You know, when us HappyFunTime folks first decided to dive into the Wonderful World of Blog, I have to say, I was ecstatic. Finally, I’d have a venue to articulate all of the incredibly important and, yea, brilliant epiphanies I have on nearly a daily basis.
To date, here are my topics: 1.) I have a blog. 2.) My car got towed. 3.) I almost cut my leg off with a chainsaw.
Well, I think we’re about to turn a page, so to speak, in the Blog Cabin.
There has been an issue heavy on my mind for quite some time. I’ve debated about whether or not I should blog about it but, so far, have not because I didn’t want to speak out of ignorance. I think I’m ready to make a statement now. So here goes…
There are two slippery little topics that have been leaping around church circles for a while that have me a wee bit trouble and/or perplexed. Those topics, naturally, are Postmodernism and the Emerging Church. Since Postmodernism has been around as a school of thought a bit longer than the Emerging Church, I think I’ll put my toes into the water on that end first.
This morning, I lead a Bible study for the staff at Youth Encounter. Knowing that I was going to do this, I started exploring what things had been heavy on my heart as of late. And, since YE is going through some structural changes, the topic of the function of the church in a postmodern world seemed the perfect subject. So the following is, basically, a filled-out version of what I said at YE this morning. Oh, man, is it filled out. I'm making up for lost time, here, people.
How can Christianity stay relevant in a postmodern world?
In light of John 17:13-18, it is clear that Jesus does not want Christians to be removed from the world, nor does he want Christians to be exactly like the world. Thus the popular saying, “In the world but not of it.” But what does that mean? How do we live in this world, existing in the world God has created, while not letting our minds and hearts get molded into the minds and hearts of fallen men and women? I think in order to understand how this is possible, we need to at least examine what the hearts and minds of our world are thinking and feeling.
Enter Postmodernism.
While we all like to throw around the word "postmodern," I fear that not many of us have a firm grasp of what is postmodernism. Instead of butchering the definition, I’m going to let the online encyclopedia wikipedia.com do the work for me:
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Brief outline of postmodernism
Before understanding post modernism, one must first understand modernism and modernity , which themselves are not easy to define. From the postmodern perspective, modernity was a continuation of the Enlightenment , a strive for unity, universality, certainty, and high-minded truths. These truths defined a widely-accepted boundary between what was the "center" or "focus" of society and what was the "margin" or "periphery".
Thus, artistic and philosophical works of postmodernism tend to embrace fluid and multiple perspectives, eclecticism, irony, the breaking of barriers, the reversal of roles, and the conflation of opposites. Given a choice between two dichotomous ideals, works of postmodernism tend to emphasize the ideal that in modernism was considered subordinate or inferior. For example, works of postmodernism often favor matter over mind, machine over man, writing over speech, form over substance, surface over depth, feminine over masculine, derivative over original, kitsch over fine art, and localism over universalism.
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It would be hard to argue that this is not the world that we live in. Good and bad, this is the cultural pool in which we swim.
The “In” Crowd.
So, if this is indeed our world, what does it mean to be “in” this world? I would propose that we take this fairly literally. We are to be in the lives of people of the world. We are to take the journey of life with those around us. We are to love people that do not see eye to eye with us. I’m not sure that we need to be pounding people over the head with a message. I’m not sure that we should be counting on Mel Gibson to show the stinky sinner-types the light. (I don’t fault Mr. Gibson or his movie for any of the hub-bub. It was a great movie, as far as movies go.) And I’m positive that we don’t need to spend our tiny little amount of time in this world creating clever new programming elements to impress the right kinds of people (namely, ourselves), thereby convincing them (and by “them," I mean “us”) to spend more time in church.
We need to seek out relationships in this world. We do not need to send up flares and hope that those in need show up. We do not need to find new and interesting ways to entertain ourselves, in order to keep our youngsters from being exposed to the ugly world. We are to be in this world, loving the people God puts in our path.
