PostModernism   You hear the term “postmodernism” a great deal today but what does it mean and how should it impact the ministry of Christ?  Some decry it as horrible while others see it as offering the church a new opportunity to touch lives and share the great news of Christ.  Below are three resources that talk about modernism and postmodernism.   ********************************************************************************* #1   R. Wesley Hurd provides an article on Postmodernism from a Christian perspective that, while written in 1998, provides helpful insights into it views and challenges. The article can be found at:                           http://www.mckenziestudycenter.org/philosophy/articles/postmod.html   ********************************************************************************* #2   This chart of the differences between modernism and postmodernism was part of an article at the University of Alabama put together “by students for students.”    Schematic Differences between Modernism and Postmodernism Modernism Postmodernism romanticism/symbolism paraphysics/Dadaism purpose play design chance hierarchy anarchy matery, logos exhaustion, silence art object, finished word process, performance distance participation creation, totalization deconstruction synthesis antithesis presence absence centering dispersal genre, boundary text, intertext semantics rhetoric paradigm syntagm hypotaxis parataxis metaphor metonymy selection combination depth surface interpretation against interpretation reading misreading signified signifier lisible (readerly) scriptible narrative anti-narrative grande histoire petite histoire master code idiolect symptom desire type mutant genital, phallic polymorphous paranoia schizophrenia origin, cause difference-difference God the Father The Holy Ghost Metaphysics irony determinacy indeterminacy transcendence immanence (SOURCE: Hassan "The Culture of Postmodernism" Theory, Culture, and Society, V 2 1985, 123-4.) http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/pomo.htm ***********************************************************************************   #3  (NOTE: this is an abbreviated copy of the article.  Please go to the weblink for the full article)   The Aftershocks of Postmodernism in Our Leadership By Dr. John C. Maxwell (edited from http://www.sermoncentral.com/articleb.asp?article=John-Maxwell-Aftershocks-Postmodernism-Leadership&ac=true ) The most significant pursuit of churches used to be church growth, but now it’s becoming overall church health.   The goal now is not to hold people; it’s to reach people I think about that as I look at what’s happened in the church. I think there are some aftershocks of the Postmodern movement that we need to be aware of. But before I take you into some of these aftershocks, let me go back to the “earthquake” itself: the shift from Modernism to Postmodernism. *We went from humanism, where we’re the masters of our fate, to fatalism, wherein we have no control over what happens. *We went from rationalism to relativism—a movement from truth as absolute to truth is relative, and we each have our own realities. *We went from science being the ultimate that will deliver us, to technology, where applications exist to serve our needs. *We went from enlightenment to narrative. It’s a shift from, “I want the facts,” to “Give me a story; paint a picture for me.” *We went from universal right and wrong, what I call “self evident ethics,” to tolerance, in which everyone is tolerant of everyone else’s values. *We went from materialism to spiritualism, from a mindset of believing only in what we can see, to a sense of mysticism in which we believe in invisible realities. *We went from individualism, that self-made man persona, to community, being focused more on teamwork and family. And as far as effective ministry is concerned, I think there are some potentially encouraging changes with respect to the aftershocks of Postmodernism. Aftershock #1:  We’ve gone from Duplication to Integration. In the past, we would duplicate a practice in order to get a particular result. In this way, one church would ask, “How do you begin this program?” or “How did you get your congregation to this place?” Today we have begun to merge a variety of different concepts, some of them that even seem to be in conflict, to create an even better product. We’ve moved from, on the Duplication side, relying on someone else to give us a system that seems easier and less risky, to, on the Integration side, moving forward without having all the answers but being hungry to grow. We used to want to have the entire system handed to us. Now we’d rather come up with our own process after aggregating many other ideas. On a personal level, this shift demonstrates itself in the move from wanting to know all the right answers to being okay with not having everything figured out. Aftershock #2: We have gone from Achievement to Learning. At one time, the big question was “What have you achieved?” but today the most important thing you can ask yourself is “What are you learning?” Nowhere is this more evident than in the rise of personal growth resources. When you’re growth-oriented, you stop long enough to appreciate the goals that you’ve hit but you don’t camp there, because your ultimate goal isn’t to write a book, or to to hit 1000 members, or to lose twenty pounds. Your goal is personal growth, and because you grow, you accomplish those things in time. Aftershock #3: We moved from Industry to Individuals. By industry here, I mean the bureaucracy or the system. I see a major shift having taken place here, in which we’ve moved from loyalty to a set of confines toward creating space for individual expressions of creativity, growth, and ideas. In the past, we’ve often left well enough alone, taking the approach of, “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” With this shift from industry to individuals, however, there is much more of a focus on experimentation and seeing what works by trying different strategies and allowing the best ideas to arise out of many suggestions. Aftershock #4: We have gone from Scarcity to Abundance. A classic Scarcity mindset is the perception that there are a limited amount of resources to go around. This is in contrast to the Abundance perception, which contends that there are more than enough people and resources to go around. The need to hoard, control, and exclude almost always accompanies this scarcity mindset.  Everything in my life that has compounded in my ministry is because I decided not to keep it for myself. And everything I have ever had that has shriveled in my ministry are things that I cherished and tried to hold on to. Aftershock #5: We’ve had a shift from Consumerism to Stewardship. When things are good, there’s a tendency for us to be wasteful; and when times are lean, we tend to be better stewards of resources. However, under Consumerism in the past, we’ve consumed resources without regard to any negative repercussions, whereas under Stewardship we utilize resources with self-control, staying mindful of the consequences. Stewardship is about management, not ownership.                                                                                                     June 30, 2008