June 22, 2006
Dear Resurrection Family,
I'm writing this e-mail from the Lake of the Ozarks where I have been alone on three days of silent retreat at a friend's house. During this time I've enjoyed five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (all I thought to bring with me to eat!), beautiful sunsets, and time for prayer, reading, writing and a sense of companionship with God. It has been a blessing. Here are the three articles for this week's e-mail:
1. $21,000 Raised for Scholarship Fund - THANK YOU!
2. My Experience in Two Different Churches on Father's Day
3. Postmodernism and Emergent Churches
1. $21,000 Raised for Scholarship Fund - THANK YOU!
Several weeks ago I felt God waking me from my sleep. A five-year-old girl had been brutally abused by a couple that had killed two others and were on the verge of killing themselves. She was in a Kansas City area hospital being treated and I could not stop thinking about her and how she would ever find hope. I was roused from my sleep with the idea of inviting others in the congregation to join LaVon and me in giving to a scholarship fund that might make it possible for this girl to go to college, and when she reached that age, she would know there were people in this world who would invest in her future. My hope was to raise $20,000 which, invested over 12 years, might grow to provide a large portion of the tuition required for a state university. I checked this week to see how we were doing and discovered that you have contributed $21,000 to this fund! Thank you! If any of you would like to make a special contribution to the fund, please send your checks to the church made out to the Church of the Resurrection Foundation and note that this is for the Little Girl Scholarship Fund. I spoke yesterday morning with a United Methodist pastor in the town nearest to where the little girl lives and he is looking to see how best to proceed in communicating this to the family. I want you to know I am grateful and proud of you for offering hope and help. One of my favorite phrases from Compassion International is that none of us can change the entire world, but we can change the world for one person. I believe you have helped to do that by your generosity.
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2. My Experience in Two Different Churches on Father's Day
This last weekend I enjoyed worshiping in two different churches and was blessed by both. On Sunday morning our family worshiped at the Trinity United Methodist Church on Parallel in Kansas City, Kansas. Mark Holland is the pastor there and I wanted to encourage him and to hear him preach. I consider Mark one of the great young (relative to me!) leaders in our conference. What's happening at Trinity is very important. Trinity has been a church in serious decline over the last thirty years, as Wyandotte County has seen an exodus of people. Many churches have closed their doors. Trinity is working to reinvent itself by becoming multi-cultural and reaching out to the people in its community. In the years to come I believe there will continue to be an influx of people back into Wyandotte County. If Trinity can grow and become revitalized, it will give hope to thousands of other churches like it. The service was a blessing to our family and Mark did a terrific job in preaching. If you know anyone who lives in Kansas City, Kansas, near Parallel, please tell him or her about Trinity UMC.
On Sunday evening I came to our own 5:00 pm service. Having attended four other services in the last two weeks, including three much larger churches in Houston, I was anxious to see how I would experience our worship and how it would stack up. I realize I am biased, Sunday night was awesome and left me spiritually fed in a way I hadn't been at the other large churches the weekend before (I enjoyed each of them, and I'm not trying to say we're better than them - but our worship team does what they do well, the Spirit is present, and this is home). In addition, I heard a sermon with more depth, and which spoke more clearly to me than any of the others I had heard. This was Pastor Nancy Pauls' first time to preach in our main sanctuary and she did a great job! She preached on rest and the Sabbath. The scriptures were excellent. She hooked me with her intro. She recapped the Biblical teaching on the Sabbath; she made me aware of my own difficulties in resting (even on my Sabbatical I feel compelled to try to fill every moment with some kind of activity aimed at making me a better pastor rather than simply experiencing the rest God knows we all need!). She noted that Sabbath should include three things: Worship, Rest (refraining from work), and relationships. These lead us to experience renewal on our Sabbath. The gospel reading she shared was from Matthew 11 where Jesus says, "Come unto me all you that are weary. . .and I will give you rest." Lance then followed this with a perfect offertory to drive the point home.
Why am I telling you this? Because whether I am preaching or not, God's Spirit is at work in our church - your worship team both in the morning and evening services and our other pastors prepare a service in which God is worshiped and you will be encouraged, challenged and blessed. If you are in town this weekend I hope you'll plan to be in worship.
This next article is a bit lengthy and likely not of interest to many of you - but it is important and describes two shifts in culture and religion that you should be aware of. You've no doubt heard of postmodernism and emerging churches. I hope to help you understand them better and how our church fits into these philosophical and religious movements. But, if you find this a bit tedious, feel free to stop reading at this point!
