{"id":33136,"date":"2026-02-16T12:14:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/?p=33136"},"modified":"2026-02-16T12:14:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:14:32","slug":"preaching-in-a-post-christian-age-mark-blank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/preaching-in-a-post-christian-age-mark-blank\/","title":{"rendered":"Telling Stories to Reach a Post-Christian Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: The Rev. Ralph Lowe ’21, associate minister for congregational support and justice ministries of the Pittsburgh Presbytery, preaches during a chapel service at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Rev. Mark Blank <\/span>\u201917 pastors Second Congregational Church\u00a0 (Bennington, Vt.)\u2014a rural church in an aging, <\/span>former mill town, whose congregation he describes as \u201ccommitted to extravagant welcome.\u201d When the pandemic disrupted their traditional format of worship, Mark felt questions about how to do ministry well in the here-and-now intensify in his heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2014along with everyone else\u2014was plunged into a world in which so much was uncertain,\u201d says Mark. \u201cA question started to gnaw at me: In this kind of climate, where our practice is not to work toward truth together but to deny each others\u2019 stories, how do we do church? How do we talk about this book (the Bible) with all these stories? How does the church answer what is happening now?”<\/span><\/p>\n

A Pathway Forward<\/h2>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have answers, and trying to \u2018preach my way through\u2019 brought me to the limits of my faith,” Mark shares. “Finally, I had a summer sabbatical, and I felt a shift in my sense of call, a pull to explore how to translate faith into a secular context\u2014how to reach people who haven\u2019t stepped or won\u2019t step into a church door, without it being about \u2018getting them to join a church.\u2019 The very week after my sabbatical ended, the Preaching in a Post-Christian Age Initiative was announced, and I immediately felt that it was my next step.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Rev. Mark Blank, a member of PPCAI’s 2025-2026 cohort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mark applied to the program, and he has now experienced multiple gatherings of his PPCAI cohort. <\/span>\u201cHearing what others have been wrestling with has been really affirming,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been wonderful to be with people working on these same questions from different contexts.\u201d Though Mark\u2019s cohort is still in the beginning stages of working with these key questions, his ministry has already begun to shift.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese days, there\u2019s sometimes a timidity around using the term \u2018Christian,\u2019 or identifying as a person of faith, or talking about the Bible,\u201d he says. \u201cI think an important step in ministry going forward\u2014at least, in my context\u2014will be to check in with our congregants\u2019 (and our own) personal willingness to tell our stories. Part of my role as a preacher is to affirm to those in the pews that the Christian faith is <\/span>their <\/span>faith, not something the clergy owns. The stories of the Bible are their stories too, and I want to invite them to link the Christian story with their own stories. We don\u2019t want to make it all about us, but at the same time, if the gospel has no impact on our lives, we\u2019re just talking academics. Our context cries out for authentic faith, and embodying authentic faith has to start with the preacher.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark says PPCAI \u201cbrought me out of my little bubble. I am hoping to discover ways to offer Sunday worship not just as a weekly social hour but as something that really fills a spiritual need in people. I, Mark, am not going to \u2018save Christianity.\u2019 My job is not to come up with a universal <\/span>model that will work for everyone. My job is to walk alongside the people I\u2019m <\/span>called to in the best, most faithful way I can.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

“My job is not to come up with a universal <\/span>model that will work for everyone. My job is to walk alongside the people I\u2019m <\/span>called to in the best, most faithful way I can.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Join Us!<\/h2>\n

If the Preaching in a Post-Christian Age Initiative could benefit your ministry, the Seminary encourages you to apply! Applications for the 2026-2027 cohort are open through Feb. 28, 2026.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n