Postmodern lament

by Duane Sweep
Associate for Communications
Synod of Lakes and Prairies

I grow tired hearing about the decline of the mainline Protestant church.

We’re in the postmodern, post-Christendom world. We’re maybe in the post-postmodern world.

In our postmodern world we have taken a second look at the dominant culture, deconstructing its attitudes and beliefs, and skeptically exposing multiple translations of the historical text.

In our post-Christendom world, we have seen a decline in the practice of Christian religion, first in Europe and now across North America. We have seen a rise in secular beliefs and attitudes that have replaced Christian thought in the developed nations.

It’s a time, at least for some who have spent their life within the structure of the church, to lament.

But I grow frustrated when those lamentations become too frequent, when those lamentations seem to undermine what is good, when those lamentations attract too much attention, causing the good to go unnoticed.

I often find the lamentations tiring.

I grow tired when service is overshadowed by preaching or when preaching is a prerequisite for service.

I think of the child who goes to school hungry, the child who finds a way to get to school when parents are too drunk or too stoned to drive, the child who might have all the toys but is sexually abused at home.

When we as the church help the children who need help the most we are proclaiming the gospel.

And I grow tired when providing the shelter, nurture and fellowship to God’s children is discussed less than declining church membership.

When we as the church open our doors, accepting others without restriction, without requirements, without expectations, we are taking the right step.

And I grow tired when I hear that a traditional worship service serves a congregation’s older members while a contemporary service responds to younger worshipers.

When we realize that worship can take many forms, when we learn to accept that not everyone worships as we do, we will probably be taking the right step. When we accept that many forms of worship are divine, we might be taking one more step in the right direction.

And I grow tired when some within the church deride Presbyterian-related colleges and universities for being too secular, questioning whether those institutions meet some standard of what it means to be Presbyterian.

When we recognize the search for knowledge is a necessary part of preserving the truth, we will better see that we as the church are served by our colleges and universities, not the other way around. Our colleges and universities are a part of our history and certainly a part of our future.

And I grow weary when congregations are faced with vandalism for encouraging the participation of those who have been rejected in other areas of our society.

We can be reassured of the church’s work in social righteousness by the courage of those who are willing to accept renunciation for welcoming the marginalized.

It really is a new day. We need to accept that we live in a time of change, of doubts, of ambiguity. And I believe change, doubt and ambiguity are not only acceptable, but will be permanent fixtures of the age in which we live.

While we move through and within this postmodern time, we should do less lamenting.

We have a future and we need to be willing to explore our way into it, not hanging on to our structures, not lamenting a decline in the number of those like us, but looking to the good that exists today and trying to discover how we will move that forward.