The church is losing its influence in the Western world. Church leaders are recognizing a depressing trend taking place within the church. People are becoming disenchanted with church. They are abandoning the church. The youth of our day are not stepping into our churches. Those within the church look just as much like those outside the church. Something has happened. Something is not right. Who is to blame? The pastor? The individual? The church communities? Who is the ultimate culprit? The gospel is drowning under the waves of culture, and no one knows whom to blame. The answer lies in the changing culture in which the Western world exists. The gospel message has been aimed at a Western culture that is dying, and the culture rising in its place is unaffected by the usual representations of the gospel message.
Culture is constantly changing. What is meant by the word “culture” how it is used in this essay? “Culture” refers to the general mindset of the overall scope of civilization. As civilization evolves, so does culture. As the world changes, culture changes alongside. Throughout the scope of written history (from the dawn of the Sumerian civilization to the scope of the Western world today), there have been three major “cultures.” As a general rule, many people share values and characteristics from all of these cultural mindsets, though the time period in which a person exists has a major impact on the overall emphasis of the person’s cultural mindset. The three major cycles of culture are pre-modernism, modernism, and the emerging post-modern culture.
Pre-modernism developed over time, finding its roots in the emergence of the Neolithic Revolution. The Neolithic Revolution is the time period in which Jesus of Nazareth walked and died and in which the bloody Crusades were fought. It began some 12,500 years ago during the 2nd Ice Age, when nomadic humans began to create settlements and begin producing their own food. Key tenants of pre-modernism include respect for authority (i.e., parents and religious institutions), a belief that genuine knowledge is based on tradition, and a fatalistic attitude (“Whatever happens is the will of the gods, and our role is accept it and refuse resistance.”). In the ages of the pre-modern culture, the Jewish faith began and the Christian faith erupted. The Catholic Church was birthed, and people held the Bible as authoritative. Any guidance and answers could be found in the Bible and in the Church; the Bible and the Church had the first say in everything.
With the evolution of modernism, the impact of the Bible and the Church found itself minimized. Modernism began its reign in the 1600s and has come to its near-demise at the turn of the 21st Century. Humanism (a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests) and the Enlightenment (with its great emphasis placed on science, seen with the great scientists such as Galileo and
Over time, however, those who had clung so tightly to the modernist philosophy and culture began to realize that the promises of modernism were not coming through. Humanity has not reached a pinnacle of omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence; humanity has not become the “god” modernism promised it would become. Science and knowledge had promised happiness, fulfillment, and answers… yet it had failed. Becoming disenchanted, people have begun to move into a cultural mindset that is, at its heart, a response to the disenchantment felt with modernism. People are abandoning the ideals of science and searching for truth (even questioning the validity of “truth”) in a plurality of different ways. Modernism, with its naturalistic foundations of Hume and Kant, had all but killed spirituality; now spirituality has found itself back on the market as people try to find the happiness, fulfillment, and answers that science and rationalism failed to deliver.
Modernism and postmodernism differ in many, many ways. Modernism sees facts and figures as the foundation of life, whereas postmodernism sees life as a story. Modernism embraces segregation, but postmodernism embraces multiculturalism. Modernism rejects myths, spiritual ideas, and mysteries, but postmodernism is very embracing and accepting to the spiritual realm. Modernism says that knowledge is gained through lectures, groups, and books, but postmodernism says that knowledge is gained through conversations and experience. Modernism says heterosexuality is the only right sexual orientation, though postmodernism says sexual preference is the choice of the individual. Modernism embraces science and knowledge, but postmodernism distrusts science and knowledge. Modernism ignores spirituality and is very exclusive, but postmodernism is extremely open to spirituality and very inclusive (resulting in a happily pluralistic society). Modernism says humanity can change the world, but postmodernism sees the frailty and limits of the human race and says that we are unable to save the planet. Modernism supports ideals such as absolute knowledge and the meaning of life, whereas postmodernism completely abandons these ideals.
Many are appalled at postmodernism, especially those who have lived in a modern mindset their entire lives. “How can anyone ever be attracted to postmodernism?” they wonder in amazement. They fail to see that postmodernism is so attractive because it attempts to explain life with mystery, emotions, feelings, and story rather than through facts and figures doled out by scientists with their laboratory toys. Postmodernism is attractive to the individual because it embraces many different cultures, ethnicities, and faiths, and it holds everyone’s opinion as valid. Everyone has a place in the postmodern world! No one is excluded! In the realm of postmodernism, the spiritual world is explained through discovery, mystical practices, and journeys.
