What's with the worldviews?
Excerpts From: A Kingdom, A People & A River Chpts 1 & 2
http://www.parousianetwork.org/Cyber_Cafe/Workbook_Chapters.htm
Welcome to the emerging church movement, and to that expression of emerging church known as “house church”.
What you will find is a clear call for a new paradigm of what “church” is all about in our Post Christian, Post Modern culture, and that will make many people uncomfortable.
If we are going to fully understand, appreciate and embrace the need for such a new paradigm of “churches without walls” (such as house churches and marketplace gatherings) which God is raising up in our day, we must first come to terms with the scope of the collapse that is currently engulfing our culture both inside and outside of the existing Church as we have traditionally known it. And, sometimes, in order to understand the present (or the future) we must first understand the past.
This shaking is related to the rise of a Post Christian Post Modern culture in America and the West, a culture that questions the validity of the form of the Church as well as its message.
Our English word “paradigm” comes from the Greek word paradeigma meaning “model” or “pattern” (used in classical Greek to refer to an architect’s blueprint). The word is curiously absent from the New Testament. Perhaps there is a lesson here. Men create paradigms, models and patterns. It is God who shakes them. If we try to put God into a fixed paradigm, model or pattern (i.e., “put God in a box”), God will shake or destroy our box.
An example of the wrong type of question the Church may be asking during this transition is, “How Do We Do Church Better?” The new question we must ask is “How Do We Deconvert From Church-ianity To Christianity.” According to McNeal, the Church needs to recapture its sense of mission. “The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self-preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.” In this new transition from traditional church to what is now referred to as the “emerging church” McNeal sees a need for the Church to engage in kingdom thinking. “Kingdom thinking challenges church thinking. Kingdom thinking does not force people into the church to hear about Jesus or maintain that church membership is the same thing as kingdom citizenship.”
The greatest challenge to Christianity in the first 300 years of its existence didn't come from the Roman authorities (although their persecution certainly didn't help matters any). It came from a pseudo-Christian philosophy called "Gnosticism." And the greatest challenge to the church today isn't from secular authorities or out-right persecution. It is coming from the philosophical phenomenon of Post Christian Post Modernism (and if it makes you feel any better, Gnosticism is also making a come back!). But few Christians at the grassroots level know what Post Modernism is, even though it is as prevalent today as the cultural air we breathe.
[Example of inability to discuss school dress code.] Welcome to “grass roots Post Modernism,” the inability to find any common moral ground outside of one’s own personal opinion. For these Middle School children, Post Modernism isn’t a theoretical discussion. It is a practical issue of no recognizable boundaries which parents, students and faculty can agree upon. All they (and we) have left is personal opinions which vary across a wide spectrum . . .a philosophical, moral, spiritual, political and educational wasteland of our own creation.
In [a section in my Weekly E-Letter Update ] I have sought to highlight stories which illustrate the ”deconstruction” of the traditional institutional church and the waning influence of Christianity in general on Western Culture as we have traditionally known and experienced it. [God kept out of EU constitution, chaplain in house of reps alludes to social issues]
It means that the 10 Commandments must be removed from public buildings, public nativity scenes must go, the Pledge of Allegiance must be attacked, the Boy Scouts must accept atheists (so much for my “God & Country Award”) and Christian campus ministries (such as InterVarsity at Rutgers University) must sign agreements not to discriminate on the basis of religion when it comes to the leadership of their groups (!?) or lose their campus status (these are examples of what is known as “deconstructionist Post Modernism”).
According to Post Christian Post Modern thought there are no universal truths which are universally binding on all men everywhere. There are only facts to be discovered and personal “stories” or opinions as to what those facts might mean to me. Modernism’s failed search for “Universal” or “Ultimate” truth had been replaced with Post Modernism’s search for “personal truth.” There is no absolute or universally binding truth, whether in morality, spirituality, politics, sociology or any other field of human endeavor. There are merely facts, experiences and our personal, subjective interpretation of and feelings about those facts and experiences. In Post Christian Post Modernism, in a very real sense, it really is “all about me, my experiences and how I feel.” [And God in My image? Or imagination?]
Post Modernism represents not simply the loss of the knowledge of absolute truth in our culture; it represents the loss of the possibility and the hope for any universal or ultimate truth.
