
Question: What happens when three rivers come together in one spot?
Answer: Lots of turbulence, spinning, chaos, confusion and muddy water. The actual term for this is "confluence". A confluence is a body of water that is formed by the flowing together of two or more streams, rivers or the like.
When three rivers come together there is alot of noise and confusion and misdirection. I feel like this is the exact context the church is in as a result of three huge cultural rivers converging.
The three rivers are modernism, post-modernism and post-Christianity. These three massive rivers are converging on the church and are creating lots of turbulence, spinning, confusion and muddy water. If we are not careful, we can easily lose our direction in the chaos. It can be a scary time for the church. In fact Leonard Sweet calls it the Perfect Storm. Lot's of ships go down in storms like that. But the ones that can ride it out and figure out ways to be effective and culturally relevant are going to have some sweet opportunities to minister to people during this turbulent time!