DAWN European Network

Postmodernism

To communicate to our generation, the Church needs to understand postmodern thinking, learn to express biblical truth in new terms and find structures that appeal to postmodern way of life. Here are some helpful articles on Postmodernism (in pdf. format)

What Exactly Is Postmodernism by Andy Crouch
The Gospel and Postmodernism by Ross Rhode
Practical Considerations for Postmodern Sensitive Churches by Ross Rhode
Das Evangelium und die Postmoderne (German) by Reinhold Scharnowski (.zip)

Andrew Jones`blogspot (many links to articles, ministries and friends)

Read an excerpt from the book "Postmodern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century World" by Leonard Sweet.

In a nutshell, Sweet says that the world is changing dramatically and the church is largely clueless about the change.
"The institutional church in the next twenty years will continue more and more to look like the pink Cadillac with the huge tail fins." (p. 2)
"...the church's leaders have Alzheimer's disease. We still love them. We remember and pass on their stories. But they're living in another world. They're totally clueless about the world that is actually out there. The problem is that they are captaining the ship." (p. 29)

The change (from modernism to postmodernism) can be summed up by the four letters E-P-I-C. Experiential - Participatory - Image-driven - Connected. Sweet is not saying that this change is necessarily good or bad - just that it's the way things are moving. Here's a summary:

From Rational to Experiential. Modernism emphasizes reason and observation. Postmodernism emphasizes revelation and experience. "In postmodern culture, there is no interest in a 'secondhand' God, a God that someone else (church tradition, church professionals, church bureaucracies) defines for us. Each one of us is a Jacob become Israel: a wrestler with God. The encounter, the experience is the message." (p. 43)
From Representative to Participatory. Modernism says, "We need our leaders to make decisions for us." Postmodernism says, "We want to make our own decisions and to have multiple choices." "There are no more 'professional clergy' and pew-sitting laity...Postmoderns want interactive, immersive, 'in your face' participation in the mysteries of God." (p. 72)
From Word-based to Image-driven. Modernism emphasizes words and propositional truth. Postmodernism emphasizes images and the power of metaphor. "The lesson for the church is simple: images generate emotions, and people will respond to their feelings...The greatest image in the world, the image to which we draw people into a relationship, is the image of God in Jesus the Christ." (p. 86.87)
From Individual to Individual-Communal. Modernism emphasizes the individual. Postmodernism emphasizes the individual in community. "The paradox is this: the pursuit of individualism has led us to this place of hunger for connectedness... The transiency of the culture requires that our community building and hospitality be more aggressive, not less; more premeditated, not haphazard." (p. 109, 117) So, what must the church do to minister to this increasingly postmodern culture around us? Sweet suggests "that ministry in the twenty-first century has more in common with the first century than with the modern world that is collapsing all around us." (p. xvii) (summary provided by John White, Denver)