Tolerance is the admission that there is no Ultimate truth by which arguments and differences of opinion can be resolved.
Based on these research results it should come as no surprise that authors Hatch and Barna conclude that “the church is rotting from the inside out, crippled by a-biblical theology” (perhaps because more people get their “Post Modern theology” from Oprah Winfrey or Rush Limbaugh than from their pastor).
The gospel (and the Kingdom of God) transcends philosophy. Since the early days of
Modernism’s attack on Christianity, Christians have made the repeated mistake of hitching their intellectual wagon to a particular school of philosophy . . .to make it acceptable to the prevailing philosophical culture. The Presbyterian adoption of “Scottish Common Sense Realism” or the Barthian/Neo-Orthodox flirtation with continental existentialism are just two examples which pop to mind. Any attempt to produce a “Post Modern Christianity” would be another such ill-conceived example. As Christians we must remember that, at the end of the debates and discussions of Post Modernism, the gospel and the Kingdom transcend any earthly philosophy. It is important that we understand them. It is equally important that we not become like them. Our goal is to communicate, not to emulate.
Our Post Modern culture presents a host of spiritual challenges to the church, challenges which I believe God intends to answer with a new paradigm of “churches without walls” . . . [Cross-Cultural Outreach can mean across the street. Be relevant to their needs without being syncretistic to their beliefs. Post-moderns rely on experience for their truth, dialogue rather than preaching, relationship, story and the journey of spirituality.]
But Post Modernism itself is not a permanent state of affairs. Neither a person nor a culture can live in an on-going state of moral and spiritual imbecility (to revisit Newbigin’s observation) without falling into complete ruin at some unpredictable point. For this reason alone, Post Modernism must be viewed not as a destination . . .but merely a transition time between the old paradigm that has been dying a slow death and the new emerging paradigm that is yet to be born.
When the experience of our lifestyle doesn’t live up to our explanation of the Gospel, the disconnect can be devastating to a Post Modern audience for whom a genuine experience of truth is at least as important as a clear explanation of truth. If the Post Modern House Church movement is to have a future as a genuine new wineskin in our Post Modern world, then it must become a place where genuine Christianity, what Francis Schaeffer called “True Spirituality,” is authentically lived out in the lives of believers. Our House Churches must become places where the genuine experience of God’s Kingdom Presence (EXPERIENCE) combines with the absolute truth of God’s Word (TRUTH), resulting in genuine personal transformation that overflows into our neighborhoods and our communities. Community transformation will never occur apart from the transformation of individual believers, our homes and the churches which gather there.
To those disillusioned by the collapsing plausibility structure of the 5th century Augustine offered “the City of God.” To a Post Modern culture which has argued itself into practical imbecility, we must proclaim a new (but old) plausibility structure: The Kingdom of God.
This can only be done through the “true spirituality” of believers authentically living out and proclaiming the message of The Kingdom of God as a transformational message which radically challenges, confronts, judges and transforms the reigning Post Modern plausibility structure of our day, just as Augustine challenged the collapsing plausibility structure of the ancient world. Our message must be biblically authentic, Kingdom oriented, power driven and personally transforming. As authentic believers living in our Post Christian Post Modern culture, our calling is to challenge the “plausibility structure” of our enlightenment-tainted Post Modern culture with the “trans-rational” (i.e., it transcends our Greek/Enlightenment rationalism) plausibility structure of the Kingdom of God, one in which God exists and speaks authentic truth to men who are called upon to listen and believe.
Two questions. 1) Why do we need to worry about an emerging paradigm or emerging house churches when we already have the Kingdom of God as an answer?
2) Many folks read these discussions, quoting the words but still fully thinking as post-modernists. Isn't it more important to embody the Kingdom in our work than explain it? One man who was the most influential in leading me to Christ had mental retardation, but knew how-to live in the Kingdom.
http://www.parousianetwork.org/Cyber_Cafe/Workbook_Chapters.htm
Welcome to the emerging church movement, and to that expression of emerging church known as “house church”.
What you will find is a clear call for a new paradigm of what “church” is all about in our Post Christian, Post Modern culture, and that will make many people uncomfortable.
If we are going to fully understand, appreciate and embrace the need for such a new paradigm of “churches without walls” (such as house churches and marketplace gatherings) which God is raising up in our day, we must first come to terms with the scope of the collapse that is currently engulfing our culture both inside and outside of the existing Church as we have traditionally known it. And, sometimes, in order to understand the present (or the future) we must first understand the past.
