Charting the Course in Dangerous Seas: Churches in the Cross Currents

The cross currents of modernity and postmodernity have forced many a church vessel off course, and some have become shipwreck like the individual lives of Hymenaus and Alexander (I Tim. 1:20). Some church leaders do not understand why so much change and chaos is happening in their church, their members' families, and their communities. Because contemporary western societies are so fluid and dynamic Christian leaders must repeatedly navigate the vessel of the church in uncharted waters. Using Marx's phrase, "melting of all solids,” Zygmunt Bauman's seminal work, Liquid Modernity, describes western society as not having totally thrown off modernity for postmodernity, but he maintains that society flows like liquid in and out of the two paradigms. Bauman describes our situation with the term "liquid modernity." His book describes contemporary society as struggling with the themes of emancipation (freedom), individualism, community, time, space, and commodification. Modernity and postmodernity are difficult terms to describe. Some thinkers define the terms as feelings, moods, perspectives, or philosophical paradigms of thinking. They have affected politics, art, theology, social relationships, clothing, music, economics and almost every area of European and American lifestyle. When I think of modernity I think of Batman, the consummate human blend of intelligence and athleticism, who utilizes high tech gadgetry in a modernized city full of skyscrapers. He may appear as a highly cultured and respected billionaire in his fine suit and tie or as the daring pale white crime fighter racing in his Batmobile to defeat the next criminal. Modernity embraces the values of institutions, programs, systems, orderly protocol, science, and high culture as containing the right answers or showing the way to a better life. When I think of postmodernity, I envision a bearded hipster artist with piercings and minimalist, torn clothing protesting a big institution's abuse of power and privilege. Postmodernity embraces the values of community, simplicity, nature, raw transparency, and multiculturalism. Describing the two terms in a child's perspective, modernity's cartoon characters approximated real, lifelike animals and people while postmodernity cartoons are two dimensional, flat, and absurdly proportioned. Yes, this description of the two terms is limited, but if you want to know more read a philosophy book or find a good video online.

Bauman's perspective helps us understand why the younger generation loves smartphone technology and minimalist styles, but despises modernity's institutionalized church, highbrow music and culture, and hierarchies. The older Baby Boomers are slow to engage in the latest computer technology and apps, but wallow in the once praised models of beauty, titles, institutions, and bureaucratic programs. Each generation picks and chooses different elements from modernity and postmodernity. Bauman's term "liquid modernity" helps us understand why the bankers, business executives, politicians, and some Christians still wear suits and professional attire while computer geeks, hipster artists, and other Christians will wear whatever crosses their screens that given season. The clash of the two worlds of postmodernity and modernity helps us see why in some spheres of Western society rules and complex protocol are abundant while in other areas of life a Wild West anarchy prevails. We may have too many rules or not any at all. The permanent print of the Gutenberg world clashes with the spontaneous and ever-changing digital Google reality. The lines have been blurred between reality and fantasy, between a practical realism and an idealistic imagination. Such is the case in the so-called reality television shows. We used to know when we were in fantasy and reality, but now we are lost at sea as the waves crash from both sides. Some thinkers say we must return to the old debates between Plato and his young disciple Aristotle, ideas vs material reality, but that is another topic.

Bauman claims that people and institutions must become light and nimble, or they will drown trying to hold on to everything that they can access. Such is the plight of older generations holding on to every electronic product ever produced since the 1970s. You just cannot hold on to everything from modernity. Bauman also warns that societies must hold on to some anchor to steady life in the rushing waters. While I certainly do not subscribe to any neo-Marxist political stance that Bauman may hold, as a secular sociologist he has made some very astute observations for Christian leaders to consider. Christianity has solid truth to offer those disappointed in the solids of modernity and the fluidity of postmodernity. For some years Christian thinkers have warned about the dangers of postmodernity. At the same time, we should beware of the dangers of an arrogant and outdated modernity. Attempting to bring balance to the two worlds, D.A. Carson recommends a "chastened modernism and a 'soft' postmodernism" (Christ and Culture Revisited, 89). Holding on to everything from modernity can be like hanging on to that old 200 lb. television set with its fuzzy resolution and incompatibility to current digital technology. We hate to get rid of it because we spent so much money on it in the late 1990s. It's too hard to move out of the house because it is so heavy, and we are reluctant to pay someone to take it away.

A local church can be in the same plight as the leaders struggle with what programs, structure, music, and customs to use. Church leaders must hold on to something solid while letting unecessary things go. Some churches make the mistake of casting off their core doctrines and biblical morality as if they were just throwing out old Sunday school curriculum. Others refuse to change anything in their church, and therefore the visitor or newcomer feels like he is stepping back into a previous decade, century, or even another country. The church visitor may suffer from a cultural shock and wonders if following Jesus here requires his adaptation to a totally new culture.

