Stuart Murray

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Churches for a postmodern culture

So, bearing in mind the need for caution in identifying our society as postmodern and the need for diverse strategies in a plural society, what features might characterise churches that are able to engage effectively in mission within a postmodern culture?

(1) Doubts and Dialogue

They will be communities where faith can be sought and doubts can be expressed without fear of censure, where people are encouraged to explore their uncertainties rather than towing a party line. Churches in a postmodern context will welcome those who do not yet believe to participate in many aspects of the life of the community. The traditional believers church order of "believing before belonging" may be reversed in a context where a degree of belonging may be essential if the story is to be believed. Now let’s be clear: churches where people have a sense of belonging before they believe correctly or have learned to "behave" in the right ways can be messy! But they are well worth the mess.

The issue of boundaries may also need to be addressed: churches will define themselves by their core values rather than their boundaries. They will also create space for their own members to think, question, debate, wrestle with issues, and disagree without needing to disengage. They will value opportunities to explore different views, will learn to listen to other perspectives, and will not be threatened if they cannot identify "the" answer to every question. This is not because these churches believe nothing, but because they are not afraid to subject their beliefs to scrutiny. Their core convictions are the basis for this free and generous spirit.

Such churches will make more use of dialogue than monologue. They will recognise that the lecture format represented by the traditional evangelistic address or teaching sermon is culturally rather than biblically determined, and a very ineffective tool in a postmodern culture.⁴ Authoritative pronouncements from experts who do not allow opportunity for feedback or challenge are not conducive to sharing faith with those who are not Christians or to stimulating growth in understanding within the Christian community. They were of limited value in modern or pre-modern cultures, but in a postmodern culture they can no longer be tolerated. Drawing on examples from the early church, which used dialogue extensively,⁵ and recalling the methodology of Jesus, churches in a postmodern culture will rediscover this neglected mode of evangelism and of learning together.

(2) Spirituality

Churches in a postmodern context will embrace enthusiastically the renewed interest in spirituality evident in contemporary culture and accept the challenge presented by the fact that many who are more open to a spiritual dimension are not turning to the churches. They will welcome this openness as confirmation of the inability of modernity to satisfy this dimension of the human psyche and see it as an opportunity to review their own spiritual ethos. Moralistic churches with unimaginative worship will not be attractive. In a period when the surrounding culture is becoming more spiritually aware, the spirituality of the churches is of crucial importance. The most common complaint about church among British young people today is that the church is not spiritual enough (compared to the complaint in the past that it was boring).

Such churches will recognise also that "post-modern people are more likely to come to faith in Christ through spiritual experience which leads to understanding of doctrine than through prior intellectual assent."⁶ Recent research in Britain confirms this: most new converts defined their faith in terms of an encounter with God rather than in terms of theological beliefs.⁷ This does not mean that doctrine is unimportant, but it does mean that the intellect is not the necessary starting point for faith and that propositional approaches to evangelism may make little impact. The evangelistic methodology and forms of apologetics that were effective in a modernist culture may need to be jettisoned or substantially adapted for a postmodern culture.

Those who pray or who have had spiritual experiences, however little these seem to be connected to Christian faith, can be encouraged and nurtured in their quest for spiritual reality and helped towards a relationship with God. It will not be helpful to dismiss their experiences, interpret these negatively, or confront them with doctrines to believe. Doctrinal foundations are crucial, but they need not be accorded temporal priority. Spirituality may be the bridge over which doctrinal truth can be carried. One classical evangelist in Australia now begins faith-sharing conversations by asking, "Have you ever had a spiritual experience?" He says that in five years he has not encountered one person who has answered no. John Finney compares this approach to Paul introducing the Athenians to their Unknown God and advises: "Christians should be more prepared to explain the spiritual life they have already begun to enjoy than to seek to persuade others of doctrinal truth."⁸

