What is the purpose of Church? Is it a religious form of entertainment? Is it a God flavored social gathering? And what is the purpose of the sermon? Is there an urgent message to be given? Or, should pastors only say comforting and “positive” things?
One author suggested that, “The church is certainly not suffering from an overabundance of forthright preachers; rather, it seems glutted with men pleasers” (see: Galatians 1:10). Many churches have substituted entertainment for bold and forthright preaching? Not surprisingly, these same churches have seen an increase in attendance? Does this, however, mean that these churches and preachers have been successful? One author questions their success: “When a sinner wanders into the church and sits through skits, mimes, interpretive dances, and the like, and yet never hears a clear, convicting message about his dangerous and tenuous spiritual situation– that he is a depraved sinner headed for an eternal fire because he is a daily offense to a holy God, how can that be called successful? You could achieve the same level of success by sending a cancer patient to receive treatment from a group of children playing doctor. A sinner must understand the imminent danger he is in if he is ever to look to the Savior.”

These words are strong and hard to accept. Labels like “narrow minded” and “religious chauvinism” are used to help people escape the possibility that such analysis might be true. Yet such concern has firm grounding in scripture. If scripture is true in its teaching about judgment and hell, there is reason for urgency and forthrightness.

In the eighteenth century, the man who was later called the prince of preachers echoed a similar concern, “I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men, and as long as people can be gathered in crowds, and their ears can be tickled, and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is content, and folds his hands, and goes back self-satisfied.”

“Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give our account at the last great day we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the judge, and if still, “Depart, ye cursed,” shall be his portion?’” (C. H. Spurgeon).

This is the popular church-growth trend today. The strategy focuses on attracting and keeping the un-churched. For what? To entertain them? To get them to attend church meetings regularly? Merely ‘churching’ the un-churched accomplishes nothing of eternal value.”

Scripture speaks with clarity and directness about sin and salvation; godliness and ungodliness; heaven and hell. You are welcome to reject such teaching or to try to make it a matter of personal interpretation, but one day you will answer to God for offering a revision of His truth. There is a great need today for pastors who refuse to compromise their call to speak the truth in love.

Steve Cornell
Senior pastor
Millersville Bible Church
58 West Frederick St.
Millersville, PA 17551
717.872.4260

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Those who desire to be effective in ministry must be aware of the cultural contexts of their ministries. They must understand the underlying ways people think and especially the way people view truth and reality. Missionaries have known this for many years. Those who minister in western cultures have fairly recently recognized some significant shifts in the way people view truth and reality. This shift has been identified as movement from a modern to a postmodern culture. Is this shift as significant as some profess it to be? If it is, what does it look like and how should we respond to it?
In his book, The Ruins of the Church: Sustaining Faith in an age of Diminished Christianity, R. R. Reno wisely recommended, “If we care about evangelism, then surely we need to get our bearings in this strange postmodern world. If we wish to preach and teach effectively, than we must be clear about where the sharp and double-edged sword of the gospel cuts into the spirit of the age. This is especially important because our churches are awash with disorienting analysis. Some are eager to convince us that our sophisticated scientific culture just cannot accept the simplistic mythological worldview of traditional Christianity. Others are certain that the new global communication makes us so aware of cultural and religious diversity that the traditional exclusivist claims of Christianity are untenable. Still others drink deeply at the well of literary theory and in an intoxicated reverie announce that old ideas of meaning and truth have been transcended. …Most however, offer a straight forward assessment: our postmodern world is so very, very, complex that the traditional forms of Christian preaching and teaching must be updated and revised.”
Admittedly, there is widespread misunderstanding and disagreement about the label ‘postmodern’. In his article, The Dangers & Delights of Postmodernism, D. A. Carson wrote, “The meaning of postmodernism is not transparent. Moreover, its range of application (it has been applied to literature, art, communication theory, architecture, epistemology, jurisprudence, the philosophy of science, and more) means that its associations for one person may be very different from its associations for someone else. (From: Modern Reformation Magazine, 2003, July / August Issue, Vol. 12.4).
In his book, The Way of the (modern) world Or, why It’s tempting to Live as if God doesn’t Exist, Craig M. Gay, observed that, “There is very little agreement as yet as to what ‘postmodernity’ means. While the term occasionally simply denotes dissatisfaction with modernity, it is increasingly used to suggest that we have entered into an entirely new cultural situation in which none of the old ‘modern’ rules and habits of mind need be taken seriously anymore. All such suggestions are mistaken and misleading. …the ideals of the modern project are still very firmly embedded in the central institutional realities of contemporary society. Although modernity may well be passé in certain intellectual circles, typically modern ideas and assumptions are still quite effectively communicated within contemporary culture by many of the institutional realities that surround us and by many of the ways we do things today. …postmodernity represents only a kind of extension of modernity, a kind of ‘hyper-modernity.’”

