Understanding Postmodern North American Culture and Ways for Our Denominations to Discover Our Unique Evangelization Role as Anabaptists

Paul Mundey

Senior Pastor, Frederick, Maryland, Church of the Brethren

A few years back, a Canadian friend told of riding a New York subway. Sitting there, his shirt was open, displaying a tasteful but obvious cross. Striking up conversation with a seat mate, he bantered back and forth about varied things. Suddenly, the man pointed at my friend's chest. "What's that," he asked. "What's that?"

At first my friend assumed a piece of breakfast food or stain was all too evident. Eventually, he realized the man's true intent—he was pointing at the cross. Responding, my friend noted, "Why, this is a cross!"

The man's response was striking. "Well," he asked, "what's a cross?"

Friends, we live now in a strange land, a postmodern land, a land where symbols past no longer translate into symbols of meaning for many. As Anabaptists, how do we traverse such territory? How do we travel such land with both understanding and appropriate response?

In seeking to understand postmodern culture, we note three realities.

Postmodern culture envelopes, even enjoys, ambiguity and confusion. As David Harvey has noted, the startling fact of postmodern culture is "its total acceptance of . . . fragmentation, discontinuity and the chaotic. . . . Postmodernism . . . does not try to transcend it, contradict it, or even to define the . . . elements that might lie within it. Postmodernism swims, even wallows, in the fragmentary and chaotic currents of change as if that is all there is" (David Harvey, The Condition of Post-Modernity: An Enquiry into the Origin of Cultural Change. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1984, p. 44; emphasis added).

2.  It Disregards Moral Purposes

Because chaos is embraced, moral purpose or fiber is irrelevant. Life requires no egalitarian aim, only satisfaction and enjoyment for self. Robert Bellah and company best express this trend in their classic, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985). Quizzing one research subject on worldview, Bellah discovered this declaration: "Why, I adhere to Shelia-ism," the worship and quest for self, in this case, a self named Shelia.

When Habits of the Heart was penned, this trend was tucked into occasional corners of society. It now appears everywhere. Recent polls related to Bill Clinton's woes are revealing in this respect: 65% of persons polled by CNN/USA Today affirmed the importance of moral leadership, indicating it is "very important." And 62% also indicated that, in their opinion, President Clinton is indeed lying about recent allegations. Yet 66% go on to give him the highest approval rating of his presidency.

What does this mean? Frankly, we have yet to untangle this trend. This much, however, is clear: persons resist any notion of objective, fixed morality. Moral baselines or plumb lines are not only politically incorrect but are offensive. Thus, don't suggest moral vision or definition. "Leave me alone," society declares, respecting privacy along with freedom of choice.

In spite of disregard for order and moral purpose, postmodern culture, nevertheless, dabbles with spiritual content. Currently, there are over 23,000 "religious" sites on the Internet unrelated to any traditional expression of world religion. In other words, there are over 23,000 sites connected to unconventional religious expression such as the New Age Movement or varied forms of cultic activity.

At one time such phenomena was relegated to life's sidelines. Now, unconventional religious expression is splashed across mainstream media. Perhaps the most startling example was the appearance of James Van Prague on CNN's "Larry King Live." Van Prague, a professional medium, appeared not once, but twice, within the last four months. Persons from across North America (and the world, for that matter) phoned into the program, consulting with Van Prague and communicating with the dead.

Though postmodern folk often balk at conventional religious practice, they often dabble in more tantalizing, albeit risky, forms of spiritual expression.

Given such trends, how do we, as Anabaptist people, respond?

We can debate some realities but not this reality: North America is no longer a "churched culture" but an "unchurched culture." Persons no longer assume fulfillment is found within traditional religious boundaries. Indeed, fulfillment is found beyond the boundaries, "coloring outside the lines."

The bottom line is that the world no longer seeks the church; the church must seek the world. Mission is no longer "over there" alone; it is also "over here" in familiar and immediate neighborhoods. Such thinking translates into a new sort of church—a missionary church or congregation. By missionary congregation, I mean a congregations engaging secular need "up close and personal." Such parishes favor ministry teams over committee meetings; local vision over denominational conformity; and "saving souls" over institutional preservation.

In the words of Keith Miller, such churches are "outposts for the kingdom," assigned to a strange, alien, but needy land.

For some time now, we have heard much about the "three Bs": Builders, Boomers, and Busters. Suffice it to say, sensitivity must be shown to each generational group as new outreach strategies are formed.

But special sensitivity is needed toward Busters. Baby Busters are those twenty-something folk, born between 1965 and 1983. Bill Easum identifies them as the first postmodern generation, marked by cynicism and radical distrust. And for good reason: Busters have encountered a world marked by fragmentation and disarray. Whereas Baby Boomers saw Apollo go to the moon, Baby Busters saw the space shuttle Challenger blow-up in mid-air.

To reach Busters, we must "get real" with them, acknowledging the fragmentation of our age.

The last thing a Buster, or any other postmodern person, desires is a simplistic response. Recently I encountered a woman who grew up in a conservative Anabaptist home. In her case, the home discouraged free exchange about life's realities, allowing only religious cliches. In raising her children, the woman attempted to employ similar platitudes, especially as her son developed a drug addiction. As I struggled to help her a few weeks back, she confessed, "Paul, the cliches don't work anymore."

Frankly, I don't think this woman is alone. The cliches don't work for many of us anymore, especially those "outside the fold." Our calling, then, is to translate the gospel into "bottom-line reality." We must lay aside platitudes and amplify how Jesus actually changes human life.

You see, Christ did not come to bring cliches but life-change, in and through himself. Our task, then, is not to inform persons about religious truth nor to conform persons to religious institutions. Rather, our task is to transform persons toward religious meaning rooted in Jesus.

In this regard, we lift high the truth of Jesus Christ. Yes, we acknowledge confusion and, yes, we acknowledge chaos; but we also acknowledge clarity, emerging in due time through Jesus Christ.

John's gospel speaks eloquently of Christ's role in postmodern witness. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . Through Him all things were made . . . [and, indeed, all things hold together. In fact . . .] In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. . . . Yet to all who received him, to those who believed . . ., he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:1-5; 12; emphasis added).

During the French Revolution, many were crammed into prisons—dark, damp, dismal places. In one cell, morale was especially low as prisoners struggled with limited space and deep darkness. Once a day, however, hope beckoned as light streamed through a small ceiling window. Though high, very high, prisoners would hoist a colleague onto the top of their shoulders into the shaft of light. There he would consult a book, a holy book—the very Word of God. After 30 minutes or so, they would lower him down, back into the darkness. Huddling around, they always prodded him with the same question: "Tell us, what did you discover while reading in the light?"

In essence, the world asks us a similar question: what have we discovered while experiencing the light? What have we realized while encountering the Christ?

Indeed, much darkness surrounds us: darkness from secularism, darkness from relativism, darkness from sordid sin. But what is our response? Given such deception, what is our reply?

Friends, it is time to lift persons into the light. It's time to lift persons out of confusion into clarity, out of error into meaning, out of iniquity into righteousness. For darkness has dominated too long and deception has deceived too often. It is God's moment and God's time—a precious moment, a precious time—to lift persons into the light . . . to lift persons into the light.

Taken from Anabaptist Witness in a Postmodern Society (© 1998 New Life Ministries). Permission to reproduce for local church use only is granted. Provided by New Life Ministries, 6404 S Calhoun St, Fort Wayne, IN 46807, through its web site at www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org

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