“What is the great challenge of postmodernism to the gospel message?” Every culture has challenged the gospel in its various ways, and every culture has been filled with unique opportunities for advancing the message of God’s saving grace. Just because we are moving into a new culture-shift does not mean that the gospel is being extinguished. As Mark Driscoll says, “Every age is filled with sin, sinners, God’s love, and work to be done. Each generation has its resistance to the gospel, and each culture is equally far from God because of sin and equally close to God because of his love.” (51) When we speak of postmodernism and communicating the gospel message into it, there are two dangers to be avoided. First, we must not stick our heads in the sand and act like nothing is happening; this will only hinder the advance of the message. Second, we must not blatantly embrace the culture and everything it entails, for there are several aspects of postmodernism that fly in the face of the gospel message. We must examine how postmodernism challenges the gospel and at the same time encourages it.
Postmodernism poses two giant challenges to the gospel that Christians preach. First, postmodernism denies the existence of absolute truth. Jesus says in John 14.6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (emphasis mine) There is truth to be discovered, and that truth is not found in facts and figures or doctrinal formulas, but in the Person of Jesus Christ. The great question, “What is truth?” becomes, “Who is truth?” Second, postmodernism embraces pluralism, the idea that all religions are valid and all religions lead to God. Again, Jesus’ words in John 14.6 combat this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Salvation is found only in Christ. Many Christians fear this pluralism without realizing that pluralism is definitely not a threat to God. The Israelites bathed in a land rich with Egyptian, Canaanite, Ammonite, Philistine, Assyrian and Babylonian gods. The early Church was birthed in a time period filled with sorcerers, witches, gods, goddesses, cults and religions. Pluralistic societies are nothing new; the Spirit is able to handle it.
Yet postmodernism also offers benefits to the advancement of the gospel message. First, postmodernism embraces spirituality, mystery, and spiritual ideas. We live in an atmosphere where religions and faiths are appreciated, despite the pluralistic challenge that exists alongside it. People are open to experiencing God and exploring different faiths. Second, people are open to conversing in a non-combatant away about differing beliefs. While this essay is not about evangelism in the postmodern matrix, it goes to say that evangelism styles will change from handing out tracts and revivals to conversations in coffee houses and bookstores.
In discussing the postmodern culture that is swiftly taking over the Western world, one must examine how Christ interacts with culture. At the incarnation, God became fully human. He lived and breathed in a pre-modern culture, working and interacting in a Palestinian and Jewish culture, talking with people living under the Greco-Roman culture. Culture is nothing new! Jesus’ embodied his message to the people of his culture, and he spoke against the evils of that culture. Not every culture is inherently evil, yet no culture is inherently good. In a sense, Jesus is against culture when he condemns the sinful aspects of it. As Christians communicating the gospel message in the postmodern culture, we must not embrace the evils of the culture (i.e., pluralism), but we must not condemn the entire culture as a whole. At the same time he condemned certain aspects of culture, however, Jesus existed within culture and spoke to people in his culture in ways relevant to that culture. As Christians, we are not called to abandon culture but to live in and interact with people in our cultures. Finally, through his blood Jesus instituted a new community of people (the Church) who transform culture. Jesus did not convert culture; he converted people within the culture, and the transformation of culture began to take shape. As Frederica Matthewes-Green says, “A culture cannot be converted… Only individuals can be converted… This is the level where things change, one individual at a time, as one coal gives light to another. When enough people change, the culture follows.” (179)
In recognizing the cultural shift, many Christians have understood that the way we present the gospel message must change, or Christianity will slowly fizzle out. One of the biggest strategies that has been employed to deal with both the challenges and benefits of postmodernism to the gospel, and to communicate the gospel message effectively to postmodern people, has been the emergence of a new style of preaching. This preaching focuses on narrative theology. “Narrative theology” differs from modern preaching in the sense that preaching moves away from three-point outlines, doctrinal treatises, and theological sermons to using stories to communicate the story of God and man as presented in the Bible.
