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The Emergent Church Part 3

What kinds of experiments are being done in these emerging churches, and which of these experiments will best reflect an authentic expression of the Christian Church in contemporary society? Eugene Cho, lead pastor of “Quest,” a postmodern church in Seattle, writes, "There are several things that we do know about the future of the church: 1) the future is uncertain, 2) there will be many changes, and 3) it will not be an easy journey. But as the world changes … we must be proactive in our desire to engage the culture with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. Some things that need to be understood clearly is the fact that we no longer live in what sociologists call a “Christian dominant” culture. Whereas the Church existed and thrived throughout the majority of the United States history, they are now in a very crucial stage as we enter this new century. Statistically, about 70,000 of the 350,000 churches that existed in the US have closed their doors in the past 20 years. 30% of churchgoers today are over 60 years old and perhaps, more alarmingly, the generation that comprises the 18-35 age group has fallen sharply in their church attendance – from 36-27% in the past 10 years. Furthermore, 80-85% of mainline churches are in “serious” decline. Even despite the fact that there are waves of churches being planted throughout the United States, for every church that is being planted, three churches are being shut down. The hard and cold fact is that the church has lost its relevance and ability to communicate to a fast changing and postmodern generation."

Cho recognizes that there is a paradox today; there is a profound “spiritual” hunger in the emerging generation, while the Christian Church continues to shrink in the West. In her research and interviews with over 500 Christian young people in the United States, Colleen Carroll found a widespread embrace of the “orthodox” Christian faith among this generation. Carroll states, “I was surprised by just how widespread this trend (towards embracing orthodox Christianity) was, how deep it runs in the culture.” 

This is especially surprising in an age in which any authoritarian dogma is denigrated. Yet one must ask: What is this “orthodoxy” that is being embraced? Orthodoxy has traditionally been forged in the Christian Church through the exegetical study and public exposition of the Bible. How are emerging church leaders using preaching in their provision of theological foundations for Christian formation for this next generation?

            

Doug Pagitt, pastor of “Solomon’s Porch” in Minneapolis, told the 1,100 participants at a conference on emergent churches in San Diego that “preaching is broken.” He warned that people today are distrustful of authority figures “with overarching explanations of how the world works.” He called a sermon “a violent act” because “It’s a violence toward the will of the people who have to sit there and take it.” He said that such preaching “creates an artificial distance with the congregation.” It is fair to criticize the ways that preaching practices are held prisoner to a modernist or a premodernist paradigm. But does Pagitt offer an alternative way to authentically do the vital work of exposing God’s people to his Word in a postmodern way?

 

The shift from a modernist worldview in western culture to a postmodern one has been so seismic that western churches are left grappling with unstable ground. The choice seems to be between the shifting uncertainties of a vision for what an authentic postmodern Christian Church will look like and (as some would argue) the irrelevance of continuing to function as a modernist Church. These two scenarios represent a crisis in the practice of preaching in western churches today.

As contemporary pastors, congregations, and denominations grapple with the radical cultural impact of postmodernism on western churches, there are basically two dominant responses in the practice of preaching. On the one hand there are those who are entrenched in a modernist approach to classical expository preaching, while on the other hand there are those who are experimenting with new, purely postmodern forms of public proclamation. 

"Entrenched" churches assume a level of commitment and understanding from their members, while the experimental churches assume that their members are transient and unaffiliated. The former group tends to be from an older generation that is more loyal in its church attendance. The latter group tends to be from a younger generation with a shrinking or non-existent church attendance tradition. Some churches in the former group are trying to engage the postmodern world by augmenting their regular church services with some emergent methodology. True emergent churches, meanwhile, see themselves as completely breaking with modernist church methodologies altogether. Os Guinness warns, “This desire to be fashionable is exactly why Christians are now becoming marginalized.”

There have been many publications on the subject of preaching, and many on the subjects of the paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism in the western world. Yet there is very little that has been written on the subject of what authentic Christian preaching looks like in this postmodern context. Very little has been written, which takes the authenticity of Spiritual formation through preaching to the historic faith community seriously, and which also takes the unique demands of this contemporary western context seriously. 

There are few critical publications that discuss contemporary theory and practices of expository preaching as central to our congregants’ lifelong Christian formation. Instead, there is a plethora of books, articles, journals, and conferences encouraging churches to be more “seeker sensitive” or “missional.” In The Missional Church, Darrill L. Guder argues that the Church in the West has moved from being the formative institution at the center of society, to being a missional movement that engages culture on the periphery of society.

John Van Stolten of New Hope Christian Reformed Church in Calgary, Alberta, has a church of 300 postmoderns. He gives topical talks on contemporary issues, illustrated with scenes from popular films or episodes of The Simpsons. He says they’ll “never do a series on the Book of Revelation.” Why not? Are churches trying to reach out to a new generation through “dumbing down” the message and practice of being Church? If emerging churches in the West are merely missional outreach vehicles, then where and how will the lifelong theological formation of God’s people happen? This has traditionally happened through the regular exposition of the Scriptures through preaching. Peter Adam writes, “Christian gospel ministry involves explaining, preaching, applying and interpreting this sufficient Word so that people may be converted and congregations may be built up in faith, godliness and usefulness.”

How are believers being theologically formed in emerging churches? In the face of shrinking traditional church numbers, and growing disdain for preaching in contemporary western society, what is the philosophy and practice of preaching among emerging church leaders? Are the leaders of emergent churches rejecting what may be a style of institutional speaking, which is merely a product of the modernist age? One must ask: What is it being replaced with? If the modernist approach to preaching is being scorned, what is an authentically Christian approach to public proclamation in the postmodern church context? What part of the modernist approach to preaching is the proverbial “bathwater” that must be tossed out, while the Church keeps the “baby” of authentic biblical exposition?