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3. Postmodernism and Emergent Churches
This week, I spent three days in solitary retreat at the Lake of the Ozarks. I believe every one of you would benefit from doing something like this at least once a year. I brought several books I wanted to read, something to make notes with, and my Bible (as noted above, I also brought a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly and some chips - if I don't eat another PB&J sandwich for a while that will be okay!).
I read James K.A. Smith's, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? (Baker Academic, 2006), and selections from Gibbs and Bolger's, Emerging Churches (Baker Academic, 2005). My aim was to understand more clearly what is meant by "postmodernism" and to have a better understanding of "emergent churches" that have sprung up in response to postmodernism. As a part of my study I will be worshiping at a church that considers itself "emergent" one Sunday this summer and meeting with a pastor known as a leader in this genre of church.
What is postmodernism? Great question to which there is not one right answer. At the very least it means, literally, "that which comes after modernism." What is modernism? Great question to which there is not one right answer! Most recently, the term has come to be used as nearly synonymous with "the Enlightenment" and the philosophical and cultural views and values it spawned. Modernism, according to this sense, has been characterized by its focus on certainties and absolutes; its belief in supposedly "objective truths" - meaning, usually, something scientifically verifiable; an interest in gaining or wielding power; linear thinking; a dualism that separates the secular from the sacred; an acceptance of grand stories which are said to explain how the world is, and why, and which claim to be scientifically verifiable (examples of this would be Marx' understanding of history as class struggle, Darwin's theory of evolution as a way of explaining the origin of all life); and there are numerous other characteristics I'm sure I'm missing.
Postmodernism is a reaction to modernism, and proponents suggest that this reaction has reached a kind of "tipping point" where it permeates a sufficient number of people born after 1964, and has been integrated as the worldview of enough cultural shapers (popular music, television, the University, and even religion) that future generations will see the world through this lens - hence modernism is said to be dying, and postmodernism is the future of human culture in the west. For those whose worldview has been shaped by modernism, this can be quite upsetting - it can feel as if the world is shifting under your feet. Most of us likely have adopted some elements of postmodernity already without even realizing it, but in other areas we may never see the world other than as we have come to know it through the lens of modernity. Proponents of this line of thinking suggest that it is not a matter of whether you like postmodernism, or whether you don't like it. It is the inevitable next step in culture - what is important is whether you will engage it, and for the church, whether we will find new ways of doing ministry and communicating the gospel in response to it.
So, let me take a stab at articulating what I understand about the characteristics of postmodernism. Postmodernists don't believe there is such a thing as "objective truth" - everything is an interpretation based upon one's vantage point and culture. There is a suspicion of the grand story (known as the metanarrative) - and a recognition that all modern metanarratives - evolution, Marxism, liberal democracy - are also interpretations and not "objectively" true. These narratives, like religious truth claims, require faith. There is a recognition that even science operates according to assumptions and presuppositions and records interpretations, which require belief. Postmodernism comes with a distrust of power structures. It embraces non-linear thinking and ways of seeing the world. Experience is as important as reason, perhaps even more important. Postmoderns are not satisfied with trite answers nor with answers that simply appeal to some higher authority. They are more open to ambiguity while being turned off by the very boundaries and delineations that made Boomers feel comfortable and safe. Postmodernism is also characterized by a concern for the greater or common good, and it places a very high value on human relationships and community.
Some see postmodernism as a terrible enemy of Christianity that must be vigorously challenged and countered. Others see it as a tremendous opportunity for Christianity to return to its roots and to no longer be sidelined by scientific rationalism. Smith's book takes the latter approach and suggests that there is great opportunity for the church in a postmodern age. If you would like to read my notes, summary and reflections of Smith's book, you can download a document from our website. Bear in mind that I wrote these for myself as a way of remembering what I had just read - I've not spell checked or proofed them.
At this point I am uncertain whether postmodernism reflects a seismic shift in our culture and world, or merely a mid-course correction to modernism. Some of what I read about postmodernism is what I already feel and know to be true, while some of it I don't completely agree with or understand. I do think that postmodernism is perceived to be a great threat to conservative evangelicalism and to Christian fundamentalism and, within Christianity, I think it is a reaction to these forces. It is probably much less a threat to mainline churches, and may, in fact, signal a renewed interest in mainline Christianity. A book that captures the kind of questions and spirituality that are shaped by postmodernism is Brian McLaren's, A New Kind of Christian. It is an easy read and I found myself identifying with it at many points. Which leads me to the conversation about "emergent" churches.
