I'm exhausted with the word "Post-Modern". As we all only have one life to live, perhaps its true that each generation spends their life trying to define their culture...it wouldn't shock me. Since this is my first time here on earth, and I've only been here 26 years, I am going to conclude that it's our nature to define our surroundings which would then have to include a definition of our current culture. I see different sects of society trying to place titles on different definitions of life. Currently, because of my lifestyle and vocation, I hear and watch the church trying to title and define ways to successfully speak to the emerging postmodern culture that our society has willingly given itself as a label.
My point? Hmmm...I struggle with how to communicate it without seeming "stuck in the mud". I'll pose it as question: As a church, is our motivation to first be relevant and then knowlegeable; or is it that our motivation places knowledge as the highest priority and then learn to relate it in a relative way? That's a loaded question because it implies there are only 2 approaches.
I've got to dump this frustration out before I get turned off from it all. In my mind, I picture a land plot of 100 acres laid out with the sun putting a glare of light across the neighboring rode as it starts it journey across the sky. A father-son team sits on porch swing as they analyze their surroundings. Their goal is easy to see...produce a fruitful crop that feeds the family and generates a healthy income. The debate starts at the point of strategy development. How will they go about achieving this common goal?
Since the church first began, different philosophies and theories have been developed, practiced, and put to rest. Some have succeeded more than others with most having the same goal: to build the Kingdom of God. Today, we're shin-high in the postmodern waters. Some have yet to arrive at the beach, but that doesn't slow the development of our culture. It's breathing...growing...moving! So, we (the Church) respond. Roundtables of thinkers and doers have gathered to define what the "emerging culture" is wanting...how it's receiving information...what it's philosophy is...what drives it. Conclusions have been made, but defining a culture that shuns labels and programatic thinking immediately limits the process by putting it in a "box".
I'm tired of talking about the fact that post-modernity exits...I don't get all happy-faced when magazines put out stories on post-modernity. I want to build the Kingdom of God. As we continue to examine what it means to live in a "Postmodern" or "Emerging Culture", I pray that we don't let go of our first call to seek God and then learn to understand culture. There are pastor violating their relationship with God, but their understanding of the current culture could easily get them a book deal. Knowing culture is essential...critical...absolutely necessary. A person will not be as effective as they can be without understanding it. However, our desire to know culture cannot surpass our desire to know God. That's it. That's what I really wanted to say.
Life News:
Katy received a call yesterday evening from a professor who assigns the "student teaching locations". He eventually got the point of telling Katy that she was 1 of 4 students selected to teach in the best of all the surrounding districts. However, after being selected, the school district of which she was assigned was informed that they were not allowed to have any student teachers during the semester because of an accredidation process occuring during the semester. Because of this late news, Katy was left without a "teaching home". The default location: an inner-city high school located 20 miles away.
We've come to this conclusion: God has a very specific reason for Katy to be teaching at this school. Whether it is something she will learn or what others will learn through her...we're confident that God is in this.
So...the good news is that Katy knows where she'll be teaching next semester. The better news is that it was definitely God's decision and not ours.
That's it.
-DK
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