THE MISSIONAL ST. PATRICK: RESIDENT ALIEN IN A CULTURE OF UNBELIEF

It did not take long in the first few centuries for Christianity to get really screwed-up.  By the third century, Christian faith was so intertwined with Roman culture that it was normative for new Christians from other cultures to be pressured into first being culturally Roman before being Christian.  Once again, the past rises up to meet us.  We look into its mirror, déjà vu, and see ourselves.  In similar ways we are back to the same old ways expecting new believers to first embrace our ways of doing church and living the Christian life as we do.  A massive departure is found in the missional life of fifth century Saint Patrick.

Patrick did not work to assimilate the Celts into Roman Christian culture.  Instead, he worked within Irish, pagan culture and established small monastic communities of hospitality and learning.  He engaged the Celtic communities on their terms and turf and welcomed them into the small

monastic communities with warmth and friendship. In effect, he became an accepted member of their communities and they were included as members of his.  The sensitivity and inclusiveness of Patrick’s approach was so successful that the monastic communities of faith were replicated beyond Ireland permeating Europe and reviving Christianity for hundreds of years.  The full story is told by Thomas Cahill in his book, How the Irish Saved Civilization.

Chad Inman in his essay “The Missional St. Patrick” writes “Celtic missionaries understood that believing the Christian message often comes after belonging to a Christian community. Yet our models of evangelism generally include a presentation of the gospel, followed by a decision, followed by admittance into Christian community as the final step. In this way, we’ve become more sequential than faithful, and it’s not working for us. Some in our congregations will need to feel the sense of belonging to a church family before they believe in the gospel narrative. This especially holds true for the experience-driven generations of today.”

John Wesley achieved something similar to St. Patrick with his small group class meetings.  These nurturing mini-communities of accountability included believers and non-believers.  They were inclusive, caring support systems for all members and served as the front porch of faith for non-believers and believers into the larger communities of Methodist Societies.  The class meetings and societies were communities within the larger British community that transformed the culture and eventually spread to Ireland, Scotland, Australia, the US and Canada, and in time around the world.

William H. Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas in their book Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony say, “The church exists today as resident aliens, an adventurous colony in a society of unbelief.”  St. Patrick, John Wesley, Willimon and Hauerwas are on to something and we do well to pay attention.