Christian communities, particularly those in North America and Western Europe are experiencing an identity crisis. They can no longer articulate who they are, how they relate to one another and to their past, or the basis of their continued corporeal existence. The resolution of this identity crisis is possible only when a Christian community recognizes that it does not require a new identity relevant to its situation, but a new way of understanding identity, both personal and corporate. This essay will describe one possible way of understanding Christian identity, as an evangelistic narrative, such that Christian communities can relate faithfully to their past, their present, and their neighbors, and can begin to shape for themselves a distinctively Christian future.
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