Immortal longings...

Shakespeare wrote: “I have immortal longings in me”. Don’t we all?

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Some final thoughts of preaching in a postmodern world

See the last three posts if you’re still catching up. Some people say ‘preaching is dead’. I often think so as well, but I still believe our post-Christian culture opens new opportunities for the ‘preacher’ today.

Postmodernity blurs the lines between everything - fact and fiction, on and offline, news and entertainment. Although there are inherent dangers to this blurring of boundaries, in many ways this cultural milieu provides the opportunity for us to preach a more holistic message. God’s story and the human story do not need to be separate. Faith and everyday life no longer need to be compartmentalized. The good news of the kingdom of God can be preached as a reality that can permeate every aspect of humanity.

Another new reality for our preaching today is the opportunity to call people to change immediately. Gone are the days where everyone requires all the empirical evidence upfront and then weighs out all the pros and cons. People today often only process information that they can apply immediately. Preaching to a postmodern world is conducive to action-oriented life transformation. Just as in the Scriptures James speaks strongly of acting on what we learn, when postmodern preaching offers people clear life applications, people have an opportunity to move towards faith, even if incrementally.

One of the most unique opportunities of our postmodern times is for preachers and followers of Jesus themselves. Being a post-Christian era, this offers us a unique time of humility, revisiting our roots and faith, re-placing our trust to where it belongs, and re-aligning ourselves back to becoming the church that Jesus had in mind when He was on the cross. As we do this, preachers have a rare opportunity to shake the culture again. Postmodern culture does not expect anything relevant to be coming out of the church. But when they are encountered by a church that is re-aligned with God and the voice of God is heard in a way that connects, it will be shockingly relevant, because that which is eternal is always relevant.

Spirituality is at an all-time high today, and religion is disdained more than ever. When we reveal to the postmodern world that Christ was very much the same way, this will immediately resonate. Though postmoderns want spiritual values without constraints, if we preach the radical values of Christ, they will form their own boundaries. Though postmoderns distrust institutions, if we preach that Christ did not come to establish a religion but a movement of followers that will change the world, the church will be seen differently. Though postmoderns stress personal fulfillment, if we preach that following Jesus brings people closer to the person they were always created to be, it can bring people to craving this deeper place of fulfillment. As Graham Johnston says, “Hope in Christ addresses the restlessness and arbitrary existence of the postmodern world”

The role of preaching in a postmodern world is just as crucial as ever. Although the challenges have changed since the modern era, the greatest needs of a human soul remain the same. Biblical and relevant preaching can transcend all of the negative stereotypes of postmodernity. Preaching is able to ask what no one dares to ask, dialog even deeper into the human heart, and proclaim a story that all are invited to participate in. Preaching is able to reveal to people what God is doing; in the life of the preacher, the world around them, and even in their own humanity. Preaching is able to integrate God with all the disconnected realities people live in today, calling them to change, while surprising them about the goodness of God. Preachers must learn to see the invisible and hear the inaudible, that the heart of the postmodern world is ‘preaching’ for us to preach Christ centered messages clearly to them.

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Transformational preaching...

Some excellent thoughts coming from the discussion in the last two posts (1 and 2) on preaching. I’m going to continue discussing preaching as valuable in postmodern contexts where we still have an audience. However, I believe this must not be reduced to the transfer of information, which it often is. If it does not lead to transformation it is a waste of all of our time. I’ve been guilty of this when I’ve spoken in the past.

Preaching through questions

I see preaching as a genre of communication of which there are many methods. It does not have to assume only the traditional role of an expert communicator pounding truth into their listeners. With postmodernity no longer subscribing to authority figures having all the right information, a more helpful form of preaching may be one where instead we “raise the right questions”. Although this may seem like a counter-intuitive way of delivering truth, if the gospel is in fact true, if we continue encouraging people to ask the right questions and seeking, the person of truth is where they will ultimately land. This process of discovery facilitates learning and more convicting answers for the postmodern audience.