I am constantly amazed at how many people I know that honestly do not know one person that doesn’t confess to be a Christian. As a church, we’ve created quite a cozy little cushion for ourselves. And, as I get more and more involved in ministry, I find myself having less and less contact with my dear friends that do not believe that Jesus was who He said He was. Frankly, this scares the crap out of me. It makes me think that maybe I should get out of the ministry so that I can do some ministry.
I think the mystery of Christ is revealed to those around us, not through our successes, but through our failures, our trials, and struggles. This is when Believers show (ideally) that being anchored in Jesus during painful times in life is very different from being anchored adamantly to Nothing. The fluid values of our postmodern world provide little comfort to even their biggest proponents when life does not go according to our plans. Contrast this with the counterintuitive peace of the Christian. We, as Christians, do believe in that silly, arrogant little thing called Truth. But it isn’t actually blind arrogance; it is a faith in God. He is the Truth. And this Truth is readily supported by the reality of our lives. Our faith in God is proven to be well-placed faith without fail. Both the Mystery and the Empirical of God are revealed to us, in us, and through us when He infuses us with transcendent love and peace.
The… “Of” Crowd?
What qualifies, then, as being “of” the world? Clearly, it is more than just existing with those who do not see things the way we do. Being of the world, in my mind at least, means having the same values and priorities as the world. In our time, this means embracing Postmodernism, our current world’s default value system. I realize that could conceivably put me on a lot of people’s poo-poo list but let’s talk about this.
Let me just say that, while I tend to be a “Modern” guy (which currently means “Antiquated”), I understand where the Modern world went wrong. The idea that Man has the wisdom and rationale to dissect the entire universe, including God Himself, is fatally flawed. I understand that there is a Mystery to God that we small-minded children will never comprehend, no matter how much time we spend blogging about it.
But, while claiming to follow the teachings of Christ, the Church’s ethics, morals, and beliefs have become fluid. We have begun to “…favor matter over mind, machine over man, writing over speech, form over substance, surface over depth, feminine over masculine, derivative over original, kitsch over fine art, and localism over universalism.” i.e., we focus on ourselves as individuals above our community. We have become selfish, shortsighted, and kitschy.
State of the Union:
This naturally brings me to the other little stinker-of-a-term that I’ve been bouncing around in my head for, lo, these many months now: The Emerging Church.
A whole lot of folks for whom I have an insane amount of respect have become giddy with joy over this whole emerging church thing. Chief among them is Steve Knight. I love Steve and have a ton of respect for him. As of late, Steve has two main topics about which to blog: Reality TV and the Emerging Church. Since I am painfully aware of what Reality TV looks like, I have become more and more curious as to what this other part of his brain was doing. After much searching and a few conversations, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Emerging Church is at least two things: 1.) A movement within Orthodoxy by Christians that are seeking to define Christianity within a postmodern context and 2.) Church for urban hipsters and/or internet designers with goatees.
Now, I don’t want to paint the whole thing with too broad of a brush but I think that pretty much hits the high points.
Here in Minneapolis, there are at least a couple of viable options for your emerging needs. Spirit Garage and Solomon’s Porch are the two that are getting all of the press around here. On April 19th, Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon’s Porch, had an interesting proposition on his blog:
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Christianity and the Industrial Age
Wondering - Does Christianity fit the industrial age? Is it possible that Christianity is the expression of life with God for an Agrarian society? (If evangelicalism is the best expression of pot-industrialized life then we are in real trouble.)
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On April 20th, he tried to clarify his question with this entry:
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more on Industrialized Christianity
I am not trying to create a trick question with the fit of Christianity in an industrialized society wondering.
This thought has bounced around my head for some time and came in a few rushes of thought on Sunday night.
The premise is that for the entire history of Christianity it has most readily been expressed, formulated and crafted by and for those who live in agrarian societies.
There are some exceptions in cosmopolotian Rome, but even hat was nothing like the global industiralized world of today. This is no big shock, the industrialized world as we now experience is only a century old.
