The postmodern church movement. "It's organic, earthy, neohippie, antichurch." Just what some cool friends of mine may be looking for. So they go today to a local postmodern gathering to soak in the vibe. Report comes back. The music put the mental in experimental, the paintings were interesting. The speaker announces that the meeting is going to be a (quote) crapshoot. I check my cool postmodern language guide to see if that's the new way to say we're being led by the Spirit. I get the impression it means unprepared. Some guy lays down in the aisle and falls asleep. Nice touch. Then this guy in the aisle rips a massive gastrointestinal expulsion. It reeks. We'd leave but he's blocking our way. Perhaps the people behind me think my gag reflex is a new form of worship. For your next communion service, I suggest some beano tablets. The rest of the gathering gives the impression that in order to belong here one must be comfortably lost. A passive anarchist. Anti leadership, anti order, and strangely, anti power. Perhaps they were hoping to access the power of God by denying the dreaded form of Godliness but sadly, it appears they're lacking both. When freedom in worship becomes a disguise for lack of direction, something's gone awry. No prayer for healing, no message from the Word of God, no invitation to follow Jesus Christ. All these are old fashioned and have been replaced with silent contemplation, readings from various books, and encouragement to give Jesus a whirl at some point in your life, whenever, no worries. Truth be told, this is just the closet Baptists taking the seeker movement to a whole new level of lukewarm. It's the evangelistic tool that sneaks up on the seeker. You may get saved, you may not. Chances are, you won't know either way. The beauty of the postmodern movement and it's manuals (Velvet Elvis and Blue Like Jazz) is that they've can describe in elaborate detail what they are not! They shun uniformity and embrace creative expression. What they can't seem to determine is who they are. (Are we Christians or are we followers of Christ?) If you're interested in starting a Postmodern church, there are some things you've got to know. Back up your quotes from the apostle Paul with a quote from Bono. Media is cool. Especially art house flicks. Profanity is acceptable as long as it's intelligent. Intellect is exalted. Dim lights, deep thoughts, acoustic guitars, and coffee. Coffee is coooool. In the postmodern movement you get to be both in the world and of the world. Not a bad deal. In the early days when the X files was cancelled, many postmoderns backslid into, well, virtually the same place they were last week.

Sigh... Perhaps this postmodern movement will eventually add the term "vegan" to it's arsenal of cool descriptive terms. That is, lacking meat.

Nevertheless, I have a word for the postmodern Pastors. In these days I believe that God is releasing a spirit of revelation over the church where we repent over our areas of great difference because we see Him as He is, speak His Word as He declares it, and are literally taught by the Spirit. This is Kingdom reality and it seems that postmodernism is poised for this kind of radical Spirit led existence, igniting a revival in America and bringing the reality of Jesus' power and glory into the lives of people. That is "...on earth as it is in Heaven." If that's the anointing you're aiming for, keep pressing in and expect opposition as you experience breakthrough. Chris Tomlin spoke well when he said that if the presence of God doesn't go with us, I don't want to go. At the same time if the presence of God is with us, the varied impressions of people don't matter a whole lot, for we're in the will of God even as their nails pierce our flesh.

NOTE: To give some background, this "story" actually happened at a popular postmodern church (with a pretty name) in a popular city (the live music capital of the world). Some friends went on a Sunday and called about it afterwards. I wrote this post in response to that event about a month ago, but waited to post it until I had a chance to email the Pastor (or narrator, or moderator, or whatever) and see what he had to say. It was very interesting and productive. I found out that he is hungry for something that he hasn't seen yet. That's what drives this movement to break out of tradition. The problem is that every new idea threatens to eventually become the tradition of man that makes the Word of God of no effect. The above post has the best lines from the email correspondence we had and since he reads my blog (yes, the Pastor of this church read this blog before I posted it and liked it) I wanted to make sure that I gave a cushion of time to it to test my heart on the matter. That is, am I merely writing in frustration to an event or is this something that continues to burn in me. The latter is true so, voila, it gets posted.

Postscript: I got some email asking what problem I had with Don Miller's best selling book, Blue Like Jazz. It's Don's gospel that's the issue. Don says, well here, Don go ahead and tell everyone how you view the Gospel of the Kingdom. “[The central message of Christ] is that man sinned against God and God gave the world over to man, and that if somebody wanted to be rescued out of that, if somebody for instance finds it all very empty, that Christ will rescue them if they want…” (page 124)
So Don has reduced the everlasting advancing Kingdom of God to, well, a divine timeshare for the disgruntled. Uh, I don't know, Don. Throw in a toaster and I may think about signing up.