St. Patrick is a new hero of mine. I just finished reading The Celtic Way of Evangelism, by George Hunter. It was a cross between a historical look at Patrick's effort to reach across cultural barriers to a people who were far from God and a 21st century look at the similarities we share with the late 5th century Europe. Sound exciting yet??? Hope so...I give it a solid B+
I always look for "take home" from any book - something I can apply to my life and ministry. The "take home" from this book was understanding how Patrick and his colleagues were so effective in starting a movement that transformed a culture that was pre-Christian before he arrived. As a missiologist, it begs the question, what lessons can followers of Christ who are living missionally in post-Christian culture learn from a 5th century missionaries engaging a pre-Christan culture? ---okay, so basically how can we learn from these guys in the past who did it right?
Patrick, in A.D. 432, began an indigenous Christian movement that resulted in many thousands being baptized. At least 55 new churches were launched under Patrick's lead. Several points of application come from his success.
Indigenous Church planting...
The Roman Christian leaders required that a culture be civilized before they could tell them about Jesus. They had to be able to read and willing to do church in Latin...the Roman way. When in Rome, do as Rome and when outside of Rome do as Rome, was the clear methodology of that day. The church assumed that reaching the barbarians (Anglo-Saxon, Celts, Goths, etc) was impossible because you couldn't train them to do Christianity the way Romans did it. It is sad to say, but Rome's approach to church planting was the colonial approach with many church planters in the 19th and 20th centuries. If you don't do church like the mother church, or like the County seat First Church, you are not a legitimate church.
Ireland and Italy were and still are vastly different in culture and worldview. The Irish were more emotional and Rome was more logical. The Irish were primarily right brain thinkers and the Romans were left brain dominate. The faith communities started under Patrick were far more in line with the Celtic culture than with Rome.
Incarnation of the Gospel...
The monastic communities of the Celts were not faith communities that were exclusive and an escape the evil world. However, this was one of the goals of Eastern monasteries. They were located outside the greater communities in deserts, cliffs, away for society. Celtic monasteries were located in the heart of the community where the "pagan" people lived. They existed, in part, for the "barbarians." They were organized to save peoples' souls rather than to save one's soul from people.
Personal communication approach...
Another lesson learned from the Celts the process that new believers came to faith. I think of similarities between the non-Christian versus Christian cultures. The Roman model for evangelism favored the predominate Christian culture. In the Roman approach: one explains the gospel, the listener accepts Christ, and they are welcomed into the church (presentation, decision, then assimilation). Many churches still to this day use this approach.
The Celtic model appears to be more appropriate in a non-Christian milieu such as Pre-Christiendom or post-Christendom. In the Celtic model, first you establish community with the people (e.g. Celtics placed their monasteries among the pagans rather than out separated from them). Second, they engaged outsiders in prayer, worship, ministry, etc. even if they were not followers of Christ. Finally, once a "pagan" felt they were a part of the fellowship, they found themselves committing their lives to following Christ. They belonged before they believed.
In the book, the history of the Celtic's gets a bit long and dry after some reading. If the reader will focus his mind to unpack and process the lessons from history down deep into the methods and practices of his/her own faith in this post-Christian culture we live in now, the Western world can be reached... again.
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