Retrofuture: Rediscovering Our Roots, Recharting Our Routes

Gerard Kelly, RetroFuture: Rediscovering Our Roots, Recharting Our Routes (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1999) Kelly is a leader in youth and young adult ministry in the UK and describes the political, technological and spiritual changes that are part of the bewildering complexity of today's cultural landscape. New generations are facing postindustrial technology (from machines to digital processing), postliterate communications (from text to image and hypertext), postmodern worldview (from the Enlightenment to reimagining faith with ambiguity, diversity and uncertainty), postimperial politics (from colonies to globalisation and fragmentation), and post-Christian spirituality (from orthodoxy to the plurality of individualized, experiential faith expressions). Kelly urges Christians to embrace emerging opportunities and explore new models of leadership. To reroute, for example, he suggests we need IMPACT = Investigate social change, Make space for personal change, Prioritise the young, Accept what you find, Champion hinge leaders, and Take the plunge. Originally reviewed for D Cronshaw "The Emerging Church: Pioneering Leadership and Innovation Reading Guide", Zadok Paper (Forthcoming 2010).