word up

Words are a many wondrous thing.
I'm not sure if that last sentence makes any sense but I think a tiny captivates what I'm trying to say.
Words have been around for many many years and yet we seem to need more more of them to understand what they are saying.

Within the early modern society there was the concept that all words would be defined and once the definitions were agreed upon communication would be simplified and able to reach across all cultures. All society had to do was write down the definition for every word that anybody ever uses. Dictionaries were developed, vocabulary lists were studied and memorized, and a bright future of understanding and unity was not far off.
And yet here we are today. In a postmodern society filled with lightning fast communications with words that change meanings in a nano second. Being as old as I am I could give you a list of words that no longer come close to the meaning that they had back when I was a student in high school. Small words, big words, it seemed at the time everyone knew what you were probably talking about, and now it depends on where you are and who you're talking to. Examples of this phenomenon makes for great Internet forwarding e-mails mostly to old people, and an occasional funny country song.
In a postmodern world we understand that we need to spend the time necessary to identify what we mean when we say certain things. We know that not everyone agrees and in order to communicate we have to aknowledge that concept and communicate around it.
For Me it does affect the way that I teach the Bible. I tried to make it clear that my approach is not an approach that everyone takes, or that everyone should take just because I do.

I know that I no longer look for a three-point outline in a passage. I no longer look for a key verse. I no longer look for a theme of a passage. I no longer look for a title for a passage.
I believe interwoven within the words of the Bible is its ability to have meaning in all culture.that depending on who is reading it and their place in time and history the words that are read will have meaning to them. the meaning of the words will not be the final meaning, or the key meeting, or the ultimate meaning. That doesn't mean that once we have definitions for every Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic word in the Bible we will all agree, it means something far more complicated.
That complicated aspect of the Bible involves time, effort, and creativity in communicating through words to a culture in which words are constantly changing.
I do not believe our job is to convince culture to see Scripture our way I believe we are to help our culture to just see Scripture. I have faith the work of God will be done by God and my job is to communicate the best I can with the few words that I have and take the time to define within the moment they are being used.
and of course I could be wrong.

I find it fascinating that God used words to communicate to the world. That God would take on such a limited form of communication is humbling when I start to think about how proud people get including myself at how much of Gods Words We Know.
I find it arrogant that people believe that God would only use words to communicate with people. We need to listen and look for more than just words from God. And we need to understand that our words will never be enough.

Selling Right

the selling of Jesus is not a new concept within the church. During the medieval times the church sold any number of trinkets, coins, icons, and pieces of jewelry in order to obtain money for their projects and to give the purchaser a sense of forgiveness and/or a guarantee of heaven.

the Commodification Of Christ really took off during the modern era and reached its feverish pitch in the western culture when capitalism became the purveying philosophy in the market place and the church.
Foundationalism (as was mentioned in my January 12 blog) lent itself to the concept that if you were absolutely right then no one else could also be right. So if you were absolutely right you needed to get that information out into the public as soon as possible and make sure that everyone else who was wrong understood the right way, your way. Within the modern era those who belived themself to be right began to speak around the country at conventions, tent meetings, weeklong seminars, and anywhere else that they could find an audience who could possibly be swayed into now believing the right way.
Because speaking took so much time out of someone's life soon the concepts of books and study guides began to take hold. The publishing world was infiltrated with many wonderful Christian authors who could write a 13 week Sunday school series that would help set everyone in the church on the right path.
Writing books lead way to infiltrating the academic world and ultimately the development of schools, institutes, colleges, and universities that could raise up a generation of people that would know the right way.Teachers in these institutions desperate for opportunity and publishers desperate for money combined to make more authors , and more books and study guides were developed. Professors not only had to teach their classes, but had to write books and get out on the road to speak on weekends at large-scale conventions around the country so that they could sell more books so more people could know the right way.Conventions were soon run by the publishing world and if you did'nt have a new book(with a new right way) then you did'nt speak.
Foundationalism and capitalism within the Christian Church soon became a driving force within the creation of churches themselves. Pastors had to find a "issue" that they could inspire their people to rally behind. This "issue" would separate them (the right Christians) from the others (the wrong Christians) that of course lived in the same town or city. This process could be repeated multiple times and Christians could separate and divide while hanging on to the banner of being right, reading the right authors, and going to the right church.

