A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. John Vissers is Professor of Systematic Theology at Ontario Theological Seminary, Toronto. This article was first presented to the congregation of Newton Presbyterian Church, Newton, Massachusetts, in February, 1990.

The worst defeat suffered by any team in the history of sport occurred during a football game that was played in the early 1930’s. It was a U.S. college game and Cumberland College lost the game 220 to 0. After about three quarters of the game the score had begun to amount and the team was dramatically demoralized. There came a moment in one of the few plays when Cumberland College had the ball, when the ball was snapped to the quarterback who immediately fumbled the ball. The opposing lineman came charging in, the ball was trickling around the backfield, and the quarterback yelled out to the halfback: “Pick up the ball! Pick up the ball! ” The halfback took one look at the ball and one look at the charging linemen and responded: “You pick it up. You dropped it.’”1

Who will run with the church in the nineties? Will we run effectively? What are the challenges which face us as the people of God? What obstacles will we have to overcome? What will it mean to be renewed as the people of God for the challenge which confronts us in the nineties?

Three years ago I was travelling home on a flight from Singapore to Los Angeles which stopped briefly in Tokyo. The flight from Singapore had been quiet with only about half the seats in the plane occupied. But when we began to reboard the aircraft I noticed that about thirty American young people were boarding for the first time. They were loud and raucous and they were dressed in leather jackets and T-shirts and they had tattoos and earrings. I had been hoping for a quiet flight back to LA but as it happened my seat was in the very middle of this group. I soon learned that the group with whom I was now travelling was the road crew for the rock singer Madonna. They were returning to the United States after the Japanese part of their world tour.

Fortunately they were all exhausted and things quickly became quiet. I was sitting next to a young couple who were part of the group — the stage manager and his wife. They were interested that I was a Christian, a seminary professor, and that I had been visiting missionaries in South-East Asia. As we began to talk they told me about their own spiritual values: they were not Christians and they felt that traditional Christianity was not for them. But they had spiritual interests: they believed in reincarnation — they were interested in meditation — they were open to the supernatural — they were part of what is increasingly being described as the New Age movement — a movement which weaves together various religious beliefs and ideas into a new kind of spiritual worldview.

Since that encounter I have begun to realize that we are rapidly moving into a world very different from the one we have been used to in North America during the past few generations. I have also come to realize that the so-called New Age movement is only a small part (the underside) of a much wider intellectual and cultural shift occurring in the Western world. Many philosophers and scientists are beginning to recognize that the modern world is rapidly coming to an end. The worldview which has dominated the last two hundred years of Western civilization is dissolving and we are moving into what many are describing as a postmodern world. The challenge of the nineties for the church of Jesus Christ, as I see it, is whether we shall be both faithful to the Good News of Jesus Christ and relevant to postmodern people and society. How can we be the people of God in a postmodern world? What does it mean to live the life of Christ in the new postmodern world which confronts us? What are the implications for preaching, teaching, and worship; for the community life of the local church; for evangelism and mission? These are the critical questions for the people of God in a postmodern world!2

I should like to think about two things with you. First, I want to think about the nature of this postmodern world in which we are moving? What kind of a world is it? How are we to understand it? Second, I want then to think about the renewal of the Christian church within the context of this new world.

I. The Challenge of the Postmodern World

To call the world into which we are moving the postmodern world is to assume that we are presently in the modern world and that there was a pre-modern world before that. The pre-modern world ended around the eighteenth century. The premodern world was an agricultural and rural society. It was a world in the West in which there was one coherent worldview which everyone shared. If you lived in the West then this Christian worldview was naturally a part of your life — it was imposed on you. The modern world began sometime during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was sparked by the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution. Different views of the world were now allowed and tolerance was encouraged. Religion and faith were privatized. People were free to believe what they wanted as long as they did not impose their views on other people.

But now that worldview is being increasingly rejected and we are moving into the postmodern world. The postmodern world is the world of the information society where information is the most valuable economic commodity. It is the world of the Global Village in which the world population has bypassed five billion people; in which there is increasing urban migration; in which there are changing family roles; in which there is shifting national wealth; in which many of the familiar patterns of society are breaking down. This world may be characterized in at least three significant ways:

1. The postmodern world is a post-scientific world. This does not mean that science itself ceases to exist or be important but rather that the scientific enterprise is being conducted with new and different assumptions — assumptions which are less hostile to religion in general and to the Christian faith in particular. The cultural hegemony of science has ended. The attitude that “unless it can be verified by the scientific method it cannot possibly be true” is quickly fading away. In the scientific world the language of faith is second-class. But in the postmodern world of quantum phenomena the language of faith is intellectually relevant. The popularity of Cambridge physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time signals this shift. Scientism is dead! It will no longer be commonly accepted that we live in a closed and self- contained universe. Therefore, it is no longer taken for granted that the idea of God is meaningless or superfluous.3

2. The postmodern world is a post-Enlightenment world. The Enlightenment was the philosophical movement which shaped the modern era. The highest value of the Enlightenment was reason. Everything had to be judged by human reason. Reason was supreme. Religion and faith were second- class citizens by this standard. But the problem with the Enlightenment is that when it jettisoned religion it was unable to find a new basis for society. The modern world has suffered from a lack of any strong foundation for morality or society. Trying to establish morality and society on reason alone has in fact led to the dissolution of not only traditional morality but also the crumbling of all foundations for morality in society. The modern world is ethically bankrupt! The optimism of the Enlightenment has given way to incredible pessimism in the face of serious social and economic problems such as crime, pollution, poverty, racism, and war. The postmodern world will be open to hearing about new and different foundations for human society perhaps even those with a religious and supernatural worldview.4