Along similar lines, British sociologist Anthony Giddens suggested that, “rather than entering a period of post-modernity, we are moving into one in which the consequences of modernity are becoming more radicalized and universalized than before.” Accordingly, it could be said that we are living in most-modern times instead of post-modern.
Whatever label one chooses, western culture in particular has experienced some significant changes that effect gospel ministry. For the purpose of this article, these changes will be explored in relation to modernity.

Understanding the shift:
pre-modern to modern to post-modern

1. Pre-modern: Religion is the source of truth and reality (God’s existence, attributes and revelation were givens in the culture)
2. Modern: Science is the source for truth and reality (religion and morality are moved to the subjective realm)
3. Postmodern: There is no single defining source for truth and reality beyond the individual—not even science or history.

Modernism brought relativism and individualism into the realm of religion and morality. Science (and to a degree, history) remained bastions of objectivity.
Postmodernism radicalized relativism and individualism and applied it to all spheres of knowing—even science. In relation to this shift, a mood change has settled into western culture.

A mood change: from optimism to pessimism

Postmodernity has brought with it a shift from human optimism (based on scientific certainty and technological progress), to a pessimistic mood of skepticism, uncertainty and even angst. The people who fill our Churches have been affected by this shift—especially the young people. The postmodern mood is basically one of disbelief.

Contrasting modern and postmodern

The following contrasts between modern and postmodern offer another way to consider the mood change.
Modernity was confident.
Postmodernity is anxious.
Modernity had all the answers.
Postmodernity is full of questions.
Modernity reveled in reason, science and human ability.
Postmodernity wallows (with apparent contentment or nihilistic angst) in mysticism, relativism, and the incapacity to know anything with certainty.
(Graham Johnston, “Preaching to a Postmodern World” Baker,2001)

Postmoderns on truth and reality

Postmodernity rejects individual autonomy, universal reason and absolute truth. Truth (under postmodernity) is completely perspectival and situational. History, social class, gender, culture, and religion all control the way we understand truth and reality. They shape the narratives and meanings of our lives as culturally embedded, localized social constructions without any universal application. Claims of universal meaning are viewed as efforts to marginalize and oppress the rights of others.
The most important value of postmodernity is the inadmissibility of all totalizing ways of viewing any dimension of life. Postmodernity, as a theory, refuses to allow any single defining source for truth and reality.
Kevin Vanhoozer illustrates the way postmoderns understand reality: “We do not simply look at a rose and evaluate its intrinsic beauty, fragrance and design, we consider ourselves as we look at the rose. The temptation is to think that the color of the rose is a product of our optical nerve, and its scent of our noses, so that in the end there is no rose left.” (emphasis mine) (Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: six views, ed., Myron B. Penner).

Challenge to gospel ministry

Applying this shift to gospel ministry, D. A. Carson wrote, “Initially, the removal of transcendent truth or values led to a restlessness that was seized for the gospel. Now, the restlessness is moving toward a carefree attitude. Postmoderns seem to have a striking capacity to endure groundlessness and incoherence calmly –to live as ironists with equanimity.” (From: Telling the Truth, ed., D. A. Carson).
Kevin Vanhoozer believes that many of the people we desire to reach with the gospel “reject unifying, totalizing, and universal schemes in favor of a new emphasis on difference, plurality, fragmentation and complexity. Postmoderns are suspicious of truth claims, of ‘getting it right.’” (The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology).
The ethic of pluralistic civility is the social expectation. Tolerance is required of all. Lessons on good arguments and detecting error are unnecessary. Those who promote such things are suspected of imperialistic motives aimed at oppressing the weak and less fortunate.
R. R. Reno, perceptively observed the spirit of this age when he wrote, “Anxieties about the closed circuit of dogma, the exhausting weight of tradition, and the crushing force of institutional authority lead our postmodern culture to the extreme of denying the authority of truth itself.”

