Postmodernism and Spiritual Formation Part 2 – Implications for Sp Form Ministry

If we take the view that postmodernism is neither the savior of our times nor evil incarnate, that it isn’t even truly a finished product, I believe we can find helpful implications for spiritual formation ministry in our congregations.

Like it or not we are living in a culture which is becoming increasingly comfortable with ambiguity. Roles that used to be rigidly defined are loosening (some for the better and some not) and definitions that used to be ironclad are becoming more elusive. Throughout all of this transition the language of journey has become in many ways a dominant theme for postmoderns. This seems to signify a shift from thinking of the world as a set of propositions to master to an adventure to be experienced.

The quest or pilgrimage has long contained a spiritual overtone. Pilgrims set out even though they were often unsure of how long their journey would take, what perils they would have to face, or what necessarily would await them at the end of their quest. A quest is different than a trip to the store. Today when we set off to find something, our streamlined process ensures that the product we seek is the focus of the journey, and time is of the essence. However a quest is a different kind of journey. The trip itself (which is not necessarily very streamlined or efficient) is intended to be formative. Obtaining wisdom and growth through the experience is often as important as the final goal (or may be the only actual goal).

Many postmoderns, especially those in the “Emergent Church” circles are ceasing to refer to non-Christians as the “seekers.” The dropping of such language is often seen as a threat to the distinctive message of Christianity. In some cases this may be a valid concern. However, without denying that “once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God” (1 Peter 2:10); without denying that we were lost and now we are found, I acknowledge that I am in so many ways still a “seeker.” I may not be seeking assurance for my eternal dwelling, but there are a lot of things in my spiritual growth that I have yet to attain. For one:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:10-14(emphasis mine)

And this is where the rubber meets the road for Christians. As Paul goes on to say, we need to live up to what we have already attained. Or as Paul phrased it in Ephesians 4, we need to "walk worthily of the calling we have received." The language of journey is so very appropriate. We are indeed on a journey; a lifelong journey of being conformed to the image of Christ. This is a quest that begins in the cradle and does not end this side of the grave. We are in the process of learning to see more clearly. Though we are found, we are still wandering toward home – sometimes making a straight path and sometimes completely turned around.

The spiritual formation ministry in our congregations should be very intentional about this: that we are journeying with Christ. There is much to learn while on this earth. God is the author of truth: Paul found pieces of wisdom in the pagan poets and we too should claim truth wherever we find it. Our journey may bless us with opportunities to learn countless lessons from numerous cultures - if we are humble enough to admit we still have things to learn. But that does not mean that our story – the story of God’s interaction with humanity, found in the Bible – is just one of many equal voices.

There is a popular way of thinking which says that all spiritual realizations in humanity emanate from God and point us to God. This philosophy claims that the human experience of the spiritual can be found in many places and many theologies, all of which serve to bridge the gap between our physical existence and another metaphysical one. Interspersed throughout this claim are truths which we should not deny. All of these religious experiences are attempts to bridge this gap that we naturally feel between ourselves and something bigger than ourselves. And this urge emanates, I believe, directly from God. These urges find their source in the one God of the universe.

In this way it may be said that all of these narratives can find their place within the larger metanarrative of Jehovah God. That does not make them equal participants in dispensing grace or truth. Rather, like Paul in Athens we find ourselves able to say to our brothers and sisters that we can see how religious they are; we applaud their quest for exploring their spiritual existence; and we would love to tell them about the UNKNOWN GOD. For space reasons, I will not include the text here, but go back and read Acts 17:24-31 again (you can read it for free online at biblegateway.com).

Notice that in the scripture, Paul’s words did not convince many and it does not say that he proceeded to tell them how evil they were or foolish or anything. It just says that he left the council.

In No Man is an Island, Thomas Merton said that the truth does not need us to defend it, just to proclaim it clearly. As for defense, truth can handle its own. (my paraphrased version)

While I think there are situations where we are called to defend the truth, I also believe that many of us could benefit from a little humility where truth is concerned. Perhaps it is our own ego we are defending, I don’t know. But it could be that the postmodern aversion to absolute truth, misguided though it may be, is at least at some level a reaction to the self-centered, self-serving, arrogant and often deadly defenses of truth in our past. As a member of the Stone-Campbell Restoration movement I’ve been shaped both directly and indirectly by generations of staunch “defenders of the faith” who were sometimes as quick to disfellowship an “erring” brother as they were to condemn the pagans in “the denominations.” While I believe that we have learned a bit of grace (for the most part) the damage of our hurtful actions is being felt still.

