Postmodernism

I attended a beneficial seminar in Troy on Saturday morning. For nearly 3 hours at Woodside Bible Church, Dr. Grier of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary shared thoughts on the Church and culture. Here are some things that stood out to me:

• He's old but he has a great heart for Jesus, for people. He talked about time with the Church in Zambia this past summer and was quite touched by it. A soft heart in an old body is a beautiful thing!
• He's old but he has a great philosophical and practical understanding of today's culture.
• I was 're-impressed' with his very fair appraisal of Postmodernism; he verbalized how it's impact on the Church is both good and bad. In my circle, most people tend to demonize PM and applaud Modernism.
• The underlying spirit of PM is skepticism.
• PM young people are interested in whole ministry and mystery.
• Spurgeon never preached more than 30 minutes. He wed rationalism and romanticism.
• The language of Matthew 5 ['You are...'] is plural, as in, 'you all' or 'y'all'. The Modern Church has individualized too much Bible teaching.
• Because the Father sent the Son, and the Father and the Son sent the Spirit, and the Father, Son and Spirit sent the Church; the Church can be defined as 'a people sent on a mission.'
• Spiritual formation is the Spirit's work.
• Use the narrative; get away from deductive reasoning and systematic theology.
• Loyalty to Jesus Christ works out to (infects) everything (each piece of our fragmented world).
• PM evangelism requires a review of language. Abandon church cliches, theological terms, church-ese.
• No evaluation = no improvement

Again, it was really refreshing to hear Dr. Grier speak. He shared his heart, mind and observations. I don't know how much longer he's got to go, but praise the Lord for what he has done with him and through him!