"Emergent" is a term used to describe relatively new churches that are developing in response to, and embracing elements of, the postmodern shift in our culture. These churches are non-traditional and are reaching a certain segment of the younger population. Jacob's Well here in Kansas City is perhaps the best known of these churches in our area, though there are a number of others. The first wave of emergent pastors and churches are primarily coming out of the ranks of dissatisfied and disaffected conservative and charismatic evangelicals.
There are a growing number of people who, in the last ten years, have become increasingly dissatisfied with what they perceive to be the superficiality, judgmentalism, and spiritual narcissism of evangelicalism in America and Great Britain. (I don't mean to imply that this is true of all evangelicalism - that is clearly not the case - but it is the perception of many in the emergent church that this is so). They read the gospels and find the Jesus of the gospels looks quite different from the Jesus they hear preached in their churches. Some are opting out of church all together (George Barna has described some of them in his book, Revolution). Others are joining mainline and Roman Catholic churches, while still others are joining emergent churches.
I have enjoyed watching and reading about the emergent churches because, in many ways, the stories of their pastors mirror my own story. I came to faith in Christ in a charismatic, conservative evangelical congregation - a wonderful congregation without which I would not have come to know Christ. I went on to a charismatic, conservative evangelical University, and there found myself disillusioned by the same things the emergent pastors describe. I was not disillusioned with Jesus Christ, but disillusioned with the judgmentalism, the simplistic answers to complex questions (or the unwillingness to even wrestle with the questions), the failure to recognize the social implications of the gospel, the spiritual narcissism and the seeming failure to take the Jesus of the gospels and the God of the minor prophets seriously - that I saw in much of conservative Christianity. I also had a yearning for worship that included the traditions of the church rather than simply the latest praise songs. All of which led me to join the United Methodist Church (which had its own set of issues, but seemed to be one of the churches that had the potential to offer a different kind of Christianity than I was experiencing). Interestingly enough, many of my professors at Oral Roberts University were wrestling with the same thing - and many had already joined mainline churches - something Oral Roberts himself did back in 1968!
What I find interesting in listening to the emergent churches is that they are attempting to develop churches that are pursuing what we've been pursuing here, theologically, for sixteen years and what our denomination has been pursuing for over 200 years - a via media or middle way which holds together the best of the evangelical gospel along with the social gospel - which tries to navigate a path that holds together reason and experience, that sees the Bible as our primary guide for faith and practice while recognizing the importance of tradition, reason and experience in interpreting the Bible. The emergent churches are trying to hold together grace and holiness, evangelism and social justice, contemporary forms of worship with ancient practices. That's not to say our worship looks like these churches - we have elements that do, but they tend to be "edgier" than our worship.
In reading Gibbs and Bolger's book I was surprised that the emergent churches seemed at times to think they were the only ones who were reclaiming the Jesus of the gospels, or reuniting the social gospel with the evangelical gospel, or wrestling with the big questions, or focusing on the kingdom of God. I tend to have conversations with the books I read and I write comments in the margins - and in this book I wrote again and again, "Mainline churches have been doing this for more than 200 years!" When I read McLaren's, A New Kind of Christian, I had to smile, because to me he was not describing a new kind of Christian, but an old kind of Christian - from my vantage point he was describing a Methodist!
One thing the emergent churches are doing is experimenting with different forms of worship. They came out of churches where there was little in the way of symbol, liturgy and sacrament (none of the churches we visited last weekend in Houston had an altar table, acolytes, cross bearers - the largest didn't even have a cross in the building). So they are very interested in these things. They also are trying completely non-traditional forms of worship, some of which I find myself bristling a bit at, and others I find quite compelling.
While I am uncertain as to whether postmodernism is a seismic shift or a mid-course correction, I am certain the Christianity that will lead the way in the next thirty years will not be the same as that which had cultural dominance in the last thirty years. I don't believe postmodernism is to be feared, nor do I believe it is without its weaknesses and limitations (as is true with modernism as well). Like modernism, there are aspects of it that are inconsistent with the gospel, and other aspects that are quite conducive to the Christian faith. Within the church world, I see the discussion regarding postmodernism having a very positive impact in leading Christians to think seriously and critically about what really is the Christian gospel, versus the modernist trappings, modes of doing ministry and theological assertions that we allowed to take root but which were never really a reflection of the message of Christ. Postmodernism may lead us to, in the words of Phillip Yancey, discover "the Jesus I never knew," or in the words of Marcus Borg, to "meet Jesus again for the first time."
Blessings!
Adam Hamilton