ever they would like. This, however, is not the case with Hunter. With careful scholarship and reason, Hunter turns his missionary viewpoint to the Celtic Church and the cultures it tried to reach. He comes to some interesting applications to the modern world. Since this is not a review, but a referral, I want to pick up on one of his early concepts. I will let Hunter speak for himself: The Church, in the Western world, faces populations who are increasingly "secular" -- “ people with no Christian memory, who don't know what we Christians are talking about. These populations are increasingly "urban" --“ and out of touch with God's "natural revelation." These populations are increasingly "postmodern"; they have graduated from Enlightenment ideology and are more peer driven, feeling driven, and "rightbrained" than their forebears. These populations are increasingly "neobarbarian" they lack "refinement" or "class" and their lives are often out of control. These populations are increasingly receptiveexploring worldview options from Astrology to Zen and are often looking "in all the wrong places" to make sense of their lives and find their soul's true home. In the face of this changing Western culture, many Western Church leaders are in denial: they plan and do church as though next year will be 1957. Furthermore, most of the Western Church leaders who are not in denial do not know how to engage the epidemic numbers of secular, postmodern, neobarbarians outside (and inside) their churches. Who are these new barbarians Hunter is talking about? You can see them on extreme games or MTV. These tattooed and pierced youth represent the emergence of a new more feeling and intuitive way of culture fueled by the visional images of TV and the Internet. They are less reading oriented and classically connected. And they are "lost" in every sense of the word. I can also add that the Church has almost no relationship to this large and increasing part of our world. Hunter argues that Patrick and his companions may hold the key to reaching these new urban tribes. Patrick, who had been a slave in Ireland, knew that the Irish could never be reached in the Roman manner of evangelism. The Roman approach was to proclaim the gospel, call for decision and form new converts into church members. Patrick and his companions, planted a community first, invited folks to participate in the Christian life through hospitality and afterward invited them into relationship with God and the people of God. This is very much in line with the information on the Millennial generation and the success of mission trips and such activities as Habitat for Humanity in getting them engaged with the church's mission prior to the Christian message. The Celtic Church also used drama, storytelling, music and poetry to communicate the gospel to these tribal people. This is exactly the methods churches aimed at young people are using. A group of our younger clergy in the Austin area has been doing some creative thinking about how to reach this generation and many of their ideas parallel Hunter's thoughts. Jimmy Bartz, our chaplain at the University of Texas, points out that most young people who are already in the Church could best be described as "assimilators." They have already adapted many of the values of the Church's culture. Jimmy suggests that we are most comfortable with these assimilators because they don't present the kind of challenge that their peers present us. He also suggests that reaching those not assimilated will require radically different methods than our present youth and campus ministries provide. I think Jimmy is right. Why is all this important? Because the younger people are in the US today, the more predictably unchurched they are. Indeed, they have almost no Christian connections at all. Archbishop Carey tells the story of flying to the ruins of Iona on a modern British helicopter with a group of visitors. While there, he started a conversation with the young pilot about the helicopter. After some conversation about all the technology, the pilot looks out at the ruins and asks, "what is this place?" Carey found out that this young British soldier had absolutely no knowledge of the Celtic Church of the Christian heritage of England. Carey's observation is that our world is now full of these young people like this pilot. They have tremendous technological knowledge, but no roots whatsoever, spiritually void. This is the challenge that faces all of us at the beginning of the 21st century.Hunter's book is published by Abingdon and is available through Amazon.com. It's well worth the read! The Rev. Canon Kevin E. Martin |