3. The postmodern world is a post-Christendom world. Christendom is dying fast, if in fact it is not already dead. Now, Christendom is not Christianity. Christendom is a particular way in which the church relates to the culture. Christendom is a model of church and society in which the church depends upon the political authority of the state to uphold it. In Christendom the church works in a Christian culture and relies on that culture to make its work and ministry possible. This synthesis between Christianity and culture is now almost completely eroded in the West. Christians are now a minority in a culture of pluralism. In the postmodern world the church will have to make its witness by participating as one voice in a pluralistic conversation.5

In sum, the postmodern world presents new and exciting opportunities for the church in the nineties. Transcendence, which is cut off in the modern world, is once again admitted to the postmodern world. Tradition, which is cut off from behind, is once again considered relevant. Truth, which is relativized in the modern world, is once again admitted as a possibility in the postmodern world. God, who has been factored out of the equation of life in the modern world now re-enters the postmodern equation as a possibility, and perhaps even a necessity. The chains of intellectual bondage in the modern world have been loosed to allow the church once again to minister the Gospel — we will be politically and numerically weaker — but hopefully intellectually and spiritually more powerful.

II. The Dynamics of Church Renewal

As we face this challenge in the nineties I’d like to suggest a threefold strategy for renewal in a postmodern world. Here I look to the Book of Acts since I think the context in which the Christian church is being called to minister today is increasingly looking like the situation of the early church. They were a weak minority by the world’s standards. They lived in a world in which people were open to the supernatural but also vulnerable to many varied and syncretistic religions and philosophies. They were called to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ in a culturally, intellectually, and religiously diverse society.6

1. The first dynamic of renewal is spiritual vitality. The church in the Book of Acts was spiritually alive. In Acts 1 Jesus had promised the disciples that they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came with fire and with power. And throughout the rest of the Book of Acts we see just how the Holy Spirit authenticated and empowered the early church for mission in the first century.

The challenge of the nineties demands that we pray that God the Holy Spirit would awaken us to new life in Christ. Churches need to help people develop a personal pattern of spirituality in their lives — lives centred in prayer, the worship of God, and the Word of God. Churches must increasingly equip people in this way rather than sapping all of their energies to run the programs of the church. Spiritual vitality in the life of the church can no longer be measured by the numbers of programs or methodologies or strategies a congregation develops — but by how it lives the life of Christ as a community of faith. Postmodern people will be attracted by the spiritual freshness and authenticity of the Christian community.

2. The second dynamic of renewal is theological clarity. The church in the postmodern world must be clear in its expression of the biblical faith. The early church saw its supreme task as witnessing to Jesus Christ. They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and they were clear in their proclamation of the Gospel. In the postmodern world we will not have to apologize for our faith. We will not have to justify our faith according to the standards of the modern world. We will be free to gossip the gospel! In the context of pluralism we must demand a genuine pluralism in which diverse views genuinely may be heard (not the kind of pluralism we have at present which is controlled by modern secularism).

But we must be clear in the gospel we proclaim. Syncretism, religious pluralism, and universalism will continue to undermine the preaching of the Gospel as people take in various views and blend them together. More and more people will be biblically illiterate and will simply have to be taught the content of the Christian message. At the same time, they will hear it with freshness. The postmodern world is a world in which the church will need to know a living orthodoxy

not a dry, dead orthodoxy — but a living and orthodox confession of the biblical faith. In the postmodern world, then, the church will have to emphasize clear preaching and teaching of the Gospel and equip its members with the knowledge of the faith as they move into the culture.

3. The third dynamic of renewal is structural flexibility. The church is going to have to make a major paradigm shift — from seeing itself as an institution to recovering its self-understanding as a movement and as a community of faith. We are going to have to recognize that much of what we hold dear in the Christian church has more to do with culture than with the Word of God. The challenge facing us will be to sort out the biblically essential components of the life of the Christian community from those traditions determined by a previous generation and culture — which may not be particularly helpful. This will mean structural flexibility — indeed, it will mean a structural reformation in areas such as worship, community life, and evangelism.

My friends, this is the challenge of the postmodern world into which we are moving. This is the challenge of the nineties. Will we be renewed as the people of God so that we can engage in the mission God has sent before us? These are not easy days in which to be the people of God. But they are exciting days. Let us all pray for the renewal of the people of God in a postmodern world. May God give us grace and guidance to be what he wants us to be as the church of Jesus Christ!

“On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

“Some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it exquisitely, because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in the club’s decoration, and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club’s initiations were held.

“About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and some half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned before coming inside.

“At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station. They did.

“Soon the same changes which had occurred in the old lifesaving station occurred in the new one. It turned into a club and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself and if you visit that seacoast today you will find numerous exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters. But most of the people drown.”7

Endnotes

  1. Gordon MacDonald, “The Sending Church”, in Confessing Christ as Lord: The Urbana 81 Compendium. (IVP, 1982) pp. 95-96.
  2. Frederic Burnham (ed.), Postmodern Theology: Christian Faith in a Pluralist World. (Harper and Row, 1989) pp. ix-xvi.
  3. Diogenes Allen, “Christian Values in a Post-Christian Context”, in Postmodern Theology, pp. 21-22.
  4. Diogenes Allen, Christian Faith in a Postmodern World. (John Knox/Westminster Press, 1989) pp. 1-19.
  5. William Placher, Unapologetic Theology. (John Knox/Westminster Press, 1989) pp. 11-21.
  6. Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life. (IVP, 1979) p. 16.
  7. Cited in Howard Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counselling. (Abingdon, 1986) pp. 13-14. This parable originally appeared in an article by Theodore O. Wedel, “Evangelism — The Mission of the Church to Those Outside Her Life”, The Ecumenical Review, October 1953, p. 24. This paraphrase was done by Richard Wheatcroft in Letter to Laymen, May-June 1962, p.l.