One of the things that is most often maligned regarding openly postmodern churches is their decision to set aside the language of truth in favor of the language of authenticity. Before we are too quick to bring out the tar and feathers, let’s admit that the sons of Sceva could have benefited greatly from just such reconsideration. These guys were claiming a truth that was not authentic to the way they were living. Claiming authority such as Jesus or Paul (or scripture?) may not have the desired results if our lives are not being formed continually by those authorities we claim.

While I am opposed to dismissing truth altogether, I'm willing to entertain the notion that from time to time my obsession with truth may be blinding me to the real struggle I am having with authenticity. This does not mean that I ignore truth, deny truth or reject the validity of truth, but simply that I admit that my obsession does not make me the final arbiter of truth. I surrender myself to the author of truth and focus my energy on living in authentic relationship with Him rather than functioning solely as a hall-monitor, policing the comings-and-goings of my classmates...you know, specks, planks, irritated eyes, that whole deal.

The final issue that I have space to deal with at this time is the proliferation of single generation churches. These churches, often referred to as “young adult” or “emergent” have taken to heart the advice of many baby-boomer age church growth specialists…much to the chagrin of the baby boomers! The concept of finding a niche and focusing a congregation’s attention in that area is not new. Yet the Emergent church movement has taken this to a new level. Now this is where I’m going to get in trouble…

On the one hand the development of these churches frightens me in countless ways. The answer to our current dilemma in the Church is not more isolation and compartmentalizing. Just as I don’t believe adolescents can adequately learn to be adults by only spending time with other teens, I don’t think that young adults, middle-age adults or senior adults can hope to continue to mature in Christ if they only surround themselves with their peers.

If, in reading this, you have joyfully picked up your torches and hay forks, you may want to hold on a second. Before we are too harsh, I think we need to admit that this has been an approved practice for quite some time. We compartmentalize our ministries so that youth, childrens, women, men, senior adults, singles, young marrieds, those recovering from divorce or chemical dependency, and those who disapprove of all of the above groups each function as their own little fiefdoms. In addition to the compartmentalization of ministries the tyranny of the majority/minority can also create similar effects.

I recently referred to this as a twist on a familiar saying: “You take your toys and go home.” This is happening even now. Groups opposed to anything postmodern or emergent are circling the wagons, so to speak. Those who have a differing view are not tolerated and so in effect these churches have also created their own myopic communities. This statement can not in fairness be applied to all congregations which are hesitant or even opposed to postmodernism. However it may well be fair to say that it is as accurate a generalization as those leveled at the Emergents.

Again postmodern thought is neither our savior nor the Evil One's emissary. There are indeed both struggles to overcome and strengths on which to be capitalized, some of which I've hinted at in this post. At the end of the day, if we are not able to admit in all humility that we "see but a poor reflection as in a mirror" and that we only "know in part" then perhaps we have yet to put our childish ways behind us.

Postmodernism and Spiritual Formation part 1

Anyone who has spent anytime around me or reading this blog will know that I do not fall into the camp of those who despise everything postmodern. In fact, I believe that our culture’s shift of thinking (which we can call “postmodern,” “post-postmodern,” or whatever) has provided the Church with a great opportunity. The world is shaking its collective head clear of the Enlightenment’s refusal to acknowledge the spiritual component to reality – and we have an opportunity as a people indwelled by the Holy SPIRIT to provide reconstruction for their deconstructed paradigms.

And in one way or another it seems that many people are trying to do just that. Here in the blogosphere there is no shortage of forums, blogs and websites dedicated to postmodernism in one way or another. For many in the conservative camp, POMOPHOBIA rules the day. Anything deemed unorthodox is labeled “postmodern” or “emergent.” If a condemned postmodern does say something useful is often either ignored or heralded as remnants of “modern” virtues.

