Cinnamon Creeden  ⎮  Fall 2010

In the New England area, between 25% to 30% of people attend church regularly.  Even so, the roughly 70% of non-church goers are not godless heathens who hate all things religious. Rather, as evidenced by numerous studies and the experience of the Church, they are spiritual “seekers” looking for peace of mind, self-awareness, self-actualization, and empowerment so they can realize what they were “meant to be.”  They are, for the most part, pursuing the sacred by looking to themselves rather than God or the Church.  Can the postmodern pursuit of the “sacred within” be embraced by the church in an effort to spread the Gospel and comfort those souls in need of grace?  

A spirituality that elevates the self over and above all else is typical of our postmodern times, and the Church needs to establish points of contact to meet the spiritual needs of those who live and breathe postmodern attitudes. However, using this postmodern spirituality to spread the Gospel immediately presents a problem. As evangelical theologian David Wells warns, the current spirituality is best understood as eros spirituality, where self is the center. Christianity, however, is centered on agape spirituality, which is centered on God. Agape is the intrusion of eternity into the fabric of life. God is sovereign and loved freely by the worshipper without ulterior motive. In the eros worldview, “the sacred is therefore loved for what can be had from loving it. The sacred is pursued because it has value to the pursuer and that value is measured in terms of the therapeutic payoff."  Agape surrenders.  Eros grasps.1

And when the Church tries to duplicate this grasp it can lead to the destruction of evangelical faith.  Once again, David Wells warns us: "For what these spiritualities do is invite the Church, theology, and faith to abandon their theme and object."  In other words, the seeker wants spirituality without religion or theological content.

This abandonment of theology has repercussions in every area of the church, but it is most apparent in worship.  Methodist theologian Lester Ruth points out that in church growth models, pragmatism motivates decisions about worship, and this can lead to removing things that are essential to Christian orthodoxy. The purpose of the church is not just to proclaim the kingdom, but to actually manifest the kingdom in some way.  It is in worship that the kingdom is most fully revealed in the church.  Worship that is true to eschatological vision is God centered, full of remembrance of what God has done in Christ, is communal, and “emphasizes baptism and the Lord’s Supper as key moments when the power of the kingdom most clearly intrudes into the present age.” Thus, worship should be "a rehearsal of the saving deeds of God in history.”  If we bend to the postmodern desire for little content or theology, worship will not call the worshiper to this remembrance.2  

However, true worship can still appeal to the postmodern spirit and remain faithful to God's purposes. Anglican theologian Robert Webber explains that throughout history there have been five major paradigms through which Christian faith has been communicated.  The paradigm of the early church was mystery.  It shifted to institution in the medieval period and to individualism at the Reformation, and Modernism's paradigm was reason. Now, postmodern people are turning away from their faith in reason to recognize the mysterious nature of the world in which we live, providing a true point of contact between this non-Christian seeking and the Church. Christian worship can return to its historic roots in the mystery and speak the language of the contemporary spiritual seeker.

Even more advantageous to the Church, there are elements of Christian worship that are truly favorable to the postmodern seeker. In contrast to the modern stress on communicating via reason and logic, postmodern communication favors symbols and immersed participation in the event. This style of seeking combines well with worship as participation in Christ--the model of the Ancient church, and of contemporary Anglicanism.  Robert Webber writes, "Worship is a rehearsal of the saving deeds of God in history.  God's saving actions culminate in the work of Christ, the overthrow of the powers of evil, and the ultimate establishment of the kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth."

This is why Christians must integrate postmodern ideology carefully in the Church. Our worship should reflect the centrality of Christ in a world that consistently tries to marginalize him.  The liturgy of the Church is instrumental--it realizes the content of our faith by using ancient and traditional symbols that pull us into the kingdom of God. And so, we are able to demonstrate and actually participate in the hope that drives us on. "This hope, this expectation of the renewal of all things in Christ, is also the vision in which the whole church lives.  The vision of new heavens and earth is no fantasy.  It is the reality, the truth.  Therefore, it is the hope that lies behind everything we do as Christians.”3 Without this content, the Church and its worship would be seeking as much as those who come to our door looking for answers.

1 “Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World,” David Wells

2 “A Theological Critique of Church Growth Worship,” Lester Ruth

3 Robert Webber