This shaking is related to the rise of a Post Christian Post Modern culture in America and the West, a culture that questions the validity of the form of the Church as well as its message.
Our English word “paradigm” comes from the Greek word paradeigma meaning “model” or “pattern” (used in classical Greek to refer to an architect’s blueprint). The word is curiously absent from the New Testament. Perhaps there is a lesson here. Men create paradigms, models and patterns. It is God who shakes them. If we try to put God into a fixed paradigm, model or pattern (i.e., “put God in a box”), God will shake or destroy our box.
An example of the wrong type of question the Church may be asking during this transition is, “How Do We Do Church Better?” The new question we must ask is “How Do We Deconvert From Church-ianity To Christianity.” According to McNeal, the Church needs to recapture its sense of mission. “The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self-preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.” In this new transition from traditional church to what is now referred to as the “emerging church” McNeal sees a need for the Church to engage in kingdom thinking. “Kingdom thinking challenges church thinking. Kingdom thinking does not force people into the church to hear about Jesus or maintain that church membership is the same thing as kingdom citizenship.”
The greatest challenge to Christianity in the first 300 years of its existence didn't come from the Roman authorities (although their persecution certainly didn't help matters any). It came from a pseudo-Christian philosophy called "Gnosticism." And the greatest challenge to the church today isn't from secular authorities or out-right persecution. It is coming from the philosophical phenomenon of Post Christian Post Modernism (and if it makes you feel any better, Gnosticism is also making a come back!). But few Christians at the grassroots level know what Post Modernism is, even though it is as prevalent today as the cultural air we breathe.
[Example of inability to discuss school dress code.] Welcome to “grass roots Post Modernism,” the inability to find any common moral ground outside of one’s own personal opinion. For these Middle School children, Post Modernism isn’t a theoretical discussion. It is a practical issue of no recognizable boundaries which parents, students and faculty can agree upon. All they (and we) have left is personal opinions which vary across a wide spectrum . . .a philosophical, moral, spiritual, political and educational wasteland of our own creation.
In [a section in my Weekly E-Letter Update ] I have sought to highlight stories which illustrate the ”deconstruction” of the traditional institutional church and the waning influence of Christianity in general on Western Culture as we have traditionally known and experienced it. [God kept out of EU constitution, chaplain in house of reps alludes to social issues]
It means that the 10 Commandments must be removed from public buildings, public nativity scenes must go, the Pledge of Allegiance must be attacked, the Boy Scouts must accept atheists (so much for my “God & Country Award”) and Christian campus ministries (such as InterVarsity at Rutgers University) must sign agreements not to discriminate on the basis of religion when it comes to the leadership of their groups (!?) or lose their campus status (these are examples of what is known as “deconstructionist Post Modernism”).
According to Post Christian Post Modern thought there are no universal truths which are universally binding on all men everywhere. There are only facts to be discovered and personal “stories” or opinions as to what those facts might mean to me. Modernism’s failed search for “Universal” or “Ultimate” truth had been replaced with Post Modernism’s search for “personal truth.” There is no absolute or universally binding truth, whether in morality, spirituality, politics, sociology or any other field of human endeavor. There are merely facts, experiences and our personal, subjective interpretation of and feelings about those facts and experiences. In Post Christian Post Modernism, in a very real sense, it really is “all about me, my experiences and how I feel.” [And God in My image? Or imagination?]
Post Modernism represents not simply the loss of the knowledge of absolute truth in our culture; it represents the loss of the possibility and the hope for any universal or ultimate truth.
Tolerance is the admission that there is no Ultimate truth by which arguments and differences of opinion can be resolved.
Based on these research results it should come as no surprise that authors Hatch and Barna conclude that “the church is rotting from the inside out, crippled by a-biblical theology” (perhaps because more people get their “Post Modern theology” from Oprah Winfrey or Rush Limbaugh than from their pastor).