Elements of absurdity in postmodernity

Although people entrenched in a postmodern outlook profess to care little about consistency, it is wise to expose the significant logical inconsistencies in postmodern theory. Consider the following:

Postmodernity is the worldview that says no worldview exists.
Postmodernity is an anti-theory that uses theoretical tools to neutralize all theories.
Postmodernity demands an imposed uniformity in an effort to resist uniformity.
Postmoderns often use propositional statements to negate truth based on propositional statements.

Discovering and exposing these kinds of logical contradiction often invites the postmodern smirk that says—“poor soul, you are so bound by modernity.” It is perhaps best to express these concerns as sincere questions. Our goal in evangelism is never to win an argument. It is always to lead a person to truth and freedom.
Effective ministry requires us to see through and gently expose the smokescreens people use to avoid truth. Many years ago, Blaise Pascal described what we observe in people today, “Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.” The gospel, however, calls us to think about these things and to turn from death to life.
.

Postmodernity: A benefit and a danger

“The introduction of postmodernity has proved of some benefit to Christian faith. The Enlightenment sought to relegate matters of faith to the rear of the bus as either insignificant or nonexistent. Postmodernity returns value to faith and affirms the nurturing of our spiritual being as vital to humankind. Unfortunately, with the loss of truth, people will now seek faith without boundaries, categories, or definition. The old parameters of belief do not exist. As a result, people will be increasingly open to knowing God, but on their own terms.” (Preaching to a Postmodern World,” Graham Johnston).
“The willing conformity that characterizes so much postmodern life can give the evangelist hope that the prideful self-sufficiency of modernity has finally exhausted itself. These are, however, deceptions made possible by a fixation on pride as the primary barrier to faith. Sloth and cowardice in reality are just as deadly. Both slink away from the urgency of conviction. Both fear the sharp edge of demand and expectation. Both have a vested interest in cynicism, irony and outward conformity. These vices, not pride, now dominate our culture.” (R. R. Reno).

Conclusion

Understanding the shift to postmodernity will become increasingly important for those called to minister in Western culture. In changing times, we must be willing to make changes in the way we do evangelism and ministry. But we must never make concessions to postmodernity that compromise the integrity of the gospel or diminish Scripture as the authoritative, univocal divine revelation for humanity. Any moderation of the demands of the gospel to accommodate the postmodern spirit will drain it of the power of God unto salvation. If the gospel is held hostage to the restrictions of postmodernity, it ceases to be the good news that humans so desperately need.

Eight truths for postmodern times

1. We are all sinners who receive the penalty of death (Romans 3:10, 23; 5:12)
2. God has demonstrated His love for all (John 3:16;Romans 5:8).
3. God desires salvation for all (I Timothy 2:3-4;II Peter 3:9).
4. God has made provision for salvation (I Timothy 2:5-6;4:9-10; Titus 2:11; I John 2:2).
5. God commands all people to repent (Acts 17:30).
6. God will hold all accountable for their response to His provision (Romans 2:4-11;14:11;Acts 17:31).
7. God takes no pleasure in the rejection of His provision (Ezekiel 18:23,32).
8. God will save all who place faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16;11:26; Romans 10:13).

Steven W. Cornell
Senior pastor
Millersville Bible Church
Millersville, Pa 17551
717-872-4260
http://www.millersvillebiblechurch.org

The purpose of this article is to critique a relatively new wave of Christian identity known as the Emergent Church. It is a rapidly growing network of individual believers and Churches who would prefer to be understood as a conversation or a friendship rather than an organization. Yet due to the overwhelming interest in Emergent, those who have joined the conversation have found it necessary to organize and designate leaders on the national and international levels. Other titles associated with Emergent include: post-evangelical, post-conservative, post-fundamentalists, post-foundationalists, post-propositionalist, and younger evangelicals. http://www.emergentvillage.com is a primary web site for emergent.

Emergent Church leaders

The late Stanley Grenz has been recognized as the professor of post-conservatism. Roger Olson and Robert Webber have been branded the publicists of post-conservatism. Tony Jones is the U.S. National Coordinator for Emergent and Brian McLaren is arguably the most popular name associated with the work of emergent. Other names include: Leonard Sweet, Erwin McManus, Spencer Burke, Edmund Burke, John Franke, Rob Bell, Mike Yaconelli, Chris Seay, Carol Childress, and Dave Travis.