These pomophobics can themselves vary greatly on their response. Many are honestly seeking to engage in dialogue bent on discerning truth and expect the other side to respond in kind. Others have reacted so violently and responded in such an extreme way that they are now posting articles highlighting how God killed Kyle Lake at University Baptist in Waco as a message to the Emergent Church. (I don’t despise people who condemn postmodernism, but that little article was vile and completely devoid of anything useful or holy…well this is a whole other post) Still others, it seems, are simply distrustful of a group who appear to be filling the category where “New Agers” and “hippies” have previously dwelled.

However, critique is healthy during the formation of any philosophical viewpoint. In this case, there is indeed much need for a critical assessment rather than a wholesale endorsement of all things pomo.

POMOPHILIA seems to be another popular mindset these days. Some people, also in reactionary mode, are ready to accept anything labeled postmodern or emergent in a desperate attempt to escape the Church of the Enlightenment. A friend of mine is fond of warning us not to throw out the baby of reason with the bathwater of the Enlightenment. He is absolutely right. Pomophiliacs that quickly discard reason and logic are going to find themselves without a leg to stand on…if they aren’t already feeling it. For Christians, the use of narrative has long been an important approach to sharing the Gospel. That narrative, however, ceases to function as the Gospel when it is disconnected from Jehovah’s interaction with mankind through the Judeo-Christian metanarrative. This does not imply that there is nothing to be gained from conversation with other metanarratives; in truth, we have much to learn from the ways that God has been moving in the communities of all humanity. But when we place all metanarratives, explanations of the human condition, and understandings of the Divine on the same level; when we deny the distinctive character of Christ – even if our motive is to heal the damage done by previous generations of pain inflicted in Jesus’ name – then we have made a mistake equal to or in excess of those from whom we are trying to distance ourselves. Putting candles in a room and practicing Lectio Divina are themselves neither proof for or against the authenticity of a community’s worship or faith.

There is at least one way in which both extremes (phobia and philia) are making what I feel is the same mistake. POMEOSTASIS is defined by Bretster’s Dictionary as the fallacious assertion that the phenomenon currently hailed as postmodernism is a finished, static or stable product. In truth this term is fluid.

For some (usually adolescents and those who oppose pomo) it is defined almost exclusively as a rejection of absolute truth and defense of relativism. For others it has to do with the acceptance of the spiritual realm as one which is at least equal to the physical world in its relevance to the human condition. In addition to its varying use across communities, postmodernism is also being formed and reformed across time. Before we label it as something void of substance, let’s be honest and acknowledge that modern and pre-modern thought also had to go through formation…they did not fall from heaven, no matter how much some of us would like to think they did.

While I don’t claim to be able to see into the future, I predict that absolute relativism will phase itself out eventually. It will become a paragraph in the chapter of the history books referring to this age. First of all, relativism is a self-defeating ideology…it is itself an absolute statement. If you punch a relativist they will deny that you have the right to claim that as appropriate action. Life is directed by absolute truths. This is evidenced by the similarity of communal life across time and geography. Sure all cultures have differences, but there are also so many similarities to human interaction that we must admit that there are things going on below the surface. I believe that the rejection of Absolute Truth often stems more from a suspicion of human ability to comprehend Absolute Truth. If we are again willing to be honest with ourselves it becomes necessary to admit that most groups, Christians very much included, have used a convenient understanding of Truth to justify their abuse of other groups. Were the Crusades a display of Truth at work? The problem with absolute truth is that it can be used as a trump card by who have power and want to keep it or don’t have power and want to take it.

Is this a reason to reject the existence of absolute truth? No, absolutely not. Is it a good reason to be suspicious of claims regarding absolute truth? Maybe. One thing is surely true, if those who defend truth do so with anger and malice the wedge of suspicion will only be driven deeper. I realize that for many, speaking with compassion and humility has become equated with spinelessness…that too is a post for another time.

One of my friends – who doesn’t really seem to be for or against postmodern “stuff” – has told me on several occasions that he thinks this whole deal is simply the usual rejection and rebellion that one generation displays for the previous. In some ways I think he is right. The problem is that we look at everything that is going on and try to place it neatly in one category or another. Sure, there are normal rebellions going on…many people claiming postmodern thought are, after all, young adults. There also seem to be some legitimate paradigmatic shifts occurring simultaneously which make this whole debacle something that will be much more easily sorted out in a couple hundred years. Until then we should argue against relativism without resorting to hyperbole and bashing all things postmodern. In truth there are some great things happening. Great stories of life are being told, people are realizing that they should no longer compartmentalize their faith, and whole groups of previously disinterested persons are willing to hear the Gospel.

