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Emerging Postmodern Ministry

Explore the transition from modern to postmodern ministry with insights from emerging sources like Brian McLaren, Ken Baugh, Neil Cole, and Dieter Zander. Discover parallels between the ancient times and the 21st century, examine postmodern preferences, and learn strategies for spiritual formation and missional church. This resource offers guidance for engaging postmoderns and teaching in a postmodern context.

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Emerging Postmodern Ministry

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  1. Emerging Postmodern Ministry Sources: Brian McLaren, Ken Baugh, Neil Cole, Dieter Zander john.chandler@vbmb.org

  2. Between Two Worlds • Waves simultaneously entering and departing • Today: Modern and Postmodern waves creating rip-tides

  3. Six Transitions in Christianity • Jewish -> multicultural • Persecuted minority -> Favored religion (325) • Roman -> multi-cultural and Greek • Greco-Roman -> Celtic/medieval • Medieval -> Modern (Reformation) • Modern -> Postmodern

  4. When in transition … • Breathe deeply and coach calmly • Look to lower anxiety by focusing on the single next step • A beginning point: look for parallels between 1c and 21c

  5. 5 Parallels between 1c and 21c • One dominant superpower • Rome, U.S.A. • One spoken trade language • Koine Greek, English • Advances in technology make the world a smaller place • Roads, Internet

  6. Parallels between 1c and 21c • Rise in Eastern influences • Greek in 1c, World Religions in 21c • Rise in pagan and occult practices • Acts 17, Wicca

  7. New Postmodern Preferences • High value of relationship • Journey > Destination • Authenticity > Excellence • Experience > Proposition • Mystery > Solution • Diversity > Uniformity

  8. What might this look like? • Indigenous and intimate • Lowering bar of “getting into church” while raising bar on “becoming a disciple” • More conversational

  9. What should the church embrace in postmodernism? • Willingness to utilize evolving methodology to communicate gospel • Lowering talk of “absolutes” and “certainty” in favor of “full knowledge” • The move from the ordained to the ordinary • The common Christian will be the missionary

  10. Where should the church resist in relation to postmodernism? • Dealing with issues of unity and love between moderns and postmoderns in an explosive and defensive climate

  11. Postmodern Preaching • From regularity of alliterated outline … to a curious conversation • From delivered by preacher… to shared within sermon and in dialogue with the congregation • No longer incubated only in study, but in out-there conversations • From stories to illustrate the points to stories that are the point • From the merely aural to the also-visual and multi-sensory

  12. Postmodern Worship • From well-produced (“cheesy”) to feeling thoughtful but real • Upping the octane beyond “ritual” toward “encounter”

  13. Spiritual Formation • “Equip, empower, and release” as key words • Move beyond serving church to serving world • Focus on the means and plan to “becoming a better person” and “making a difference in the world”

  14. Strategies toward Formation • Read Scripture repetitively, in context, and in community. • Confess sins confidentially and with accountability. • Pray for lost friends strategically.

  15. Missional Church • “Benediction” as the key liturgical point • To be chosen by God is not just to be blessed, but to be a blessing to the world • From the church saying, “y’all come” to “we’ll go”

  16. Transition Possibilities • Engage postmoderns non-defensively & non-judgmentally • Privately and in church • Count the cost to be paid with moderns in church • Plan to study, read, watch • Allow for un-learning • Tolerate high anxiety • Invest in lives of those who can do what you cannot

  17. Teaching Key • Not just lowering lights and upping sound; not just “smells & bells” • To teach what Jesus taught in the way that Jesus taught it • “the Kingdom of heaven is like ….”

  18. Evangelism Key • You can’t just believe in “evangelism in theory” to reach postmoderns • When fishing, they don’t come scaled, fileted, and shrink-wrapped

  19. Mental Keys • Change the metaphors • From legal and judicial to family and community

  20. Emerging Postmodern Ministry Dr. John P. Chandler The Ray and Ann Spence Network for Congregational Leadership www.rasnet.org John.chandler@vbmb.org Copy right John P. Chandler, 2007

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