Barriers for Postmoderns?
Author of No Perfect People: Creating a Come As You Are Culture in the Church, John Burke claims that there are "five sociological barriers for postmoderns: tolerance, truth, trust, brokenness, aloneness." Would you agree? How have you experienced and redemptively engaged these barriers?
posted by Jonathan Dodson @ 8:46 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:18 PM,
Kester Smith... said…
I don't think they're THE 5, and I don't think Burke would say so either. I'd say they're a significant 5.
Ways I've seen these barriers come down:
1) tolerance -the answer to tolerance is love, unconditional love. The fact is that tolerance of sin is too much and tolerance of people is too little. We have to love people and hate the sin that seeks to destroy all of us. I have found that when I offer love to people, they give me credit for tolerance or open-mindedness than I actually have. That's because they're used to an intolerance of sin being married to a hatred of sinners.
2) truth -truth is solved by being applied first to myself. Those outside the church may not know about the speck and the log, but they appreciate the concept. Once I'm willing to deal truthfully with my own sin, to apply universal and difficult truths to my life as well as others, I find that this truth doesn't seem harsh. In fact, it's welcome. The truths that people reject in pamphlets they accept from friends.
3) trust -this is sort of a combination of one and two. If I love someone and am honest with them, we learn to trust each other, little bits at a time. Time is a key factor here, we have to stop expecting people to trust us just because our message is true. Even if I really do intend to take the neighbor's kid to Disneyland, doesn't mean he should get in my car.
4)brokenness -all of these are so connected. So much of why we make house church our defining experience is because of the opportunities for us all to be broken. We have to be the people who can say "my life is coming apart" if we expect the message of hope to have any credibility.
5)aloneness -this, more than any, is answered specifically by the Body of Christ. I find that those who would have rejected "church" in the past are incredibly attracted to a group of people who love them unconditionally and keep them from going it alone. As we say at Immanuel "no promises of an easy road, just people to walk it with you."
At 7:37 AM,
Jonathan Dodson said…
thanks for your input kester. yeah, i didnt mean to imply that they are a canonized five....nevertheless,as you have pointed out, they are interwoven and helpful.
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