e. m. moulton
I know what you are thinking. "Oh no, not another
article about postmodernism." On one level,
there has been tons written on the subject and it's
influence on our efforts to reach students with the
gospel, but it cannot be ignored. For many, the thought
of postmodernism's impact on youth ministry conjures
images of candles, dimly lit youth rooms and a renewal
of the word sabbath! But what are the big picture
influences ushered into our current culture by what
social scientists are calling our time- "after
modernism?" Whether we like it or not, this
subject is of great importance to effective ministry
to students and should not be ignored.
Just in case you are new to the subject, postmodernism,
as a working definition, is the over-arching ideology
and world-view characterized, among other things,
by a rejection of many modern, enlightenment era
values. These include the rejection of absolute truth,
self-reliance(or the autonomous self) and the meta-narrative
(generally the idea that there is one story for all
of humankind). The postmodern world-view embraces
preferences, identity within community, a skepticism
toward institutional authority and sees personal
experience as equal to, if not greater than, analytical,
rational thought. Flowing down from the mountains
of philosophy, art, film, literature and social science,
these are the dominant forces shaping the ethos of
our current western culture. And to be more forthright,
this is the environment into which you and I are
seeking to reach and disciple a generation of students.
It is the air we breathe, culturally speaking. There
are many great books, articles and resources regarding
postmodernism and its impact on ministry. For a foundational
entry-way into the deeper confines and implication
postmodernism, check out Stanley Grenz's A Primer
on Postmodernism.
As a word of caution, understand
that postmodernism is neither better nor worse
than modernism, they
are just different. They both fall short of a biblical
worldview, which is a goal of student discipleship.
When it comes to influencing culture with the gospel,
existing and changing worldviews are always going
to present some obstacles, and yet, provide some
tremendous "on-ramps".
What does all this have to do with your ministry
to students? The answer is, a lot! Given the current
climate of postmodern cultural characteristic, let's
look at several major influences that will impact
the way we approach ministry to students.
I believe that a foundational
influence of postmodern ideology is the loss of
the "meta-narrative".
A meta-narrative is the idea of one big story, or
context that all of humanity has in common. This
is the idea that there is one overall story in which
to make sense of our individual lives.
In other words, postmodern
culture asks itself, "is
there one unifying life purpose or story that every
one fits into?" The answer postmodernism comes
up with is, "no." In fact, the attempt
at honing in on a textbook definition of postmodernism
varies from place to place except for the certainty
of one thing: the complete abandonment of one universal
worldview. Under the tenets of postmodernism, there
exists no such narrative. Everyone has there own
story and it stands alone to interpret itself. There
is no rhyme or reason. There is no collective purpose
or goal. There only lays millions of lives fragmented
and clumped together, but no unifying song. This
view perpetuates gloom and despair (or a false sense
of security). Youth ministries must work hard to
combat the loss meta-narrative and teach God’s
redemptive history as the “mega-narrative” that
makes sense of life and ties together past, present
and future in light of God’s eternal plan.
We call this redemptive history God’s story.
Students need desperately to know that life is not
a random series of video clips and manipulated sound
bites, but rather an eternally important thread woven
into the fabric of God’s redemptive tapestry.
One of the tragic mistakes in youth ministry is to
exhort students to serve God in a vacuum. They need
more than just the theological facts, they need the
theological “why’s” as well. In
an age where broken families are so common, helping
students understand that they are a part of God's
family and God's heritage and future is huge! One
researcher concludes this way, saying, “any
Christian education that gives students facts without
vision has failed” . We must teach, model and
demonstrate the Christian life in light of God’s
big picture. In other words, youth need to know that
their Christian life is to be lived not in isolation,
but in the context of a God who is redeeming the
nations. I call this focusing in on the "big
story" or helping students to understand their
place as believers in the Kingdom of God. This is
so critical in a culture that screams, "there
is no greater context"! Notice how often Jesus
spoke to the disciples regarding their understanding
of the Kingdom of God.
The result of this is that God’s history becomes their history and God’s
heritage becomes their heritage as His adopted children. In a culture where
family roots are shaky and shallow, students need to know the reality of the
strong roots of God and His redeemed family. I have a friend who is a youthworker
in Texas who just took her students on a pilgrimage to Ireland. Not only was
it a great time of practicing spiritual disciplines and of intense introspection,
it was a tremendous opportunity for the students to see part of the rich heritage
of the church in Ireland. Exposing the students to some of these historical
Christian roots opened them up to awareness of the past that they are connected
to as the Body of Christ. Although short-term missions are not new to student
ministry, they play a tremendous role in imparting the big-picture to students.
In my own experience in leading students on both domestic and foreign missions,
the impact on the life of a student gaining an awareness of the global nature
of the Kingdom of God never ceases to amaze me. The story of God comes alive
when they are able to see it unfolding outside of their native community!
Several months ago while
leading a senior high discipleship retreat, I had
the most fascinating dialogue with
a group of students concerning evangelism. They expressed
how difficult it was to share their faith with boldness
because for the fear of seeming narrow-minded or
judgmental. The fact is, in a world where everything
is a preference, the idea of an exclusive savior
is tough. The postmodern worldview tends to be very
demanding of preferences and distances itself from
any perceived "narrow-minded" absolutes.
This issue of preferences is another major attribute
of the postmodern worldview. In spite of scholarly
ambiguity in crafting a concise definition of postmodernism,
what they do agree upon is the idea that we have
entered an age that has sharply deserted the notion
of absolute truth. Stanley Grenz, in A Primer on
Postmodernism, describes this condition as a “loss
of centeredness” . Down is the idea of a “universe” and
in is the idea of a “multi-verse”. The
problem of preferences in ministry to students is
enormous and must be dealt with on a variety of levels.