The gospel (and the Kingdom of God) transcends philosophy. Since the early days of
Modernism’s attack on Christianity, Christians have made the repeated mistake of hitching their intellectual wagon to a particular school of philosophy . . .to make it acceptable to the prevailing philosophical culture. The Presbyterian adoption of “Scottish Common Sense Realism” or the Barthian/Neo-Orthodox flirtation with continental existentialism are just two examples which pop to mind. Any attempt to produce a “Post Modern Christianity” would be another such ill-conceived example. As Christians we must remember that, at the end of the debates and discussions of Post Modernism, the gospel and the Kingdom transcend any earthly philosophy. It is important that we understand them. It is equally important that we not become like them. Our goal is to communicate, not to emulate.
Our Post Modern culture presents a host of spiritual challenges to the church, challenges which I believe God intends to answer with a new paradigm of “churches without walls” . . . [Cross-Cultural Outreach can mean across the street. Be relevant to their needs without being syncretistic to their beliefs. Post-moderns rely on experience for their truth, dialogue rather than preaching, relationship, story and the journey of spirituality.]
But Post Modernism itself is not a permanent state of affairs. Neither a person nor a culture can live in an on-going state of moral and spiritual imbecility (to revisit Newbigin’s observation) without falling into complete ruin at some unpredictable point. For this reason alone, Post Modernism must be viewed not as a destination . . .but merely a transition time between the old paradigm that has been dying a slow death and the new emerging paradigm that is yet to be born.
When the experience of our lifestyle doesn’t live up to our explanation of the Gospel, the disconnect can be devastating to a Post Modern audience for whom a genuine experience of truth is at least as important as a clear explanation of truth. If the Post Modern House Church movement is to have a future as a genuine new wineskin in our Post Modern world, then it must become a place where genuine Christianity, what Francis Schaeffer called “True Spirituality,” is authentically lived out in the lives of believers. Our House Churches must become places where the genuine experience of God’s Kingdom Presence (EXPERIENCE) combines with the absolute truth of God’s Word (TRUTH), resulting in genuine personal transformation that overflows into our neighborhoods and our communities. Community transformation will never occur apart from the transformation of individual believers, our homes and the churches which gather there.
To those disillusioned by the collapsing plausibility structure of the 5th century Augustine offered “the City of God.” To a Post Modern culture which has argued itself into practical imbecility, we must proclaim a new (but old) plausibility structure: The Kingdom of God.
This can only be done through the “true spirituality” of believers authentically living out and proclaiming the message of The Kingdom of God as a transformational message which radically challenges, confronts, judges and transforms the reigning Post Modern plausibility structure of our day, just as Augustine challenged the collapsing plausibility structure of the ancient world. Our message must be biblically authentic, Kingdom oriented, power driven and personally transforming. As authentic believers living in our Post Christian Post Modern culture, our calling is to challenge the “plausibility structure” of our enlightenment-tainted Post Modern culture with the “trans-rational” (i.e., it transcends our Greek/Enlightenment rationalism) plausibility structure of the Kingdom of God, one in which God exists and speaks authentic truth to men who are called upon to listen and believe.
Two questions. 1) Why do we need to worry about an emerging paradigm or emerging house churches when we already have the Kingdom of God as an answer?
2) Many folks read these discussions, quoting the words but still fully thinking as post-modernists. Isn't it more important to embody the Kingdom in our work than explain it? One man who was the most influential in leading me to Christ had mental retardation, but knew how-to live in the Kingdom.
Replies to This Discussion
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Reposted by permission of the authors from simplechurch.com
Tammie said:Nik wrote:
Since you appear to be patient and orderly in your thinking ;)
lol. Some days are better than others. I've even had a moment of clarity or two.
Post-modernism recognizes no absolute or universally binding truth. So when you say that the Truth is someONE, you have given up your citizenship to post-modern relativism and entered the Kingdom of God, no?
Exactly.
How can someone be a post-modern, and a Christian?
We can be postmodern because we live in this era, but because we are followers of Christ, and he said he was THE Truth and we know him, we know there is absolute truth. We are in this postmodern world but not of it.
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We may live far apart, but we are a community built in, through, and with the indwelling Christ. Our worship is a sacrifice of time, given to know Him intimately. We each serve, minister, and express our Lord Jesus, who is the only Head. Let us be known simply by our love for each other, in anticipation of when every knee will be bent in His Kingdom. And, let us follow the earthly mission Jesus began and passed to His followers to “preach goods news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recover sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
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We are here to support, confront and clarify each other's place as aliens in the world but not of the world. Est: Nov, 2008.
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