MODERN TRAPPINGS

(Kind of a dumb title, I know, but when I first wrote this five years ago I was still trying to figure out this postmodern business. At that time my understanding of postmodernism was still pretty limited to the contemporary church’s understanding about it. I was just beginning to move beyond how it was a generational issue or an opportunity for marketing and was really beginning to explore the issue. So as you read this entry keep in mind that even though I still hold to many of these ideas, they were written in a period of ignorance. But if most of my ideas on postmodernism and the role for the church have changed so much since writing this, why would I post it? The answer has two parts. The first is that I feel that there might be many professional ministers out there beginning to see the same patterns. The second is because I want to continue to demonstrate that my struggles with the institution were there when I was an active part of it. In other words, my criticisms are not written out of resentment but out of a genuine search for understanding.)

When the modern church was birthed it brought about a revival for not only Protestants, but for the entire church community. This modern church offered people the opportunity to seek God with new freedom and discipleship. As the world was changing so was the Christian. There was now an invitation to become more than one’s limitations. The church adopted cultural beliefs regarding conquest and adapted them for the initiatives behind missions and evangelism. For a time, the move in culture opened the door for the church to experience revival of a dry doctrine, repentance from sinful leadership, and renewal of what faith could look like. However, as the modern culture began to develop beyond the initial shift, many of the initial movements began to become problematic. This was true for the church as well as for the rest of society. In culture, modernity led to conquest and control, anxiety and frustration, narrow-minded absolutism, hyper-analysis, rationalism, and consumerism. The story was the same in the church. The very thing that led to revival was now leading to destruction.

Culture at large has identified the trappings of modernity and is quickly challenging the old paradigm. The contemporary church, with the exception of a few, refuses to challenge the way the church works and is thus separating itself from not only culture, but the integrity that comes with addressing these flaws. The postmodern culture is just as flawed, if not more so, than the modern paradigm. The world is no healthier from the postmodern movement, but the church could be. The church has an opportunity to listen to culture’s challenges of the old paradigm and the trappings that accompanied and to reform the church to not only regain its lost integrity, but give ministry to culture in new and relevant ways. But as long as we continue to compete with other churches, maintain a rigid doctrine, use the old language, and all the other trappings of modernity then we will only give way to a new church outside of the institution. Hungry people will seek God, but it is up to the church whether they want to feed the people or not.