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randy
walls
assemblies
of God theological
seminary
1.
we ask this question of everyone, how would you define the "postmodern
movement?"
At its heart the postmodern movement (PM) is missional. Convinced of the
radical impact that postmodernism has had on society, a group of discerning
church leaders are redefining the nature of their ministries in order to
adequately engage the people who have been most heavily impacted by
postmodernism. Ministers in urban population centers, and cities where
the education industry is strong are most directly facing the impact of
postmodernism. Ministers among rural populations, while connected to the
influences of postmodernism, don't face the same challenges.
Some
try to define PM generationally. I'm not convinced of that approach.
The church in American has been compartmentalizing ministry to age groupings for
decades. Thus, ministry to postmoderns becomes just another
department of the local church's mission. If PM is to be a successful
strategy for mission, it must find a way to be inclusive. Otherwise, we
create another niche market approach to evangelism and discipleship.
The outcome will potentially be a generation of postmodern churches that find
themselves, a few decades removed from the current scene, full of
like-minded people unwilling to adjust their ministry paradigms to
fulfill the mission of the church.
If
we, as church leaders, stay connected to the missional heart of PM, we will
raise up a missionary minded church that utilizes all the resources at its
disposal to build relational bridges to pre-christians, incorporating them into
the body of Christ inclusively, regardless of their age and attendant cultural
values and tastes.
I
also realize that I'm an idealist when it comes to this issue. We've got
homogenous churches all over the landscape. At our heart we humans flock
into groups, and perhaps we serve ourselves and our groups best when we "do
church" in narrow slices of experience. It's just that I'm not
willing to give up what I feel to be a biblical model of integrating competing
worldviews into one body of believers that demonstrates to the non-churched
world a picture of what God wants and intends His kingdom to look like.
2.
what role do you see higher education can have in developing postmodern leaders?
To
quote a good friend and colleague of mine, higher education gives the Holy
Spirit another chance to take a whack at you. He places you in an
incubator environment so that you can grow beyond your current
levels of skill and spirituality. I say skill and spirituality, because
one often views seminary as a knowledge factory, where we invest our money and
come out the other end of the machine as a highly tuned and refined professional
minister. Skill enhancement is a part of the equation, and the academic
rigor of analytical reflection is a great tool for developing your ministry
resource arsenal. However, the partnering of skill enhancement with
spiritual formation moves the church leader beyond professionalism, into
authentic, Spirit-led leadership. That's the kind of leader that PM needs
to thrive.
A
word must be said at this point about the institutional aspect of this.
Not every institution of higher education is radically committed to the
spiritual development of its participants. If skill enhancement is the
strength of the program, church leaders have to find a forum in which they can
incubate spiritually as well.
Finally,
whether it is formal or informal learning, effective leaders are life-long
learners.
You can't be in school for the rest of your life, but you can and must put the
same amount of energy into sharpening your leadership skills as you put into
maintaining your spiritual vitality.
3.
how is the AG, in general, dealing with "postmodern" believers.
The
answer to this question is directly related to my comments in question #1.
The majority of A/G churches are in rural population areas. That means the
effects of postmodernism are not as immediately apparent as they are in urban or
education centers. I suspect that most rural A/G pastors are oblivious to
the various shapes and contours of postmodernism. If they have heard of
it, it is usually in a negative context related to the erosion of
Judeo-Christian values in America. If they happen to be further blinded to
the non-moral elements of the cultural shift, their response to postmodern
culture is likely to be reactionary.
I
don't automatically mean by this that the A/G pastors in urban or education
centers understand this cultural shift either. They certainly face the
impact of it, but they may be just as likely to react against it as their rural
counterparts.
The
safest and most honest affirmative response that I can offer to this
question is that many A/G churches, regardless of their demographics
are truly missional churches. Evangelism is not a program within these
churches, it is the heart of who they are. These missional A/G churches
reach out to their communities to incorporate every believer into meaningful
relationship and ministry, regardless of their personal distinctive or
worldviews.