Would/could/should there be an expression of life with God that takes it's cues from the industrialized world to such a degree that its expression, metaphores, basic structure and understanding so loosely resemble what we currently understand as Christianity - not faith in God and Jesus - but the necessary trappings of the life lived in faith - that it would be better called something else?
In some ways that is what Christianity did to what we would call the Old Testament. The life and practices of Christians were distinct enough from the Law and the Prophets that it took on it's own meaning.
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If I am to understand what Doug Pagitt is saying here, it is this: We have so radically changed the face of the world that God has created and so altered the lifestyles that God has intended us to live, that maybe the best thing for us to do at this point is to retool the words, traditions, and metaphors that God has intended for us to use. This would, of course, require a radical shift. But it would fit in much better with our current thoughts.
And this is why I am very afraid of what could possibly be emerging from the Emerging Church. The answer to the question that I posed, lo, these many paragraphs ago, “How can Christianity stay relevant in a postmodern world?” is this: We can renew our minds, molding them in the image of Christ. Maybe a better way of putting it is …
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And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2 NASB)
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God’s will is perfect. His plans are perfect. His ideal of what the world should be is perfect. His metaphors, imagery, and traditions…no matter how agrarian…are perfect. It seems self-evident that “culturally relevant” is a subset of perfect. It is hard to perceive of something being both perfect and culturally irrelevant. Therefore, God’s perfect will is culturally relevant. If it is our goal to be culturally relevant, the best way to achieve this is not to reinvent the cross but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We should constantly be asking ourselves, “How does God perceive this? Am I being slowly sucked into a complacent and/or overly-clever worldview? Am I being radically reworked and shaped into God’s image?” And, yes, every once in a while we should look down at our formerly culturally relevant bracelets and ask ourselves, “What Would Jesus Do?”
Yes, we should be culturally relevant. Yes, we should understand the world around us. But sometimes the church’s obsession with knowing what is going on “in the world” (whatever that means) is akin to someone’s morbid fascination with death. If we really believe that we have been raised from death through the resurrection of Jesus, why is it that we obsess over the latest fashion/music/film trends among the dead?
If the goal of the Emerging Church is to be culturally relevant, bless 'em. But we should know that the way to be the most culturally irrelevant is to be exactly like the world. The only way for Christianity to be relevant in any culture is to be radically different from that culture. Maybe it’s time we started favoring mind over matter, man over machine, substance over form, depth over surface, and universalism over localism.
I think with a solid marketing plan, we could conceivably package Christianity as being "Post-Post-Modern."
So, when the instructions on your new chainsaw say, "Don't cut with the front end of the chainsaw, otherwise you might get kickback," ... you should pay very close attention to those instructions.
I'm so excited, I could tinkle. See, I just got a new Power Mac G5. It's sooooooo fast. Seriously, everything is loading up so fast, I just keep laughing. Starting up the computer? Fast and hilarious. Loading HFT's new flash website? Blazingly funny.
I know what your thinking. You're thinking, "But, Wes, you're totally one of those international celebrity comedians. I guess I just assumed you already had a Power Mac G5."
It's understandable that you would think that. But I was just ignorantly cruising along with my old G4, happy as a lark sandwhich. I did not realize that G5 is, like, one more than G4. Then...Apple came out with a new version of Final Cut Pro. My computer was so old, I couldn't run the new FCP. That's when I realized that I wasn't happy at all. I just thought I was. I needed to learn to laugh again.
Believe me, nothing can make a guy laugh like processor speed.
If you're in the neighborhood, stop in and check it out. It's a riot.
Spring has sprung here in Minneapolis. You know, we get so few months of warm weather here in the Great White Nord, we have to multitask if we’re going to get as much enjoyment out of our summers as the rest of America.
Why, just yesterday, I was doing some yard work while sitting at an outdoor café/auto repair shop when I noticed this guy running his laptop through his cel phone while rollerblading and walking his dog. As he passed me, I saw that he had a George Foreman Grill dragging behind him. He was cooking up some KC Strips.
I am not angry at all. In fact, there is no part of me that is stewing with white-hot Righteous Anger.
