Friday, November 18th, 2005
This last week the Generations in Conversation course took a look at Tony Jones’ book, Postmodern Youth Ministry, published by Youth Specialties and Zondervan, 2001.
Exploring cultural shift, cultivating authentic community and creating holistic connections.
The first thing we noticed about the book was the layout. There’s more white space than most books - which gives the reader more scope for engaging with the text that’s there. We found ourselves engaging with bites, quotes and vignettes rather than attempting to read the chapter from start to end. There’s an element of randomness to the selection and placement of graphics. There’s a strong connection with the feel achieved by Douglas Coupland in his first edition of the novel, Generation X.
The second thing we noticed was the interactive nature of the book. Tony gave his manuscript to colleagues and included their responses in the end product.
Contributors were Rudy Carrasco (Urban Onramps & Harambee Ministries), Brad Cecil (Axxess), Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill, Seattle), Dan Kimball (Vintage Faith), Brian McLaren (Cedar Ridge), Sally Morgenthaler (Sacramentis), Doug Pagitt (Solomons Porch), Kara Powell (Fuller Theological Seminary), Leonard Sweet, Pete Ward (Kings College London) and Mike Yaconelli (died in October 2003).
Tony’s blogging over at Theoblogy and The Emergent Theological Conversation. He’s studying towards his doctorate in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and is part time National Director of Emergent USA. He’s the author of three other books, Read. Think. Pray. Live., Soul Shaper, and The Sacred Way:Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life
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So what’s Tony saying about postmodernity and postmodernism? He says that Gen-Xers are the cusp generation in relation to postmodern values. The Millennials however are studying in an environment with ‘full-blown, no-holds-barred postmodern thought”. He points to the postmodern ethos being displayed in the work of song writers, television and movie producers and advertising executives. That made a lot of sense when we considered the nature of the television advertising we’d been looking at. The Three “We Like Music” ads and the XBox 360 “Jump In” ads seemed to flow from a postmodern approach to narrative rather than linear product obsession.
Tony gives an ‘incomplete in-progress’ list of values of emerging postmodern culture versus the values of the modern/Enlightenment era:
1. Experiential rather than Rational
2. Spiritual rather than Scientific
3. Pluralistic rather than Unanimity
4. Relative rather than Exclusive
5. Altruistic rather than Egocentric
6. Communal rather than Individualistic
7. Creative rather than Functional
8. Environmental rather than Industrial
9. Global rather than Local
10. Holistic rather than Comparmentalized/Dichotomized
11. Authentic rather than Relevant
In response we wondered how much we were seeing a ‘versus factor’. It seemed to us that there was more a shift of focus and emphasis. For all the focus on ‘communal’ we were seeing as much individualism as ever in the ways that people made decisions about their futures. We could see evidence of global and local going alongside each other. Perhaps we needed to factor in the approach taken by Leonard Sweet in which he combined global and local to make glocal. What would the other ten look like if we did the same?
We liked Kara Powell’s thought:
“It would indeed be terrifying to worship a God we could figure out. The enigmas, mysteries, and antinomies of God are what make him God. Without these, he would be just a very cool guy.”
Hmm. We had to find a decent dictionary (online) to find out what antinomies meant. It refers to several laws or constants that are held together even though they may seem to contradict each other.
However we noted that many young people we were dealing with did not fit into the fascination with mysticism, acceptance of ambiguity and comfort with diversity associated with postmodernism. One workshop participant talked about the hunger for concrete approaches to God, life and everything. In another post I’ll explore the connection we made between James Fowler’s stages of faith work and the emergence of postmodern values.
Tony finishes by saying that ‘Relational’ remains as a constant. He writes that “there is new room in our faith for experience, for mysticism, and for mystery. We can recover the story as the great conveyer of truth, and we can use it to great effect just as Jesus did. We can welcome people into a journey instead of getting them to assent to an oversimplified version of the gospel and recite a three-sentence prayer.”
True.
Tags: Postmodernity, Theology, Tony Jones, Youth Ministry
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Monday, November 14th, 2005
The most recent session in the Generations in Conversation course focused on translation as an approach to contextualisation. As a theological text we used Darrell Guder’s book, “The Continuing Conversion of the Church”.
We started with Darrell Guder’s background, working in Presbyterian and Lutheran settings, providing oversight for Young Life and developing theology in theological seminaries in the USA. He’s currently teaching at Princeton. See my post on Guder’s material at GodPost.
Guder starts by talking about the development of concepts of mission and evangelism as Christendom came under question. He invites us to found our understanding of mission in the nature of God - a relational God who lives in the tension of trinity - a missionary God who sends, is sent and lives in context.
Guder writes that
“Mission is to be a continuing process of translation and witness, whereby the evangelist and the mission community will discover again and again that they will be confronted by the gospel as it is translated, heard and responded to, and will thus experience ongoing conversion while serving as witness.”
At this point I thought that it would have been good to start with a context for Guder’s questions. I’d tried to do that by looking at recent television commercials and their attempts to translate into youth culture. What would make this session more effective is some insight from Guder on contexts in which he personally has encountered the need for translation.
Despite having photos, and powerpoint presentations, the use of quotations almost always leads to glazed eyes, particularly after lunch!
Having said that, we had a look at the challenge of translation without the sin of control, as well as the inevitability of reductionism in which a form of Christianity is made out to be normative and becomes a distortion. See my notes at GodPost for more.
We took seriously Guder’s assertion that the basis of the Christian gospel is the Christ event rather than a set of ideas about Jesus.