Critical assessment of Emergent

Before offering critical assessment of Emergent, it is wise to remember that such analysis should never be approached lightly. We are all one body. “We have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).

Yet our spiritual unity does not preclude our responsibility to critique new movements within the body of Christ. New waves of teaching and identity must be evaluated by the faith that was- once for all — delivered to God’s people. The New Testament warns about the danger of being easily enamored with novel ideas. When believers are not firmly grounded in biblical truth, they vacillate like susceptible children who constantly change their minds about what they believe because someone has told them something different.

Emerging in reaction

Emergent, like most new expressions within the Church, is partly a reaction to existing identities in the body of Christ. Some of the most influential leaders in Emergent have emerged from conservative and fundamentalist approaches to Christianity. It is apparent from their writings that these leaders feel betrayed by their upbringing. They reject the simplistic, biased and judgmental way they were taught to look at people in the world –many of whom seem more pleasant, humble and nice than the people from their fundamentalist Churches. Reacting to this background, they are determined to transcend the separatist spirit of Christians who seem to have nothing more important to do than to defend how right they are and how wrong everyone else is. With a chastened spirit of repentance, they reach out with open arms of tolerance and acceptance to those they were warned to separate from.

The Emergent offer

Emergent offers what they believe to be a more generous orthodoxy. They believe the Church should be a welcoming and authentic community of creativity and learning—a place where people with different views are treated with the utmost respect and dignity (rather than being looked down on). They offer an eclectic use of traditions in worship—candle lighting, prayer stations, liturgy, symbols, meditation, sermons, songs and conversations. They desire to move beyond a creed-based identity to a spirituality-based identity. They recommend embracing and celebrating the mystery of the world, life and God rather than conquering it. They prefer theology as a quest for the beauty and truth of God rather than a search for propositional statements, proof texts and doctrinal formulations —-used to measure those who are in and judge those who are out. Committed to what they call a missional focus, they see the world as something to reach out to not something to hide from and arrogantly renounce.

The Emergent overreaction

Those who share a common conservative background (especially younger leaders) will be drawn to the concerns raised by Emergent. Conservative and fundamental Church leaders have been guilty of reactionary extremes. Yet, as is almost always the case, reactions to reactions swing the proverbial pendulum to opposite extremes. Sadly, in the case of emergent, the desire to be perceived as accepting and non-condemning is being taken too far. In their effort to avoid being misunderstood by nonbelievers, they soft-pedal around the exclusivity of salvation through Christ alone. They are evasive on teaching about eternal punishment. They blur Scriptural condemnation of homosexual behavior. In the end, one is left to question the extent to which they embrace Scripture as the authoritative, univocal divine revelation for humanity.

Emergent’s limited generosity

The welcoming spirit of emergent is commendable but it is generously extended to everyone except conservative Christians. The best example of this is found in Brian McLaren’s, “A Generous Orthodoxy.” Mimicking the spirit of the culture, McLaren offers everyone (except conservative Christians) large doses of tolerance. Parroting the academic community, those considered liberal or on the left receive the most generosity from McLaren. This is significant because emergent is built on the assumption that evangelicals (of both the conservative and pragmatic stripe) have made far too many concessions to modern culture. It is often the case that the things we condemn in others we are guilty of in other areas. Evidently, McLaren doesn’t recognize how cynical, sarcastic, and condescending he sounds toward those he deems old fashion, non-emergent Christian modernists.

The Emergent overstatement

Emergent leaders emphasize a need for radical reform in the Church based on an understanding of postmodern culture. They operate on “the assumption that postmodernism has effected such a gigantic and irreversible shift in people’s thought patterns that the Church is faced with a fundamental choice: adapt so as to respond better to postmodernism, or be relegated to irrelevance” (D.A. Carson, “Becoming Conversant with Emergent”).

In this area of emphasis, emergent leaders should be cautioned against the kind of overstatement they deplore in other twigs of evangelical identity. First, the nature of the shift from modern to postmodern is highly debatable (see: D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church). Is post-modern actually most-modern? Perhaps we should really be talking about what Paul Vitz identifies as a Trans-modernism culture.

Secondly, while it is true that many spiritual leaders do not adequately understand the cultural changes that have occurred over the last several decades, many others have faithfully and effectively addressed those changes before Emergent ever emerged. I fear that Emergent, in an effort to emphasize the urgency of their mission has inadvertently disrespected the outstanding work of many leaders and ministries in this area of concern (see examples below).

