Massive cultural shifts are occurring in contemporary society. The reasons for these cultural quakes are many, but all boil down to the conviction that human reason, which gave birth to fantastic advancements in science, industry, and technology, has failed to keep its promises.
The underlying assumption of the Enlightenment and modern era was that human reason, freed from tyrannical forms of government and superstitious religion, could provide humanity with a peaceful and prosperous world. Such a world has not been born.
Rather what we see is worldwide oppression, racial and ethnic bigotry, rampant hunger, the destruction of the environment, the spread of political and sectarian terrorism and the technological ability to destroy all life on the planet in a matter of minutes. Instead of a world of peace and prosperity, human reason has helped bring into being a world filled with even greater turbulence and poverty.
Those who are observing the death of modernity recognize that human culture is also giving birth to something new. Currently society is in a period of transition, a time of tremendous shifting paradigms from the assumptions of modernity into something new and different. Many who are studying this cultural phenomenon refer to this period of transition as postmodernity.
In such a period of transition and upheaval, the question of the church's identity takes on new importance. Until recently, ecclesiology was not one of the more creative areas of study in Christian theology. Indeed, as Thomas Fingers has noted, theologians often seem eager “to defend those structures which paid their salaries.” This being the case, denominational heritage and power structures have usually hindered much inventiveness in the area of ecclesiastical reflections. As a result, throughout church history, essentially all matters related to the identity of the church have been supplied from the bias of dominant ecclesiastical traditions.
In a stable and unchanging environment, perhaps ecclesiastical considerations are unnecessary. This is a moot point, however, because we do not live in a stable and unchanging environment. The world is changing and it is the responsibility of the church to share the gospel in this changing cultural climate.
For this reason, the Baptist General Association of Virginia's Christian life committee seeks to open a dialogue among Virginia Baptists about how the church will emerge from these cultural shifts as an effective witness to the gospel. Our aim is to gather papers, dissertations, research projects, sermons, bibliographies, study aids, videos, audios and other materials that seek to lead the church to emerge from this period of cultural transition as better equipped to evangelisticly connect with people, especially those under the age of 30. The tentative title of this project is “The Challenge of Postmodernism: Connecting the Church With People.”
If you would like to contribute to this dialogue, we invite you to send material for consideration to Bill Nieporte, P.O. Box 362, Nassawadox, VA, 23413. Please send the materials in an electronic format, not on paper. You may also contribute via email at billnieporte@pastor.com.