From the Enlightenment and Age of Reason to recent times, thinkers and movers of western society attempted to guide and mold society into their preferred structures, institutions, and systems. Marxism and fascism attempted to produce totalitarian societies to create utopias in Europe, South America, and Asia. American capitalism clothed with Christian values attempted to project a commercialized dream and secure way of life, which is now unreachable for many among the younger generations. Denominations used to argue about which one had the best and most biblical form of church. Perhaps in the past we argued too much about lesser things, and now our churches are all just trying to survive. Our compass of truth cannot point to true North, and so we have coined new terms like post-truth and alternate facts. Modernity took humanity to the heights of industrial accomplishment and scientific knowledge, but the paradigm's bent toward arrogance, racism, disrespect for nature, and doubt in the supernatural brought humanity to the brink of destruction in the World Wars. Unfortunately, many churches and denominations embraced the same errors. Postmodern thinkers led societies to doubt the very nature of truth, and their beliefs are destroying societies by redefining morality, the nature of humanity, and the meaning of family and sexuality. Describing the emancipation of postmodernism, former Czech president and writer Václav Havel warned, "We live in a postmodern world where everything is possible, and nothing is certain." Extreme postmodern voices claimed that truth is relative to community and cultural upbringing. Without truth there is no meaning. Where meaning is lacking so is purpose.

On a positive note, postmodernism has helped western society and Christianity to once again respect nature and ethnic diversity as well as restore the possibilities of supernatural reality. Delving into quantum physics, some secular thinkers are postulating a simulation theory of the universe in which some higher being, perhaps God, simulates and regulates the universe according to a higher plan. In the new branch of science called biomimetics, researchers seek to imitate and utilize nature's design in technology under the assumption that something or someone bigger and smarter than humanity "designed" the world. Without sounding irreverent, postmodernism makes all things possible. Western Christians who have a philosophical bent toward excessive individualism have rediscovered the necessity of community in spiritual growth and understanding Scripture. While truth has been called into question by society at large, Christians now have a platform to prove the superiority of their Savior by living out truth and sharing their experiences of the supernatural Christ with a world which doubts everything. By telling their personal stories of their relationship with Christ, Christians now possess a unique advantage that was not present two decades ago. Christians can now evangelize by telling their own raw and simple testimony without resorting to a prescribed sales pitch with three or four well developed points.

In North America we must realize that we are a mission field with a unique confluence of many cultures and ideas. In some newer communities, churches are certainly thriving, while in many other areas churches are plateauing and declining for various reasons. Too often local church successes arise not primarily from conversion growth but from a geographical redistribution of the mobile masses of existing believers who moved into a new community for a job relocation or educational opportunity. In the 1980s and 1990s Christian leaders started to speak about the best models and patterns to follow for church and ministry, but in the confluence of the currents of liquid modernity, globalization, local ethnic shifts, and employment instability, we are reticent to proclaim a model shoe that fits every foot. Two or three decades ago, American churches only had to struggle with receiving new members or a new pastor from a different region with a regional accent, however, now we must learn to minister with people of different races, languages, worldviews, and philosophical perspectives. Adding to the cultural mix, some immigrants come from countries which have three paradigms of inhabitants: pre-modern (ancient and so-called primitive, tribal societies, now called "indigenous peoples"), modern, and postmodern. I can remember attending a Christian college in the early 1980s with a classmate who converted from an African tribe. The fellow still had tribal markings scarred on his face but wore the typical American business attire with white dress shirt and tie. Now I wonder if postmodernity has led him to a third style and perspective. Understanding how culture and Christianity influence each other is indeed much more complicated than in the previous generation.

Neither modernity nor postmodernity provide a fail proof sail for guiding the church on the right course. The fluidity between modernity and postmodernity explains why Millennials and Baby Boomers just do not understand each other in the workplace or in church. Paradigmatic fluidity explains why such concepts as cell church, organic church, multi-site, and simple church have arisen in our time. Nobody can claim that any of these "models" are right for every church but borrowing the best ideas from specific models might increase our chances for better sailing. Every pastor and lay leader must figure out the best technique for his own ship and course. Imitating a megachurch model or some specific branding will most likely cause shipwreck for the smaller church in another context of ministry. Also, importing a supposedly successful American church's patterns and style overseas often makes unnecessary rigging for the indigenous vessel designed for a different climate. The worship forms, leadership styles, and organizational principles of modernity do not work for churches comprised of people from a postmodern and pre-modern cultural bent. On the one hand, church leaders must be ready to try new techniques and jettison the weighty cargo of old programs and approaches so they can take on new passengers. On the other hand, leaders and laity must hold on to their relationship with Christ who is their only secure anchor. They must not battle with each other while sailing on the same vessel, but they must work together as they depend on their Anchor who gives hope and security (Hebrews 6:9).