Many Christians find themselves terrified at the idea of changing the way the gospel is communicated. “We don’t want to color-up the gospel or step into heresy!” they exclaim. The “Golden Rule” of Vintage Christianity, however, is that our methods of communicating the gospel must change whereas the content of the message must remain biblical. “What we need is not some new truth or understanding, but a return to the old truths that have been there since the beginning. A return to that which we once believed. Re-digging the source of refreshment that has been filled in over the ages either by the enemies of the faith or by those in the faith who have opted for a cultural Christianity over a biblical one.” (The Relevant Church, 92) One of the biggest fears about changing the method is that Christianity will merge with the culture and become its identical twin. This syncretism is evil and to be avoided. Mark Driscoll writes, “Syncretism simply baptizes unscriptural beliefs in the name of limp-wrested relevance, social progress, being nice, and making a good nonjudgmental impression. Syncretism inevitably dissolves into a universalism in which God loves everyone, and will forgive everyone’s sins and take everyone to heaven because he simply lacks the courage to judge anyone. Eventually, syncretists become less distinctively Christian in flavor of an inoffensive spiritual mush.” (144) The gospel message must not be changed, and the methods of communicating the gospel must not evolve into syncretism.
Preaching to postmodern people, such as that which takes place in the vintage worship gatherings, is much different than the modern style of preaching. Modern preachers often take snippets of the scriptures and elaborate upon them, using three-point formulas and teaching “incorruptible doctrine” to convey the gospel message. In communicating the gospel message to postmodern people through preaching, several things need to be kept in mind. First, the focus needs to be on Christ. The focus is not on postmodernism, it is not on the Christian, it is not on the Church. It is on Christ. Everything goes back to Christ, his sacrifice, and our new lives in and with him! Second, we must continually tell the story of God and humans. This goes back to the foundation of narrative theology. As preachers and teachers, we must see the world through a theological, big-picture, scriptural-story lens. We must continually tell the story of God and man, from the original creation to the “new heavens and new earth,” emphasizing Christ and the role that is ours to play because of what he did on the cross. Third, we must redefine and reconstruct biblical terms. Most people do not know what “justification,” “sanctification,” “redemption,” and even “grace” really mean! We must redefine these terms and perhaps even come up with new words to describe what the gospel is all about. Fourth, we must use stories to communicate the gospel. We must use stories from the Bible and from the lives of Christians to tell the story of God and the relevance it has to our daily life. Fifth, we must restore the roots of our Jewish faith. Christianity is an ancient religion that found its root in a Palestinian, Jewish carpenter. Our ancestry traces back to the days of Sumeria. This is intensely attractive to postmodern people.
Throughout our preaching, there are several things we must preach about. First, we need to preach on living as Jesus’ disciples. Christians are, at the heart, “disciples of Jesus Christ.” We need to teach on what this means and encourage Christians in their lives of discipleship and its importance. Second, we must teach on the triune God. The doctrine of the Trinity is extremely important in a culture of pluralism. Third, we must teach on Jesus being the only way to God. In a pluralistic culture, this message cannot be proclaimed enough! Fourth, we must teach on human sexuality. Sex is not bad, it is a beautiful gift reserved for those within marriage. In our sex-driven culture, this is a message that needs to be preached. God desires us to abstain from sexual immorality. Fifth, we must teach on heaven and hell. Heaven and hell are of great interest to the postmodern, though using them as pawns to bring about salvation may not be the best way to utilize these concepts. Sixth, we must teach the trustworthiness of scripture. In a pluralistic society, the Bible is seen as only one of many sacred texts, so we must emphasize over-and-over how it is the Word of God alone. Seventh, we must teach on how our discipleship will be messy. There are no perfect Christians, and this must be acknowledged with humility and love.
There exists within the
Bibliography
Ashley, Jennifer et al. The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith.
Burke, Spencer, and Colleen Pepper. Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations about God, Community, and Culture.
Driscoll, Mark. The Radical Reformission.
Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity For New Generations.
Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and
Gibbs, Eddie, and Ryan K. Bolger. Emerging Churches: creating christian community in postmodern cultures.
Jones, Tony. The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life.
McLaren, Brian et al. The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives.
McNeal, Reggie. The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church.
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