4.
when dealing with a postmodern people we are dealing with a people who are
tattooed and pierced. how does the AGTS deal with people who
"look" different?
The AGTS community is about as culturally
diverse a community as it can be. People from all over the globe and the
nation are studying here. In addition to the cultural diversity, there is
also a pretty broad age demographic as well. We have students coming right
out of their state university degree programs to AGTS. They sit next to
people in their classes who have come back to school after a decade or more of
pastoral ministry. This melting pot requires us all to adjust to each
others' cultures.
We
have men and women with tattoos and piercings (mostly ears, so nothing really
radical in that regard) in our student population. So it's obviously not
an admissions disqualifier. It's a personal taste issue.
That's
how I view the tattoo/pierced crowd, whether students or otherwise. Their
markings/gauging, etc. are personal taste issues that have no reflection
whatsoever as to the sincerity of their commitment to God or their call to full
time service for him.
5.
what does the "Pentecostal" movement have to offer a postmodern
generation?
Pentecostals connect with PM in two arenas that
are inherent to our tradition. First, we are experientially oriented in
our worship, our discipleship, and our ministry. In fact, one of the
traditional arguments against Pentecostalism is that it is an experience looking
for a theology. In fact, that is not true. Pentecostals have been
highly theological in our tradition. We just haven't done it in the
manner of many other established theological traditions. The reason being
that we are primarily theological at the level of personal narrative.
We've told the stories of our faith experience more than we have written
them. In fact, even when we write them, they are still printed
versions of our personal narratives. This oral tradition is the way that
we have passed on our faith tradition. That's the second arena by which we
connect with PM. Our faith is very personal and we love telling the story
of our experience.
I
think these two things connect with PM by being open to the mystery of
God. We experience his awesome presence in ways that affirm his
reality. Then, we tell the story of how incredible these experiences truly
are. That's compelling for someone looking for a inner affirmation of the
loving presence of an imminent God.
6.
looking back over history, the AG has been a powerful and exciting place to
worship and to bring life to the christian community - do you think the
postmodern movement can help wake-up the AG?
I think PM brings the opportunity for fresh
encounters with the Spirit of God moving through the lives of new seekers.
There really is nothing "new" under the sun, but there are certainly
new ways, or rather renewed ways of viewing and encountering God in worship and
community life. Rather than exclusive forms of Spirit-filled worship, PM
may encourage Pentecostals to be inclusive in their form of worship, bringing
our zest for vitality into worship forms that may not be inherent to our
tradition. I have a Spirit-filled friend who uses a set of rosary beads in
his devotional meditation in order to bring his mind under discipline in his
prayer and intercession. Granted, he's not doing Hail Marys or Our
Fathers, but he's using a simple device to keep him focused. He's
reinvented the old prayer wheel model that Dick Eastman and others have used
using something that has traditionally been associated with Catholic
spirituality.
7. at www.ginkworld.net we are striving to bring together the community of
faith called "christian" - what do you believe are some of the things
that need to be done to bring together peoples of differing denominations?
We can rediscover the uniform ways that we
connect with God in worship. There are clear distinctive in our liturgy,
and we, quite frankly, get caught up in defending them as absolute and
authoritative for the body of Christ. These distinctive are the focal
points for our own fellowship. We've got to stop viewing each other
through these lenses. Every denomination has prayer as a part of its
worship. Music is another dimension of worship that can lead to common
expression. Why don't we come together in the worship of Christ along
these common lines? There is a great prayer movement going on in America
today that is bringing together Christians of all stripes. That's
encouraging.
any
closing thoughts?
This is the
most exciting time in the history of the Church. We are on the cutting
edge of the greatest ministry opportunity since the birth of the Church.
The Lord is adding to the Church daily, those who are being saved, Acts
2:47. We must cooperate with His divine initiative and commit ourselves to
the missional task of reaching the unreached
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