Trevin Wax provides a great list from DeYoung and Kluck’s book, Why We Love the Church.
Consistency is not a postmodern virtue. And nowhere is this more aptly displayed than in the barrage of criticisms leveled against the church.
- The church-is-lame crowd hates Constantine and notions of Christendom, but they want the church to be a patron of the arts, and run after-school programs, and bring the world together in peace and love.
- They bemoan the over-programmed church, but then think of a hundred complex resource-hungry things the church should be doing.
- They don’t like the church because it is too hierarchical, , but then hate it when it has poor leadership.
- They wish the church could be more diverse, but then leave to meet in a coffee ship with other well-educated thirtysomethings who are into film festivals, NPR, and carbon offsets.
- They want more of a family spirit, but too much family and they’ll complain that the church is “inbred.”
- They want the church to know that its reputation with the outsiders is terrible, but then are critical they the church is too concerned with appearances.
- They chide the church for not doing more to address social problems, but then complain when the church gets too political.
- They want church unity and decry all our denominations, but fail to see the irony in the fact that they have left to do their own thing because they can’t find a single church that can satisfy them.
- They are critical of the lack of community in the church, but then want services that allow for individualized worship experiences.
- They want leaders with vision, but don’t want anyone to tell them what to do or how to think.
- They want a church where the people really know each other and care for each other, but then they complain the church today is an isolated country club, only interested in catering to its own members.
- They want to be connected with history, but are sick of the same prayers and same style every week.
- They call for not judging “the spiritual path of other believers who are dedicated to pleasing God and blessing people,” and then they blast the traditional church in the harshest, most unflattering terms.”
I actually find DeYoung and Kluck’s list very unhelpful and banal.
Though certainly sprinkled with a smattering shallow realities, all they have done is sewn a strawman together from stereotyped scraps of nebulous fringe and then batted it about with their cute little quips.
I have not read the book, nor the larger context the quote resides within, but I hope that the rest is better than this.
By: Chris Bennett on November 18, 2009
at 1:57 pm
I think it is only unhelpful in the same way many people associated with the ‘emergents’ abuse the word postmodern. While their list is perhaps a bit general (and really funny) it displays the same misunderstanding of any conception of postmodern or critical thought that many ‘emergents’ display. On the whole I think this is a funny post but would say that the way in which such folks as the emergents need to be critiqued is probably more adequately undertaken in the work of William Cavanaugh, Hauerwas, and Milbank as their deconstructions of liberal democracy from the traditions and sacraments of the historic Church really cut down the new liberal individualism that many in the emergent camp seem to arrogantly display. I include myself in that as well, at least the ‘I’ who I was 2 years ago
By: Lucas Wright on July 3, 2010
at 11:49 am