(3) Story

Another means of communicating truth is through the use of story. The art of storytelling has been damaged by modern media, although there are some signs of its recovery in a postmodern culture. Narrative theology has become increasingly popular in recent years, and it would be good to see this accompanied by the use of storytelling in evangelism and teaching within the churches. This may involve the encouragement of learning through testimony, reflecting together theologically on the experiences of individuals and communities. It may mean a fresh encounter with the teaching methods of Jesus, whose parables, questions, humour, and stories offer rich resources for churches to draw on. As with dialogue, the use of stories is not just contextually appropriate but thoroughly biblical. Adapting to postmodernity does not mean becoming less biblical but recovering neglected biblical practices.

If the use of story fits well within a postmodern culture, the claim that individual stories relate to a bigger story, a story that spans space and time and connects with an eternal story, presents a clear challenge to this culture. Postmodernism rejects this "big story" and any attempt to develop a "metanarrative," a foundational explanation of truth and purpose in the universe. At this point, Christianity stands squarely against postmodernism, insisting that there is a big story, that God has revealed himself in history as well as through individual mystical experiences, that history is not cyclical but moving towards a climax, that there is a cosmic and eternal dimension to the human story, and that Jesus Christ is the focus and interpreter of this story. In their evangelism, churches in a postmodern context invite others to participate with them in a story, to contribute their own story to the many other stories that together comprise the big story.

And it is the story of Jesus, rather than doctrinal beliefs about Jesus, that may prove to be our most potent evangelistic resource. Post-Christendom is sick of institutional Christianity. Postmodernity is not interested in doctrinal statements or abstract ideas. But the story of Jesus retains the power to capture the imagination and change minds and hearts. Walter Wink suggests: "In the spiritual renaissance that I believe is coming to birth, it will not be the message of Paul that this time galvanizes hearts, as in the Reformation and the Wesleyan revival, but the human figure of Jesus."⁹ It may be that the teaching, relationships, values, and character of the Jesus of the Gospels form the crucial points of contact with contemporary culture.

Are we training our people to be storytellers: their own story and God’s story, the story of Jesus?

(4) Community

This story is the story of community. The Trinity, God in community, reaches out in creation and in redemption to form a human community to participate in the divine community. Missionary congregations invite people not just to make individual faith commitments, but to become participants in communities of faith. Church planting is about establishing new communities of faith. In a postmodern context churches will need to give careful attention to this issue of community. There is much about this context which tends towards fragmentation, disharmony, independence, and multiple superficial relationships. Should churches accept this and adapt their expectations or offer a distinctive alternative? On the other hand, there has also been a proliferation of small groups and networks, evidence of the unchanging human need for community.

Churches will recognise that developing and sustaining community is not easy but vital, both for mission and for nurture. In a society where time pressures on working people are substantial, where individual freedom is highly valued, where leisure pursuits occupy more time, and where long-term and regular commitment to organisations is unpopular, creativity and sensitivity will be needed. Churches which do not recognise the altered dynamics of social interaction, and which attempt to perpetuate community models that suited a previous era, will fail to engage with this new context.

Community will not be achieved by the proliferation of church meetings but by their reduction. We must move away from "fellowship," defined as merely being at the same meeting together, to a focus on "friendship." It will require diverse shapes and rhythms. It will involve interaction at many levels and for various purposes. And it will function best if set in a mission context, so that community life is open and outward looking.

Churches will need to be creative and patient to achieve this kind of community life. But those which discover authentic community will be well equipped to nurture their own members in a culture where corporate faithfulness rather than individual heroism is needed. They may also be able to respond to the need for lasting friendships in a society where relationships are often as "throw-away" as most commodities.

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4. In To Preach or Not to Preach (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1996), David C. Norrington surveys the history of monologue sermons and identifies them as a creation of Christendom.

5. For example, Acts 9:27-29; 17:2-4, 17; 18:4, 19, 28; 19:8-9; 24:25; 28:23-24.

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