Boomer Translation
As we had a couple of Boomers in the group we started out with an analysis of ways in which the Christian gospel has been translated into Boomer culture.
Informality rather than formality. Entertainment as a value. People and personality count. We are now used to the use of movie culture in gatherings of Christians, not only in the use of multimedia but also in the sense of storyline and multisensory experience. We have developed product placement without a strong sense of awkwardness. Think of the Purpose Driven campaigns.
The message of the cross has been developed in ways that help Boomers discover and explore meaning, destiny, purpose and personal fulfilment. Jesus gives me meaning in life. He’s my master - giving me purpose and direction. He’s mate, providing me with friendship and intimacy. He’s helps me matter, helping me make a difference.
We talked about the reductionism that was emerging with these translations. We were seeing the loss of values of sacrifice, generosity, and community for sake of community rather than �me�. Giving was often promoted by Boomers as a good investment. Time was now more valuable than dollars.
Post War Translation
We now went back a generation to explore what the gospel might mean for those before the Boomers. We looked at the values espoused and lives by those who carried the values of the Uniting Church Adult Fellowship. This was a generation who found meaning and purpose in service, helping others, often in formal ways such as the Blue Nursing Auxillary. These were people who often had very few resources but had gifts of time. Fundraising was carried out by using the skills shared by Adult Fellowship members. Meetings were associated with information sharing and enfranchisement. The election of a woman as the President of the Adult Fellowship was not just a case of filling a gap. It had emerged in a time when women had little formal say in the wider church. We noted that many people in the seventies were struggling to make the transition from fellowship group to small groups focused on discipleship, prayer, personal sharing and Bible Study.
The Christian Gospel for these earlier generations, was often linked with having a place, a job, or a role. There was a sense of following in the way of Jesus who helped people and gave them a job to do, caring for the widows, the orphans and the poor. We noted the development of organisations such as Lifeline and Blue Nursing as expressions of this translation of the Christian gospel.
As leaders we explored what the Christian good news might be now for older generations coming to terms with the growing complexity of life in the community. What might the good news of Jesus be for people as they experience generational dissonance? Their contribution to an intergenerational handing on of faith was participation in the gospel. As we connected older and younger together in mentoring and shared work projects the gospel would take on new meanings for both. We noted the trend of developing child care centres in aged care centres.
Gen X and Y Translation
We talked about streams and key leaders in the emerging generations. We were seeing a growing sense of creativity in the electronic and digital fields, linked with the visual arts, rock music and ethnic diversity. Culture was being mixed (as in hiphop) and created.
As an aid to considering fresh expressions of the gospel for these emerging generations we considered the resource, 10 Gates to the Cross, based on John Driver’s book, “Understanding the Atonement for the Mission of the Church.” A Mennonite missionary, Driver has worked hard to develop understandings of atonement that take seriously the contexts of ethnic origins, socio-economic situations, life searches and personality.
The ten New Testament ‘gates to the cross of Jesus’ are outlined by Gordon Miller in a translation of Driver’s work for the New Zealand environment. They are deliverance, suffering, leadership, martyrdom, transformation, cleansing, service, peace, forgiveness and family. Forgiveness is the one approach that we were used to using to guide people into making a life-changing connection with Jesus. On reflection though, we realised that many people did not fit that gate when they were led through the ’sinner’s prayer’.
We looked at images of the cross in terms of Gen X and Y cultures.
Rather than just talking about Jesus winning a conflict and leading us into victory, we talked about Jesus struggling on our behalf to win us freedom and release.
The image of Jesus as our represenative, the leader, lent itself to the concept of modelling for us the re-invention of our lives in the image of God - helping us discover our true calling to life life with passion, desire, beauty and engagement with the Earth. We looked at the Earthy resurrection body as a key focus for starting again, following the Human One.
Another expression of Earthiness was the call to reconciliation in the context of peace, justice and ecology, being one with the land.
We examined the concepts of new ownership and slavery referred to in the New Testament. In the emerging generational context young adults were relating to Jesus as their mentor and coach rather than as their owner.
We explored the concept of adoption into a new family. This was good news for many young people who were longing for a community or context in which they were not alone.
We explored the New Testament concepts of cleansing and covering. Could this be linked with the relationship with God - ’someone who will look after me’. Or were were we looking at the removal of shame � the �feeling of being dirty� � linked with abuse? The development of a new state of purity, a fresh start, the removal of stigma and the development of a new identity? Inner healing and emotional wholeness.
We played with the images of bubble bath and flotation tank as well as the current trend to develop a ‘cleansing diet’. Could these be linked to explorations of the good news of Jesus?
The good news for emerging generations would need to include an experience of faithfulness. We looked back to the television advertisement for AIDS awareness, in which a woman has many partners before she finds the right one. Fidelity was an experience that was linked with the good news of Jesus.
The flotation tank took us to the exploration of the gospel in terms of 21st century justification. “I am free to be rather than achieve.”
We considered what this generation might learn from the pre-Boomer generations. Perhaps the capacity to live lives that involved sacrifice, community-related values and servant leadership. We are called to be helping others, even at a cost to our own happiness or comfort. We talked about examples of emerging missional church in which young Christians were developing a radical counter-cultural alternative to self-protection. There was a resonance with Jesus’ call to �make a difference�. We were called to be giving of ourselves in a non-sexual way.
We finished our time together buzzing with the good news of Jesus.
Tags: Baby Boomers, contextualization, Darrell Guder, Gen Y, Theology
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