The Web is full of blog entries, articles and video clips about how postmodernism has impacted culture and the Church. There seems to be a never ending debate of what postmodernism really means. Some see it as good thing - the philosophical movement that will bring the Church out of the Dark Ages. Others view it as a slippery slope that could lead to the complete ruination of moral standards and absolute truth.
When it comes to the term "emerging church", some people raise their eyebrows wondering what new strain of heresy this could be. Others welcome emergent thought as a breath of fresh air. They see the openness encouraged within the emergent community to be a nice escape from fundamentalism or stale religion.
I always wonder why we have to label everything and choose sides as if we are playing Family Feud. Christ focused on oneness for His Body. Sure each part is different. But why do we have to think that we are not compatible? Why do we think that we don't need each other?
I like what Brian McLaren had to say about the emergent movement. He talked about not liking the term because it makes people think divisive thoughts. It causes some to feel like enlightened elitists while others are faithful fundamentalists. The emergent conversation is not one set of beliefs or even a well defined movement. Is it dangerous? Yes. Could it actually cause new life to spring forth in the Body? Yep. Could it be misused if we allow pride and prejudice to get in the way? Absolutely!
First, postmodernism and the emergent church movement are not the same thing. They aren't even close. Although some have connected the two terms, they are vastly different. In many ways, postmodernism is just as godless and spiritually lost as modernism. These are merely philosophical matrices that influence life. The emerging church movement describes a lot of people who have been influenced by postmodern thought to challenge some traditional beliefs and practices held by more established, institutional Christianity.
Mark Driscoll in The Radical Reformission wrote, "Postmodernism is basically a philosophical junk drawer in which people toss anything and everything that they cannot make sense of. If you ask four philosophers what postmodernism is, you will get five answers...Postmodern culture is not something that we should ignore, oppose, or embrace rather, it is simply another culture that we should seek to redeem and transform by the power of the gospel. Indeed, culture is an old whore, and modernity and postmodernity are simply her old and new dresses."
Postmodernism and its impact on the emerging church reveals both improvement and pitfalls for the Christian life. Some of the positive focuses are simply a returning to best practices that have somehow been forgotten along the way.
Let's look at first how postmodernism seems to have positively affected the Christian faith. Postmodernism has encouraged people to look beyond the physical to what is spiritual. Modernism solely focused on what could be defended by science, reason and the mind. Postmodernism opens the door for areas beyond what can be easily understood. It has helped free us from having to find an answer to everything and simply be OK with not knowing some things.
The emerging church movement has run with this freedom as people have sought to know God for themselves and not just spit out what they learned from religious indoctrination. People are focusing on their own stories and journey with God instead of simply filling a pew week after week.
While modernism focused on man's achievements and what can be done by human effort, postmodernism wonders at the beauty in the world and celebrates the vastness of things beyond human capabilities. This has led to a much more playful, open and festive attitude among those in the emerging church than traditional religious circles. Many of them are more prone to hospitality. They are more likely to throw a good party than the fundamentalists who don’t want to risk being associated with sinners. People feel safe to be real and explore deeper issues than they ever would have in a more top-down system.
Emerging churches remove the barriers between sacred and secular. They see that all things have worth and all experiences are to be treasured. To them, a seemingly mundane task can become quite spiritual if you see God in it and decide to involve Him in every aspect of life. There are no compartments to life.
Postmodernism has struck at the traditional view of authority. It has encouraged people to look to Jesus and not a pastor for their own spiritual development. Christians in the emergent movement are drawn to discussion and a collaborative effort to arrive at God's will. This involves everyone as ministers and removes them from the position of simply being spectators. There is room for debate and disagreement. Emergent Christians are more likely to be open to those with differing viewpoints and love them regardless of their opinion. They give space to outsiders and know how to let them belong before they become.
As leaders have delved more into knowing what they believe and why, this has caused some deep issues to come to the surface. People are raising spiritual questions about life as a Christian and God's character that have been largely ignored over the past several hundred years. The historical roots of Jesus and the story behind the story are coming to light. It's no longer about merely regurgitating doctrine. People are re-discovering the complexity, mystery, horror and beauty of God.
As you may have quickly discovered, each one of the above positives can also easily become a negative. Most things have extremes that cause life to get out of balance. For example, postmodernism can easily become a slippery slope that denies the existence of absolute truth. People can become their own gods without any true compass or guidelines. Philosophy can be used to explain away parts of Scripture that contemporary culture does not particularly like. It can lead to intellectual idolatry as man orients his life around his image of God and truth, not what God says.
Knowing God for yourself can be great. But what happens if someone then isolates himself from the Body of believers? I have seen this isolation lead people to come up with some crazy ideas about God and truth. There are a lot of crackpots and crazy people out there who have been easily deceived. The Jewish Scriptures says that all of a man's ways seems right to him. We have to have authority higher than us or we become god. And God has placed human and spiritual authority on the earth to preserve order and provide a safety net for us. Postmodernism could easily lead to lawlessness, pride and rebellion against God ordained authority.
Postmoderns can water down the Gospel so much that it loses its power. People can become more captivated by creation than the God who made it. While postmodern thoughts encourage people to be freer to try new things, it can cause some to become suspicious of anything that smacks of traditionalism. Postmoderns people may know how to throw a party, but they may focus too much on the experience and not enough on the truth that makes any moment worth living.
Removing barriers between sacred and secular can make everything casual and thereby diminish the sense of anything being extra special or especially significant. People are asking deeper spiritual questions than they have in a long while. But this may backfire too if knowing God becomes a purely intellectual exercise. If the unction of Spirit gets relegated to something that happened during the early Church, we risk missing God. What happens if we start asking questions that we aren't prepared to answer or willing to really hear the truth? What happens if we don't have enough spiritual fathers and mothers to shepherd people through rough philosophical seas? A little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing.
I believe that the emerging church brings both life and liabilities to the table. Believers must know how to cling to what is good and leave behind the bad. This new movement of unrest is good because a little revolution can be good every now and then. My only hope is that we will stop long enough to really hear each other out and more importantly, to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches in these latter days.