See, this last Saturday night, I was showing Nica's brother, Gideon, around the beautiful city of Minneapolis...
...and, seeing as how Gideon loves music I thought, why not take him to, like, one of the coolest used record stores in the world? I am, of course, talking about the Cheapo on Lake Street, right in the heart of Hipster-Central; Uptown Minneapolis.
We went there so Gideon could buy music, since I was (and continue to be) broke and couldn't really afford to buy any fun. So naturally, within minutes I'd purchased $60 worth of CD's, while Gideon's total purchases came to $0.
So I ran out of the aforementioned, like, coolest used record store in the world as fast as I could. Gideon and I put the new CD's in my car and listened to Moby 18 B Sides for a moment or two. To be honest, it might have been up to three moments. I wasn't counting.
Then I'm all like, "Hey, man. Wanna see what the rest of Uptown is like?" And he's all like, "Cool." So we jet. We walked around the block, looking at people. Then we walked into a bookstore and looked at people that were looking at books. Then we started walking back to the car.
This is where it becomes slightly interesting...
On the way back to the car, I hilariously comment to Gideon, "Hey, just for your own personal information, if you ever go see a movie at this theatre, don't park in the McDonalds parking lot. They'll tow you. Believe me, I know."
1/16 of a block later (I know, Uptown is measured in metric blocks but I'm old school), we reach the, like, coolest used record store in the world's parking lot. To our delight, my car had been towed.
After a pleasant conversation with the Uber-Hipster Manager...or The UHM.. who was, like, totally bummed on my behalf, it became clear that they thought I'd just parked my car there and gone to see a movie. Apparently, they had a McDonald's-esque parking policy.
I asked The UHM if he thought the tow would cost about $150 or so. He thought it would be more than that. This caused both of us to laugh heartily and colapse in a warm but masculine embrace. As a consolation, The UHM offered me 50% off of any further merchandise I would wish to purchase on this visit.
I politely informed him that without a small business loan I wouldn't be able to afford 1.) their convenient parking and 2.) more spectacular bargains on scuffed Avril Lavigne retrospective box sets.
Then I drug Nate into this mess. Thanks for the ride, Nate. Sorry.
Fast forward to a pleasant exchange with the caring, service-oriented teddy bear of an ex-con at the impound lot. I try to explain to him that, unlike almost any other business in America, towing companies are not forced to price their "services" competitively. See, it's not like if I, the customer, think I'm being over-charged for having my car stolen, I'm going just take my car somewhere else. Therefore, the "evil monsters" can charge, say, $236.35 for example, without any sort of consequenses or reprocussions.
This was a big concept for Teddy. But I think he listened. I think he cared.
No, I'm just really not angry all. But I am starting to get a Headache.
This last week was pretty fun for us HappyFunTime folks. We had some good friends pay us a visit. Perhaps you've heard of a little organization called The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association?
No? Oh.
Well, us HFT folks have some good friends that work for the BGEA. Unfortunately, they all recently moved to Charlotte, NC. Fortunately, Blaine and Steve came back to hang out with us. Actually, they came back to go to the EPA conference. But that was boring so they mostly hung out with us.
Fun.
Steve and Blaine work for the BGEA's youth website passageway.org, which is a pretty cool website, truth be told. In fact, they've been nice enough in the past to put our HFT videos up on the website. And they even let me write some articles to go with them.
So, in conclusion, this has really turned out to be a shameless piece of self-promotion. That's nice. Man, I miss those guys.
(Keep reading to find the links to the stuff I've done for passageway.org)
Here are the links to the passageway articles I've written. "The Antiques" are not available to be viewed anywhere else...AND...I've even written an article on dating! Now that, my friend, is comedy...:
"The Classics":
Owners Manual
Egh!
Sewage Pond
Rock Monkey
"The Antiques":
Survivor
Our Friend Pete
Falling
Something's Burning
"Dating"..."Advice"... from an "Expert":
The Very Fine Lines of Dating