Because of the loss of absolute
truth as a given in our culture (only 28% of the
population believes
in absolute truth ), many problems arise. For one,
young people have a hard time accepting the authority
of scripture. Evangelism efforts can no longer assume
that unbelieving kids are going start on the premise
that the Bible is the Word of God. They tend to view
the Bible as just another book among many. This has
strong implications for how the church should change
outreach. Shifting to more intentional, highly relational
evangelism will most certainly prove to be a more
fruitful strategy to winning lost students to Christ.
Incarnational ministry becomes unquestionably important
because the lost are formulating truth through the
context of their accepted community. As we equip
and teach students to evangelize through relationships,
we prepare them for effective ministry in this culture.
For example, in addition to teaching students basic
Christian apologetics and concise scriptural proofs
regarding salvation through Christ, we may do well
to help them draw redemptive themes from literature,
art, film, history, science and other forms of pop
culture and media. Helping students think through
how they might weave the Christian faith into a lunch
conversation about a recent movie or TV show could
prove very valuable in relational evangelism. I know
a church in Dallas that recently held a “Lord
of the Rings” weekend relating the movie to
the Christian life. A preference culture may only
be transformed when it sees the material fruit of
the Christian life modeled in our students. The truth
and life and way of Jesus exemplified in us and in
the lives of students must become, once again, the
primary apologetic in a world that so highly values
experience in determining truth. I believe an area
of great importance is in helping students walk with
wisdom and discernment in the information age. Just
as Paul the Apostle used the poets of the day to
address the people on Mars Hill, we need to challenge
students to digest parts of popular culture through
the filter of faith rather than just consuming it.
Lastly, the use of small group ministry needs to
be expanded to include evangelism in addition to
Bible study, discipleship and accountability. Typically,
youth ministry has operated on the paradigm of bringing
newcomers to gospel rallies and then assimilating
them into the life of the community. Because propositional
approaches are not as fruitful as they once were,
inviting the un-churched into a community of unconditional
love and acceptance allows a person to see the reality
of Christ in community, which becomes a dynamic,
incarnational apologetic! And to top it off, this
approach to evangelism, is very appealing and “do-able” for
the typical student. The “cell” model
of ministry is a very effective use of small group
ministry that strategically places evangelism as
a major component and purpose for the group’s
existence.
In the Gospels, Jesus rebukes
the pharisees for being able to read the signs
of the changing seasons
but unable to discern the fact that Jesus was indeed
the Messiah promised throughout the Old Testament
(see Luke 12:54-56). In many ways, God has called
us to be wise, perceptive and able to perceive the "times".
The temptation is to fall into the trap of thinking
that we've somehow "figured out" effective
ministry in a postmodern culture and cease to adapt
to emerging ideological changes in pervasive culture.
If we fail to understand this, then the greatest
tragedies and casualties of lost opportunity will
lay ahead of us. For too long, too many churches
in the west rested comfortably in the confines of
ministry models constructed to reach a predominantly
modern worldview. Colossal shifts in philosophy,
art, film, architecture and literature took place
while we failed to recognize a changing cultural
landscape. Postmodern philosophy and construction
has been in full swing since the 1960's, but it has
only been until recently that the church has shown
signs of responding to it in its ministries. The
lesson for us and for future generations of youth-workers
is that we must heed the exhortation of Paul the
Apostle from his letter to the Galatians when he
said we ought to "stay in step" with the
Spirit of the Lord (Galatians 5.25).
It is important to note
that one of the hallmarks of the current age is
the fluid nature in which change
takes place. One of the challenges facing youth ministries
and churches is how to stay ahead of the cultural
curve. In some ways, tracking culture trends is as
difficult as decoding the German “enigma” from
World War II. The dividends, however, will prove
faithful if we remain attuned to the characteristics
of our life and times. The pitfall to avoid is to
discover a contour that resonates with current culture
and begin to rest thinking that the contour will
always prove effective. This is how the church and
ministries often fall into periods of ineffective
ministry. An example of this is discovered when we
see Generation X used as a term to describe all postmoderns.
The fact is that Generation X is really the first
wave of people to grow up completely immersed in
postmodern ideology. The current crop of young people
are not Generation X (some are labeling them as the “Millennials”).
Though they share in many postmodern commonalities,
they have very different outlooks in a number of
areas. For example, cultural observers note that
the “milliennials” are very achievement
oriented and some social scientists are labeling
them the “next great generation” , contrary
to the labels received by Generation X that included,
lazy, unmotivated, pessimistic and slack.
If we assume that postmoderns are all the same,
we will fail in reaching them with the gospel. We
must be aware of the features unique to each of the
successive rising postmodern generations. The most
important thing we can do as those who are called
to labor in the fields of student ministry beyond
staying in tune with the Lord is to stay in tune
with the lonesome cries of the world as it expresses
itself in the culture around us. We must prayerfully
and wisely capture the relevant gospel contours.
We must take time to read widely, study diligently,
listen intently and look for teaching keys buried
beneath the multi-layered phenomenon known as popular
culture. That done, we will be able to run with passion
and courage and conviction under the banner of His
undying love for a world in mortal danger.
Download
a PDF file of this article>
Sciacca, Fran. Generation at Risk, 1990 Moody Publishing,
Chicago IL. P. 169
Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer on Postmodernism, 1996 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co. P. 19,20 Long, Jimmy. Generating Hope, 1997 InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove,
IL. P.
70
Howe and Strauss, Neil and William, Millennials Rising, 2000 Vintage Books, New
York, NY. P. 4
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