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A
Senior Pastors Guide to Postmodernism
By
Jeff Johnson
I
will start with a confession; I am a Senior Pastor!
There, I feel much better about myself.
As a matter of fact, I’m a Gen X’er who grew up
going to French schools in another country and now find
myself pastoring an established church in California,
(note, established in this sense means years the church
has held services, 40 years, but does not mean health or
effectiveness). So,
if that does not look like a complete fit, throw this into
the equation, I have postmodern tendencies.
I say that because I feel like I have had to
discover myself through parallel thought processes my
entire 18 years of ministry.
So, what does that make me?
An ordinary guy that just wants to live God’s
purposes for his church, that’s all.
So, what does an ordinary guy do when forced to
live in divergent realms?
He reads, (a lot) and grows a goatee.
All my readings have brought me to a few
conclusions that may or may not be helpful to your
situation. Like
many articles and books that serve as wonderful
introductions to Postmodernism, there are just about as
many definitions as there are opinions. So, allow me to come at this from another angle, a different
perspective per say, and help identify what postmodernism is
not, in hopes of discovering the flavor that you may
already be encountering in your ministry.
Observation
#1:
Postmoderns are not defined by a single generation. Over the last 15 years or so, we have had a heyday placing
people into neat little boxes with neat titles, such as
baby boomer, buster, builder, gen x’ers, (we obviously
ran out of “b’s”), millennials et al.
Each group represented certain characteristics and
behavior, with the main determination of category being
age/generational. This
type of classification was very helpful and allowed for
better marketing by Madison Avenue types, and for the
contemporary progressive churches, the opportunity for
different service structures.
While I recognize that there is truth in some of
the classifications and determinations, there are large
segments of the population that do not match the given age
group’s supposed characteristics. There are even segments of the population that are repulsed
by these categorizations.
In order to get a handle on postmoderns, recognize
their mistrust for such sweeping brush strokes on human
behavior, themselves exemplifying a more global, inclusive
thought of every age, culture, creed, etc.
An identifying picture here is the internet chat
room, with conversing going on irrespective of age, sex or
culture. The
fact that individuals are masked by nicknames, and for the
most part hidden from view, facilitates in principle a
greater openness to everyone.
The playing field of the internet is assumed to be
much more level in relation to corporate and
segregationist America.
Observation
#2:
A contemporary worship structure is not necessarily a
postmodern service. More
likely, the service that most call contemporary is really
just a generational service. There is nothing wrong with a generational service, I happen
to be a huge believer in this type of formatting.
But to only revise a 1950’s model of church, and
put a 2002 spin on it, is most likely not going to reach
postmoderns. Sure,
they will probably appreciate the music and the fact that
it draws a younger crowd, but that will not suffice.
The truth of the matter is that they are looking
for a place of genuine intergenerational community,
something that the modern contemporary church rarely
structures for. The
postmodern seeker is not looking for a cookie cutter
approach to church structure, but rather seeks for a
vibrant free flowing community that understands that the
gospel is to be experienced in a counter cultural
narrative. In
other words, it looks like the church in Acts 2.
How does that equate to a church worship
experience? Well,
that is a great question, I do not know really, which
leads me to my next observation.
Observation
#3:
Postmodernism is not a complete thought process. A postmodern thought process genuinely engages processes that
have not yet formed a full or complete theology and
believe there are things yet to be defined.
For the person that is firmly entrenched in
modernity, this seems like a completely unacceptable
hypothesis. For
the postmodern, this is a readily acceptable stage and
worldview because it is the launching point from which new
processes are discovered (or rediscovered). In the spirit of a postmodernist, the more you know, the less
you understand. Almost
all postmodern writers speak of a growing need for a level
of disconnect or even discontinuity with issues that we
constantly treat as assumptions. The discovery process, the experiencing, the coming to terms
with faith are milestones the postmodern cherishes.
Intuitively, we have all sensed a need for a
debunking of Christian myth from genuine Christian faith.
In the same vein, there needs to be a distancing
from holiness and religion that has been created from
man’s incomplete perspective. Honestly, the church can be smug and has been guilty of
exercising the sinner from its midst, but not the sin or
other like/similiar issues.
Is this not the root of the current crisis in the
Roman Catholic Church?
When we allow ourselves to entertain sin that we
condemn in others, we in turn become the worst of
hypocrites. When
Peter speaks of holiness, he addressed the believers and
encouraged them to live in such a way so that no one could
make false claims about their life/faith.
I’m suggesting that a good place to begin in
relationship to the “more we know, the less we
understand,” is that we listen to what the world says
negatively about us and allow the Holy Spirit to search
our motivations in holding to certain standards and
actions.