A preaching dialogue?

Although the form of preaching can seem like a monologue, effective postmodern preaching cuts through the superficiality of the postmodern conversations and can actually launch a dialogue at the deepest levels. When a postmodern preacher can properly exegete the culture that it is communicating in, through the monologue one can actually draw out things that the listener dares not ask out loud. By being aware of the internal conversations of the audience, a preacher can have a very effective dialogue through the preaching monologue. This cultivates a sense of safety and understanding for the preacher. Taking this one step further, the conversation when effectively facilitated can become a trialogue where both the preacher and the listener together interact with what God maybe saying through the Scriptures, the Spirit, or even Creation itself.

Storytelling

Another form in which preaching can take shape is through storytelling. The language of the postmodern culture is image rich and desperately lacking a coherent storyline. God’s story is “an intranarrative” connecting all people can be very appealing. Although a single grand story may appear exclusive, what if we invited people to universal story that can incorporate their own story? Are there ways in the preaching moment where we can allow people to immediately begin participating jointly in the greatest developing story ever told?

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The challenge of preaching today...

I still believe in preaching, but there are its share of challenges.

Where the church has in many ways led western culture for most of the past millennia, during the past fifty years, the culture has leaped forward, lapping around the church; leaving it in the dust. Today the church is seen as the remnants of an archaic institution. The church did such a good job adapting to modern culture, with its rationalism, hierarchy, and structures that it has become irrelevant to the postmodern culture today.

In the modern preacher’s mind the surrounding culture is in complete and utter chaos. Today’s preacher often makes the tragic mistake of trying to answer questions that no one’s asking. This is a prime example of how broken the lines of communication are between the church and the culture. People no longer understand what the church is babbling, and the church has no idea how to communicate to a relative, subjective, pluralistic, and amoral society. All of these factors are no excuse for relinquish our mandate to preach the gospel.

Although it may seem like an uphill battle, in the mind of a missionary, this is a unique opportunity in history. Most of the emerging literature today attempts to expand the definition of what it means to ‘preach the gospel’, but if your gifting is to preach, then the church needs you to be the very best preacher that you can be. Preachers must take upon the mindset of missionaries in a foreign land where the culture we are engaging happens to be postmodern.

I still believe there is a place for biblical and relevant preaching in North America today and going forward… isn’t there?

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The silence in church...

I love my church, but an ear-aching silence hit me while I was sitting in the sanctuary trying to listen to the message today.

200 people sitting quietly in one moment in time. That’s an awful lot of people to not be expressing themselves.

However, I still believe in preaching. I’ll post a few thoughts on it in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: by the way this not a knock at my church, but the very act of the preaching moment to a postmodern audience in general. Our church often attempts to engage people in different ways (ie. forms of worship, response, skits, informal randomness, laughter, visuals, etc.)

As for now, does your church look anything like this?…

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The thinker...

Stellar’s a thinker and a poser just like daddy.

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Friday fix...

Here’s a thought of the week:

Could we create a church of missionaries that sends out so many people it ceases to exist?

Sweet links for the week

- The entire Passion ‘07 event is available for viewing till midnight tonight. Speakers include John Piper, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, and of course Louie Giglio.

- A very interesting and humble response from John Piper on some ‘inappropriate’ language he used during the event.

- Free pdf download of Piper’s book When the darkness will not lift.

- Audio of NT Wright speaking in Toronto for the empireremixed in ‘06

- NT Wright article on Mere Mission.

- A Canadian social networking site for mom’s. I feel a bit excluded as all the pregnancy/parenting sites seem to be geared only towards mothers.

- The Evolving Church Conference featuring Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, and Shane Claiborne will be held march 24th.

- Church for men…?

- Off-Road Disciplines book FREE for bloggers thanks djchuang

- and Sweet and sour pork flavored stamps!

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