I believe this concept is being corrected or fought against by the emerging generation.

So many Christian colleges that were built on the concept of the right way to believe are desperate to find an audience in this new culture.
So many churches and were built around the right "issues" are losing the younger generation and are desperate to win them back.
So many publishers are desperate to find an audience in our printing Christian books around subjects and topics that barely mentioned the Bible or Christ so that no one is offended because being right isn't making any money.
So many of those who bought into foundationalism and capitalism and "the commodification of Christ" are railing against the postmodern culture, they are trying to help the postmodern world see the error of their ways, they want the postmodern world to see the "right" way and join their group so that once again they can rule the world.

It's okay, they will get over it, but it will take a while.
Speak the truth in love, understand and communicate, grow, and enjoy the journey.

shake the foundation

Foundationalism is a philosophy of the modern era that is intoxicatingly simple and yet tremendously divisive.
The concept is this, build a foundation of undeniable facts upon which you can build your life, education, and relationships.because the facts are undeniable once you explain them everyone who is intelligent enough to understand you will have to agree with you.those who do not agree with you either did not understand you, can not understand you (because of lack of intelligence), or refuse to understand you With proper education all of these misunderstandings can be corrected, and when they are they will agree with you.

This philosophy was adopted in general by the corporate church. Most believed that given the opportunity to explain the undeniable facts of Christianity to the unbelieving world the world would have to agree with these undeniable facts and thereby become a Christian world.
Using the modern scientific approach to truth the church set out to determine all of the undeniable facts as set by God in His word. As they broke down each word in the Bible to its original form, and then defined that word in today's language they believed all Christians would then agree on everything building their foundation of truth and an arm of belivers to teach the world. The concept was simple and the victory would be worldwide and God's kingdom would come to earth.
This of course did not happen.The church corporately divided in two factions . One was referred to as mainline or "liberal" churches. Their foundation was based on emotions, history, and Academics (worldly wisdom). This allowed their foundation to not only be hard to deny but also very hard to prove. And allowed for great individualism to be expressed in what the Bible meant to you and how you were going to express that meaning either academically or practically in the world. The second was the fundamentalist camp of churches. Their foundation was based on the facts of God's Word through academic research, the search for the least complicated expression of what God's Word said, and the exaltation of individuals who "knew"God's word. their foundation was also very hard to deny or to prove.Neither of the two factions could dialogue with the other because to do so might mean that their foundation was wrong, and therefore not undeniable.
The foundational approach as we can see in history served to divide the Christian community into smaller and smaller factions. As each one divided they retained the foundational mindset and believed their interpretation of the facts was the only undeniable foundation upon which to build the church.
in order to get the "proper" facts out the churches divided into denominations, denominations put up schools, congregations were taught to be loyal, and those who disagreed were told to get better educated, or get out and never come back.

I do understand I am condensing a very large and complicated concept. So let me get to a very small and general point.

I believe one of the reasons why dialogue within the modern Christian community is so threatening both the Liberals and the Fundamentalists is because of the philosophy of foundationalism. The concept brings great fear to any discussion that may change what they would consider a block in their foundation.
Both sides are more than willing to discuss their belief system and the facts that lead them to that system. The concept behind this discussion is to allow you to hear their undeniable facts so that you will agree with them at the end of the discussion. With an undeniable foundation of facts supported by God and God's Word they fear that a dialogue that changes their foundation would mean that they are denying God.Foundationalism demands that you take a side. If you do not agree with the facts liberal or fundamentalist then you are on the other side and can be easily categorized as a "fearmonger" or "tree hugger" and thereby dismissed as ignorant and unable to understand what is clearly obvious to everyone else.

