During the past few months, I have been reading a wonderful book by Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, called Radical Reformission. He wrote this book to help steer the emerging church conversation along a missional course. Essentially, reformission is ultimately about being Jesus to the world and re-understanding how that happens in the emerging postmodern matrix.
A while ago I wrote a post entitled Capitol Hill Kingdom-Vision, the first in a series of posts that seeks to unpackage the very unusual idea of impacting the Capitol Hill community for the Kingdom of Heaven with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember, this community is composed of nearly 25,000 individuals (not to mention about 40,000 interns throughout the year). Average age of this community is 27, so it is a community of postmodern young adults. To aid our discussion, I want to briefly answer a series of “reformission questions” that Mark proposed when analyzing any community. This book resonated with me on many levels, particularly this section. Hopefully the answers will provide a better framework for our conversation through terra nova into novus lumen.
Where do people spend their money?
Bars; clubs; upscale restaurants; upscale clothing store; political events; political clubs; social justice causes; sporting events.
What do people do during their free times?
Party; clubbing; social/political scenes; political receptions for work; networking; very relationship centric; shopping; faith communities; community/social justice service; sporting events.
What do they fear?
no upward mobility; stagnation in position; position in political career ladder; financial problems due to very low pay; loneliness; personal irrelevancy; loss of political election (and consequently loss of job) every two years; terror strike on the city or Capitol building.
What do they dream about?
Climbing the power-ladder; changing the world; being a Member of Congress; influencing and writing legislation; gaining enough experience to move to a lobbying organization to make six-figures.
What cultural experiences do they value?
Most cultural experiences surround the political culture of the city; they desire inclusion into and participation with the political scene.
What are the most painful experiences they have had?
Divorce and broken families; broken relationships with the opposite sex; death of family members, especially parents; office politics and co-worker back biting.
What music do they listen to?
Alternative; Hip-hop; Rock; Rap; top MTV artists.
What film and television do they watch?
Very culturally astute individuals, so most frequent the mainstream establishments and many watch independent films in the various culture centers in DC (Dupont Circle, Georgetown, and Alexandria).
What do they read?
Washington Post; Roll-Call (Capitol Hill Newspaper); National Journal; Rolling Stones; New Yorker; political insider books; foreign and domestic policy; best-seller fictional pieces.
What is their spirituality?
Culturally Christian, though only about 15-20% are truly born-again; some Jews; my impression is while they have grown in culturally Christian areas throughout the country, there is waxing/waning interest for spiritual things, especially with the “separation of church and state” mantra being pounded in their head as unelected leaders in government; doubt and uncertainty weigh heavily on their experience with spirituality; spirituality is also intensely personal.
Whom do they trust? Why?
Themselves and a very few circle of friends outside of the Hill-community; trust on Capitol Hill is a closely guarded commodity, because people look out for themselves for advancement into position and power.
What do they think about the gospel?
Many cultural Christians have not had the gospel articulated to them, so they are not aware of its true nature or significance; typically not outright hostile to Christianity and the gospel, but to them it is another lobbying group rather than a collection of community-life relevant people and teachings.
What sins will the gospel first confront and then heal for these people?
Pride; sexual deviance; self-control; love of self and self concern; general idolatry.
