Making Sense of Church Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations About God, Community, and Culture

Making Sense of Church Copyright © 2003 Spencer Burke Youth Specialties product, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020, are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49530 ISBN-10: 0-310-25499-X ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25499-7 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version (North American Edition). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other- except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties.com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and replacement URLs if available. Edited by David Sanford Interior and Cover design by Ricardo Lopez De Azua (Prototype Syndicate). Printed in the United States of America. 03 04 05 06 07 08 - 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Reality Check-Metaphors for Transition_25 The word "postmodern" first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949. Postmodern is what's come about after-and often in reaction to-modernism, which dominated Western thought for a majority of the twentieth century. In recent decades, every major sphere of life has evolved to become postmodern- movies, literature, art, architecture, business, politics. Everything, that is, except "The Church." In many ways, the church is the last bastion of modernism in our culture. It's not that the church hasn't changed over the years, but the changes have been cosmetic. We've unplugged organs, padded pews, removed shag carpet, and added video projectors. Meanwhile, everything else in our culture has undergone a complete metamorphosis. The changes are so radical that some parts of our culture are barely recognizable to modern eyes. The world has changed Been to a movie lately? Forget linear, moralistic plots. Instead, films like Memento and Being John Malkovich and newer releases continue to push the limits of visual storytelling. Bizarre, brain-twisting movies, these films demand their viewers to create meaning for themselves. Locations and time frames are deliberately ambiguous. Characters are complex contradictions-a fascinating mix of good, evil, and things in between. The same can be said of postmodern literature. In the past fifty years, a new character has emerged: the antihero. No longer can we assume that the good guy will win in the end. Such expectations seem nostalgic, if not painfully naïve. In our experience, the world just doesn't work like that. What about business? We've come to accept that profits, not people, are the ultimate priority. Corporate downsizing has become an everyday occurrence. Chances of working for the same company for forty years and someday picking up a gold watch for your trouble are slim. Can you imagine 1950s TV dad Ward Cleaver ever losing his job? I didn't think so. In today's world, though, nothing is certain. Dot coms are here today and gone tomorrow. Hostile takeovers are a way of life, and strategic mergers an apparent necessity. The landscape continuously shifts, and only those who adapt quickly seem to survive. Our politics have shifted, too. Criticize big government in the 1950s and a sweaty senator from Wisconsin might interrogate you on national television and brand you a traitor. In the 1960s, however, the rules began to change. Sit-ins and protests paved the way for a greater degree of free speech. Today, we're able to protest to our hearts' content. WhBurke, Spencer is the author of 'Making Sense of Church Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations About God, Community, and Culture' with ISBN 9780310254997 and ISBN 031025499X.