And yet we may have a typical American tragedy in the making. My final thought on this issue is our penchant for marketing and consumerism. I have told my friends that when I write a book I’m not going to put a catchy title on it. If I do, and people read it, they may use my title in conversation. This title may become a buzzword. This buzzword may become a fad. And then everyone will hate me.

I realize that this is my own little hyperbolic statement following my admonition against such things. But we are a culture of locusts (another hyperbole…well not really, I think this one’s pretty accurate!). We consume and consume and consume until we have gorged ourselves and begin vomiting out the very thing we couldn’t get enough of moments before. We are already experiencing this “death by marketing”.

I’m not sure how we stop this juggernaut; I don’t know that we can. I do know that both sides of this debate are guilty of blanket demonizations that are not only unhelpful and inaccurate, they often provide the very fuel that the other side needs for its next barrage. In this way we ensure perpetual fighting and insure ourselves against any hope for healthy dialogue.

To be continued…

Marrying our Gomer: further adventures in developing my theology of ministry

DISCLAIMER: Rachel is not my “Gomer.” If you try to tell her that I said she was a prostitute from Biblical times, I will retaliate with Old Testament force!

…I remember my frustration during the period of time when I was trying to convince Rachel that she needed to go out with me. We had become very good friends and she would come over to our house at night and complain about guys…she was clueless.

When I finally broke down and told her how I felt, she wasn’t convinced (surprise, surprise! Many of you are still wondering how I pulled that one off…I’ll never tell!). But interestingly Rachel’s hesitation had less to do with the fact that she was out of my league and more to do with her fear of getting in another relationship. Though it had been quite some time, she still had not recovered from a bad break-up which was making it hard to trust the idea of once again making herself vulnerable. Luckily for me, my persistence paid off and now she’s stuck with me…happily ever after.

I have recently experienced a similar feeling of fear myself. I felt this reticence as I thought about the next church where I would serve. Those who are not in ministry sometimes think that losing your job is losing your job, no matter what you do. While I would never take away from the difficulty of anyone being told that their “services are no longer required”, ministers have the added difficulty of loosing their church family…their support system which should be there to help people through these times.

A wise man in ministry advised me not to see the congregations where I serve as my support system or even my spiritual family but rather to cultivate that community outside with other ministers. This counsel is based on recognizing the very real possibility that any church can let you go at any time. As much as we would like to say that we are working for God, we are being paid by man.

6 months ago…actually as recently as 2 months ago, I was convinced that the only advisable course of action was to resist putting “roots down” anywhere. It made sense that I was going to have to be somewhat of an outsider because I couldn’t risk allowing myself to become vulnerable again. Over the last few years I have developed a network of good friends, which was a definite blessing during these months.

But then a couple things began running through my head. The first was the story at the beginning of this post. There came a point where Rachel had to decide that she would risk another relationship. If she hadn’t, the world would have been deprived of Conner Allan Wells and his famous vanishing finger trick!

And also I thought of Hosea.

We know the story of the prophet Hosea. He was called by God to marry an adulterous woman named Gomer. God knew that she would not be faithful to Hosea, just as he had known that Israel would not remain faithful to him. Hosea was called on to demonstrate God’s love – a love which makes itself vulnerable even in the face of certain betrayal. Hosea would have been so blessed to have witnessed the love of Christ which surpassed even his commitment to Gomer. Christ’s was a love which not only made itself vulnerable, but was willing to forfeit life for the love of an adulterous people.

As a minister, God has called me to demonstrate this kind of love as well. Thankfully in his mercy God allowed me to marry a faithful, loving wife. He has surrounded me with compassionate, loyal friends. And the small thing that I have been asked to do is to make myself vulnerable to a group of people who could possibly (as opposed to “will definitely”) end our relationship in a painful way.

I will take the advice and continue to appreciate God’s blessing of holy friends, but I will also be faithful and marry my Gomer. I must be willing to invest in a community because this is how God calls us to love his children – not with reservation but wholeheartedly, accepting risk as the Lord did by first loving us.