The other side of knowledge is that the postmodern
is uncomfortable explaining everything about God.
God is not fully explainable, imperfect man trying
to describe infinite God, ya right!
I believe this is why the narrative is so important
to the postmodern; because it helps life stage the things
of God in picture form.
In light of how God has been revealed down through
time, the postmodern looks for Him to continually reveal
himself and thus open himself up to being moved upon by
God. If there
is a wind of God’s Spirit blowing, the postmodern
desires to be blown away.
Observation
# 4:
Postmodernism did not just show up!
Postmodernism has been running in parallel with
modernism for sometime, but with changing entities such as
education and media, and more recent arrivals like the
internet, the postmodern worldview has become much more
visible. As
previously mentioned, postmodernism is more than a life
stage, and its current form is every bit as monumental as
the transition from medieval to modernism.
It is difficult for us to describe fully what is
going on mainly due to the fact that this type of
transition has not been evident for the last 500 years or
so. It
can be said that the construct of the postmodern mindset
has been gleaned from the perceived inefficiencies of
modernism; conquest/control, analytical thinking,
secular/scientific limitations; mechanism and objective
relativism.[i]
That being true, then it is obvious that
postmodernism was not formed on a whim but has incubated
during the time of modernism.
No less angry than Luther’s Reformation,
postmodernism now sees itself as the formative answer,
with its strengths lying in conservationism and anything
to do in conjunction with the word post - post mechanistic
(ecosystems, organisms, social systems), post analytical
(systems thinking, holism, passion), post
secular/scientific (spiritual/scientific) and finally,
post objective (intersubjective).
Intelligent design is just one of the emerging
realities of science that points directly to a Divine
enterprise (God) that is being widely embraced within
secular realms as a viable alternative to evolutionary
design. In
other words, science and religion are on the dance floor.
Observation
# 5:
There is no commercial, infomercial, packagable model to
follow. This
is good news, because it should cause us to become
proactive in further research on multiple levels, such as:
implications of postmodernism on ministry, (study of
internet sites and getting in the heads of some of these
writers is a good starting point, even a cup of coffee at
Starbucks can be a learning experience); community focus;
theological constructs and cultural church traditions.
The models of church ministry the last few years
has focused on two levels, the development of the leader
and church structures, such as the Purpose Driven Model.
These models will not necessarily convert to
postmodernism, but with anything, these successful models
of the nineties and early 2000’s can be scalped for
tangible insight.
In
regards to leadership, Brian McLaren said, “believe what
you’ve learned from leadership, and the opposite.”[ii]
From the Christian standpoint, presenters such as
John Maxwell and George Barna have served us well with
furthering our appreciation for human dynamics and
wonderful treatises on great leadership.
But to the postmodern, laws on leadership do not
adequately describe the interdependence that many of them
seek. Besides,
leadership laws come off being plastic over time.
Following
simple rules or how to guides will not build the church of
the future. The
current models of postmodern worship services are diverse,
except of course for the amount of earrings worn by men
and the ever-present goatee.
Again, this should be recognized as a strength due
largely in part to the purity of intent, which is to
create a refuge for the world, not just for other
Christians. At its heart, the postmodern movement sees many of the
difficult or programmed stages of modern churches as its
ace in the hole. Consider
evangelism, with modern constructs and verbiage as soul
winner or crusade smacking of modernism and lack of
sincerity. In
turn, postmodernism treats evangelism as a natural
outgrowth of their existence.
This engagement has become a focal point of most of
the emerging postmodern models, along with community, the
worship/the experience, and participation.
The fun part for any senior pastor will be to dream
the great dream once again.
Frankly, being a senior pastor is sometimes a dream
killer. Here’s
a test, how many of you have ever said something like
this, “ministry would be the greatest job in the world
if it weren’t for people.”
If you have, then recognize that the “job” has
taken us away from our calling of serving Christ with
abandon.
Observation
# 6:
If you are a modern pastor, you do not have to hire a
young guy with a goatee.
Why? because there are plenty of sharp postmodern
guys out there without goatees!
My assessment for any church leader of either a
thriving, stalled or anything in between church, is to
begin building bridges to this new world.
Currently, the postmodern world is still in its
minority stage, but the day will come in the next 20 years
(no one knows for sure how long) that postmodernism will
be a the forefront of thought processes in our societies.
Typically, many churches are already behind the
times, so this type of bridge building will allow several
leaps ahead in time.
Senior pastors must learn to engage the world and
understand culturally what is going on, or they are going
to see fewer people connecting with Christ.