I write this in hopes to bring some understanding to those of us within the postmodern culture, as we tried to engage Christians from the modern era in dialogue.We within the postmodern church need to understand what we are asking a modern brother or sister to do when we want to dialogue over a particular concept or interpretation found in the Bible, or historical Church.(what the postmodern world calls deconstruction)
We are literally asking them to be willing to shake their foundations in order to consider the concept that someone, or something else might be worth considering.
Foundationalism is also the concept that fuels the idea that the postmodern world has no Truth. In the modern era when a foundation of truth was determined there was no more debate, discussion, or need to ever revisit those foundational blocks. In the postmodern world we are willing to revisit those blocks and are willing to say that all of them may need to be thrown out, so we can start over again.
A postmodern world is willing to be wrong, and still be passionately committed to what they believe is true. A foundationalist has no category in their philosophy to be passionate about truth and also be willing to be wrong.
(this is why I believe" faith" is more integrated in the postmodern world. The modern world put their"faith" more in the facts)

I believe the postmodern world is a wonderful world to be in. I believe it is cleansing the church of many traditions that were presented as God's truth. I believe it is breaking down division, and academic arrogance that the modern era polluted the church with, but let us remember to speak the truth in love.The modern era is not evil and the time and effort that was spent scientifically breaking down the Word of God is not to be discarded.
I hope this helps you understand your modern brother and sister a little better.

relational development

I do believe that relational patterns are learned by observing other relations. I believe that is the way we were created to obtain most of our information as to how our lives should be working in just about every area of our lives. God made it us so that we absorb what we see and default to that observation point when under stress. Pure knowledge/fact findings will not override what we have observed to be true in the relationships we have experienced. The thing that will override any facts or knowledge we have are the relationships that have been allowed to impact our lives. Knowledge or teachings that we have obtained carry with them authority in our lives based on the importance or depth of relationship we have with the person from whom we are obtaining the information.
the depth of relational contact and the teacher has with a student, that parents have with a child, that friends have with each other, will directly impact the information and individual determines to be true for them.
I know that when I deliver information, facts, knowledge, whatever the people that are receiving it are impacted by what I had to say based on the relational layers that we have developed. This variety of reception of the information I'm passing on is true from a casual meeting on the street to the children that live in my home. What I have to say may be listened to but will only be absorbed into their lives as truth to the depth of which I have been developing a relationship with them. There may be other relational layers that impact what I have to say, like friends of theirs who I do have a relationship with can let them know what I have to say is trustworthy, or through some multilayered experience what I have to say becomes information that is pivotal for what is going on in their life.
I don't think a church can have a class, or program that says if you follow these steps, and do this homework and then you will be a, disciple, teacher, Elder, worthy of membership, or any number of things that we develop so people will all know the right stuff. That type of modern approach to truth and knowledge only ends up dividing the body of Christ and separating the pieces of the body of Christ from the world.
Funny but what will work is what God says we should all do and that is maintain and develop a continuous relationship with him based on a journey not an arrival.what we do during that journey, and the things we learned along the way are what we pass on to those we come in contact with. I do understand you may use a curriculum to help communicate some of what you have learned by a curriculum should only be a small part not the essence of the training of God's people.
The biblical principle to follow is not one of curriculum in books but one of relational example. I know that this concept has been around for a long time, but overall many have become reliant on the academics of their spiritual journey and it missed out on the depth, beauty, and complicated mess that God intended our spiritual journey to be. In our effort to adapt the scientific approach to our spiritual walk we have boiled our Christian life down to its lowest common denominator. This epistemological approach certainly has sold a lot of books, launched a lot of seminar speakers careers, and started hundreds and hundreds of schools, but it doesn't make it right. A relationship development takes a lot of time and effort. Relational development will complicate your life. Relational development will enrich your journey and make you more like Christ.