Moving Beyond the Secular-Sacred Divide: The Challenge of Post-Christendom

The following was taken from the conference website

Since 1995, YWAM North America has regularly held conferences for our staff working in the many cities on our continent. They’ve taken place in Nashville (1995), Montreal (1996, where the NA Cities Leadership Team was formed), San Francisco (1997), Chicago (2004), New York (2006), Vancouver (2008, where we formulated and signed the Vancouver Declaration) and Atlanta (2010). Fifteen years later, we’re returning to Montreal because the central theme for our 2012 conference – postchristendom – lends itself perfectly to the culture of this primarily French-speaking city.

Culture is a fluid thing, never stuck in time nor in one particular form. It’s always evolving, changing, adapting . . . as does language. Western culture, with its’ European roots, has never stopped changing. Europe was once called the Christian continent and is so no more. In their long history, Europeans have seen the best and the worst of christendom . . . and have chosen to move on. It is now the post-christian continent focusing on what it is to be secular. But this is also, and very quickly, becoming the reality of the western world, including North America. Significant parts of our NA region have left or are in the process of leaving behind a Christian worldview and the cultures that it has spawned over the generations.

Postchristendom is very much the reality of Quebec where language has defined us as a people. Surrounded by 300 million English-speaking people throughout North America, Quebec has maintained a close relationship with Europe, particularly France and is, therefore, the most European region in NA politically, philosophically and culturally (including our love for wine, cheese and other fine foods, culture being in this case a very positive attribute). And yet, Quebec is part of North America and constantly in relationship and dialogue with the rest of Canada and the USA culturally, economically and politically. Postchristendom has a particular colour in Quebec, but it is very much becoming a Canadian reality as well, secularism becoming a central Canadian ideology. And in the USA, it’s in the cities and their institutions that we especially see the growing influence of the secular mind.

How are we to engage and participate in a culture that is urban, secular and postchristian? In a culture that will not go back in time to sit on our church pews? How are we to “go into the world” where Jesus has sent us and become a part of that world? These are some of the questions we will grapple with in as interactive a way as possible amongst ourselves and with Montreal during the few days we’ll be together. And to challenge us and help us process these issues, we’ve invited as our keynote speaker, Jeff Fountain, who will be able to highlight principles drawn from his many years of mission experience in Europe and help us adapt them to our NA context.

This conference is open to all YWAM staff in NA (and beyond) and not just for those working in the larger cities. The growing reality of postchristendom concern us all.

Pierre LeBel
on behalf of the NA Cities Leadership Team

See photos from the conference