Emergent and postmodernity

A more troubling possibility is that Emergent leaders are not really interested in thoughtful biblical critique of postmodernity. Is it the Emergent enterprise to seek a better understanding of the shift to postmodernity and address it as a communicational challenge for the gospel? Or, have the Emergent leaders embraced the values of postmodernity because they actually consider them superior?

The most important value of postmodernity is the inadmissibility of all totalizing ways of viewing any dimension of life. Postmodernity, as a theory, refuses to allow any single defining source for truth and reality beyond the individual. The gospel clearly contradicts this value. While Emergent leaders raise legitimate concerns about adding too much to the gospel, they also must be careful not to reshape the gospel to accommodate this primary value of postmodernity. If the gospel is held hostage to the restrictions of postmodernity, it ceases to be good news. For further analysis, see: Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church, D. A. Carson, Zondervan, 2005.

Suggested reading:

The Gagging of God: Christianity confronts pluralism, D. A. Carson, Zondervan, 1996.

Postmodernizing the Faith: Evangelical Responses to the Challenge of postmodernism, Millard Erickson, Baker, 1998

Truth Decay: Defending Christianity against the Challenges of Postmodernism, Douglas Grouthuis, IVP, 2000

Truth or Consequences: The promise and perils of postmodernism, Millard Erickson, IVP, 2001

Preaching to a Postmodern World, Graham Johnston, Baker,2001

Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern times, ed. Millard Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth, Justin Taylor Crossway, 2004

Steven W. Cornell

Senior pastor

Millersville Bible Church

58 West Frederick Street

Millersville PA. 17551

717-872-4260

s.cornell@millersvillebiblechurch.org

the difficult challenge you state is to actually live out the faith and the gospel on which it stands. we are so me driven in the church that it has become all about us (how we feel what we like and don’t like) and not what jesus is doing and calling us to join him in.

I think too many mainstream Christians are a bit “herd like.” I think they run from issue to issue or fad to fad never considering what is important to God like the poor and the indigent, never thinking globally

I could point out the WWJD braclet fad, protesting against this movie or that movie, the Prayer of Jabez book, Purpose Driven Life, and most recently Passion of the Christ.

Don’t get me wrong. Each of these things in and of their own right are not bad. However, I believe that in a herd like mentality too many mainstream Christians use these fads, as I call them, to sooth their souls when their souls should be broken because of the state of our world, the state of our community.

Cornell West says, “We have taken the blood of Christ which pooled at the foot of the cross and turned it into Kool-Aid that can be marketed around the world.”

For example, it is easy to back Bush. He speaks all of the right Christian rhetoric…God Bless America, Pray for me, same sex marriage, and stop abortion. But how do his policies play out to the every day family? How do they affect the poor in America? How do they affect the single mom, the largest growing family structure in America? How do they affect the world?

Christians in North America need to get out of the mental comfort zones and begin to wrestle with important issues and not take a mindless stance. If mainstream Christianity does not get out of its comfort zone it will be forced out!

I really like Sine�s article for the way he steps outside the conservative/liberal box, especially where he writes about a �consistent pro-life ethic�. He is right that conservatives (especially religious conservatives) oversimplify this issue to just include abortion � perhaps because it�s an easy thing to be against (for them).

I see an analog in how religious conservatives address homosexuality: the world is ending if we as a society recognize homosexual relationships. This, without taking into account Jesus� teaching on all sexual sins. As a lifelong churchgoer, I can�t ever recall a sermon on heterosexual lust. Or divorce or adultery. It seems �easy� for the �evangelicals� to be against homosexuality � much harder to be against sexual sins that are bigger and more prevalent in our churches (and personal lives).

I have found myself frustrated with the hypocrisy on these issues (both with the corporate church and myself personally) � being a �single-issue� entity, one that ignores many other problems just as worthy and just as big. When Sine says that for many, it has become �unthinkable� to vote for a democrat in mainline Christianity, I believe he is right, especially based on recent conversations I�ve had about my changes in thinking (you can imagine the raised eyebrows

I like Steve�s comment about being afraid to talk about these issues even with brothers and sisters in Christ. The polarization is so severe, that discussion of essential issues in a Christian context seems almost impossible at times. Sine�s call to transcend that polarization is one we should all heed in ways global and local.