I recognize that for some this is a scary premise
and many will choose to stay their current course.
Surprisingly, that course may actually serve
incredible growth for the next number of years, but what
will become painfully obvious is the complete disconnect
from those that have faith and those that do not.
The gulf is widening, and many senior pastors are
helping in the dig towards antiquity.
Erwin McManus provoked my thinking with this,
“the church begins its decline at its peak.”
Our nation is full of mega-churches, many of them
billing themselves as the fastest growing in the nation.
That will end some day, and American churches will
begin to look like some of the empty cathedrals of Europe.
(Will any of these mega-churches bill themselves as
the fastest declining churches in America?)
If McManus is right, then living at the peak is
dangerous stuff. Fortunately,
the postmodern is not worried about peaks, it is concerned
about getting others intimately involved with Jesus,
primarily in small clusters of people or community groups.
The measures of success are currently different
within the postmodern movement, though some of the same
trappings of success have begun to taint its idealistic
ventures and postmodern superstars are beginning to
emerge.
Observation
# 7:
Moving towards postmodernism does not have to be
expensive. Being a Senior Pastor, I have found the real value is in the
team of people you come to depend on, before, during and
after the transition.
The real cost as the church moves into the 21st
Century will come in the actualization of declining
membership if we miss the shift from modernism to
postmodernism. Upfront cost in the postmodern church will come with the
infusion of imagery and technology to serve an
image-driven society raised on visual hits.
Image is everything, high church, gothic, ancient
architecture are all hot, orange carpet is out, (it was
always way out).
As mentioned, upfront costs such as video
projection, broadband internet networks, lighting systems,
architectural features, have many grades as per costs and
may been seen by many as non-essential investments. The last 30 years or so, our investments have been directed
into programming that may or may not be giving us good
bang for the buck. It
may be time to scale some things back, such as Sunday
School, Youth Programs, (I’m an almost 15 year vet
here), large secretarial pools using old tech, ineffective
children’s ministries, (church oriented as opposed to
community oriented), etc.
Sacred cows but the fact is money is available if
we choose to trim in areas of ineffectiveness.
It is time to recognize that budgeting priorities
lay elsewhere and that pet programs of modernity need a
pencil sharpening. Postmoderns
will view spending habits with suspicion and may deem them
as a perpetuation of things that are ineffective.
One last thought in regards to cost.
Most churches spend more on themselves than they do
on the community at large and many churches are in the
practice of sending money to missionaries all over the
world, (I need to be careful here, I have a missionary
sister). We
attempt to satisfy ourselves with programming that rarely
directs us to any form of evangelism, and to satisfy the
requirements of Christ’s call of going to all nations,
we write checks. The
dirtiest our hands may ever get is with ink while we sit
in monuments made for our comfort.
Observation
# 8:
It is not necessary to compromise what Christ considers
truth. That
is truly a loaded statement and to comment on all its
implications usually requires whole volumes.
I bring it up because there is clearly a gap that
is growing between professional clergy, the culture and
the emerging generation.
Helpful to me is the ongoing commitment of being a
lifelong learner, to take on the characteristics of the
Biblical tribe of Issachar, who it was said of, “they
were men who knew their times.”
Let’s face it, pastors are overworked, under
appreciated and have little time for add-ons, such as
seminars or extended learning.
But, as with physical costs, maybe, just maybe this
is an opportunity for leaders to refocus their priorities.
A few things that need to happen to work
effectively in the postmodern matrix are:
Further
understanding of our times
New
leadership styles to accommodate new pressures and
responsibilities
Willingness
to be honest about “sacred cows”, the separating of
our traditions from God’s truth
A
greater sense of faith that God is not through using us
While
reading this, perhaps you have entertained the thought
that your ministry direction has already started to flow
within a postmodern direction.
Or, your concern is that you will have to relearn
your profession. What I know to be true for my life is this, my journey to
serve God’s purposes will take me many places and to
many opportunities. But
most of all, my journey should take me to greater heights
of love and obedience to the things of God.
The place of ministry I currently serve is God’s
blessing for me to lead with purity of heart, purity of
intentions, and purity of motives.
As I listen to my community in which my
congregation lives, I discover what God has been doing, is
doing and is going to do.
This unfolding plan and the witness of God’s
Spirit in my life confirms for me, in my situation, that I
must embrace the postmodern matrix.
It further means that I must live in parallel
universes, serving the needs of the current church while
preparing for the new guests to come.
This is more than an observation, this is a God
given opportunity which requires more than a goatee.
[i]
Emerging Models of Church Ministry in the 21st
Century, sponsored by AGTS, Sacramento, CA., March
2002.
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