Emerging / Postmodern / Missional - Say What?

With the ongoing advance of technology, and the growing globalization of our world, we live in what must be the most fast-paced time in the history of humankind. This incredibly fast growth is bringing a variety of nations and cultures into each others back yards. Humans must adapt to a multi-cultural life, where worldviews are continually challenged and changed as human cultures clash and conform at amazing rates. Many would say that the Church has been slow to adapt. Some would say that the Church has been unwilling to adapt. But the reality is that Christ’s Church is still alive and well, albeit a bit behind the times, particularly in the Western cultures.

The heart-cry of many faithful church leaders today is “how do we not only survive the incredible cultural shifts going on around us, but how do we thrive and faithfully accomplish the mission of God, which is to make disciples of all the nations, and bring healing to a broken world?” The Western Church in general is in decline. The problem many in the West are finding is that the institutional mainstream model of ministry passed down to us from our grandparents and parents is no longer functioning in a way that could be described as missional. The mainstream church tends to serve within a local community from an “attractional” position, hoping to provide enough advertising, programs and entertainment to draw non-Christians into the buildings so they might become disciples. The idea is along the lines of “build it, open the doors and they will come”. The attractional model is just not very attractive anymore for postmodern, global, technologically driven younger folks. The average age in most mainstream churches is now somewhere around 50 and above. Frankly, most non-Christians have no desire to attend a “traditional” or even “contemporary” congregation.

Humanity and the Church are at the cusp of one of the most massive cultural shifts in history. Making the changes necessary will prove to be difficult for many. There is much misunderstanding between those who many of the authors I am reading would categorize as Moderns and Postmoderns. In short, Moderns grew up in an Industrial Age, where science was the final word on truth, attending church was the social norm, and the church building was the center of community fellowship. Postmoderns are growing up in an age of high-tech computers and nano-chips, where no truth is easily trusted, much of the culture is hostile to Christianity, and the internet is becoming the center of community fellowship.

The disconnect between the church and the culture is the crux of what many church leaders are struggling with. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be in the world but not of it. We must engage the culture with the good news of Jesus Christ and allow the gospel to transform the culture. What does faithful Postmodern Christianity look like? Many are saying that it looks like historic Christianity has many times over in many different places among diverse people groups. The Gospel has the amazing ability to adapt and speak God’s truth through Jesus in many different ways and contexts. The problem is not the Mission of God and the Gospel, the problem is the institutional ways we organize the church without continually re-imagining our forms with a missional emphasis on engaging the culture and introducing others to Jesus.

Moving the church from maintenance to mission is a common theme among many of the authors I am studying... (Webber, Hirsch and Frost, Pagitt, Kimball, Nessan, Newbigin, Sweet, Oden, Tanner and Hall) Some interesting secular books on the future at hand... (Scharmer - Theory U, Pink - A Whole New Mind, Gardner - Five Minds for the Future)

Click on the Title of this post for a link to Video: Tim Keller, Characteristics of a Missional Church