A Reflective Rant Concerning Postmodernism, Objectivity and The Emerging Conversation

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<reflective rant> I talk before I think, and often. But don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: It is a good character trait! It is a good character trait with a bit of potential for bad. I would rather be the guy who talks before he thinks than the guy who never says anything because he is thinking. A handful of bad consequences born from talking before thinking are more valuable than a million good thoughts never spoken. I, however, don’t stop there. I actually act before I think too. Now, that’s a bit risky. I’m a spontaneous guy, for sure, but I think what I’m talking about here goes well beyond spontaneity. I’m talking about taking real risks. I see a chaotic fray and I’ll dive headlong into it and worry about the cognitive aspects of my act during tomorrow’s reflections. The dive has garnered me way more success in life than it has failure, but it has also introduced me to more than a few unfortunate experiences. That’s the risk! And it’s a good risk! After all, you never really know what’s in a fray until you dive into it and take a good look around for yourself. In fact, until you do so, it’s all second-hand knowledge. If “knowing” is worth it, if 1st hand knowledge is worth it, than the risk is a good one no matter what you find in the fray. So, the dive – succeed or fail – is an edifying one. Risky? Yes! You might lose! You might win! Sometimes you chase the bear; sometimes the bear chases you. That’s real life and living! That’s reality!

And when we do think, we – all of us – think contextually too. So, all of the aforementioned risk is really, really specific and amplified in each of our lives. I am, for example, a son, father, husband, friend, church planter, pastor, and theologian. I am a thinker who swims in the deep confluence of the different streams created by my personal combination and arrangement of all of these things. I think while I swim in my personal confluence, as do all of you. None of us can honestly separate or compartmentalize these things enough to actually say that we can think and swim separately. We are thinking and swimming simultaneously at any and every given moment. We also do all of these things out loud and in concert with others, online and offline. We all do! We don’t figure things out or draw up detailed systemic plans in private, we do it all publicly. We do it all “way out there” in real-time with friends and enemies alike.

I am a follower searching for the path while I simultaneously invite others to simultaneously follow me and permit me to follow. So are you.

If this all sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. It is a lot. We are, after all, talking about life. Life is neither simple, nor is it automatic. We have to actually want to live. We have to actually take the risk and step out into the world and live. If you can do so without encountering any of the above, then you are not a human being at all; you are an alien from another planet! You just aren’t aware of it yet! Risk is a natural part of life and living. So, make the most of it!

I will say this: It’s better to be out searching for the path than it is to be inside listening to someone else tell you all about the path. Leaving that easy scenario is the epitome of risk. It’s a risk all of us should take. That idealistic place where we all know we should be living and we all want to be living can only be accessed by traveling through places never before heard of, imagined, or seen. We all have to wander. We all have to act before we think. This is the story of faith.

So, what’s the point of this post? Frankly, the catalyst for my above reflections is the latest sermon series I’m preaching at church. The title of the series is “Meeting God in the Gray.” I have personally learned a lot during my own time of research and preparation for this series. I’ve learned even more from subsequent conversations with individuals who have heard, engaged, and dialogued with me about each sermon of this series. Pastors should learn and be changed by their own sermon research and delivered sermons. Otherwise, what do they really have to say or share with the people who show up to listen to them? We all should be changed and changing.

The biggest lesson I have learned during my sermon preparation time is this: I have been completely mistaken about postmodernism and ideas involving total and complete objectivity (pure reason). I would like to make a public retraction for all that I have said prior to this moment about postmodernism and objectivity. Why? Because the former is real (when understood correctly) and the later is a total myth (which substantiates the first statement). I’d also like to publicly retract all I have negatively written about the so-called Emergent conversation too. Why? Because that conversation is entirely focused/founded upon the realities of postmodernism and the myth of total objectivity. It’s a valuable conversation, and it’s high time I just admitted it.

I’ll be writing about postmodernism, the myth of complete objectivity, and how all of it is living happily between the covers of our Bibles (and therefore should be an important aspect of hermeneutics and interpretation and real-time application). Yes, it’s all very, very important to faith. And I was completely wrong about it.

So, for now, I’ll simply say that retractions like this happen to guys like me who talk and act before they think. I don’t apologize for that, because I actually believe that acting before we think is totally unavoidable, usually works out for the best, and that’s who I am. I do, however, know when I’m wrong. And for that I do apologize to Emergent Village, Jones, Pagitt, McLaren, Bell, etc., for slamming something before I completely understood what it was or what I really was doing. And it’s not like I was totally in the dark on all of this stuff; it’s just that I didn’t want to admit it. I instead chose to vehemently argue against it for a number of completely self-serving and unenlightened reasons (the biggest being for the sake of those insecure folk involved with my immediate/local ministry who didn’t want anything to do with their own bad presuppositions and preconceptions of postmodernism and the emerging church). Then I ran into this quote from Marianne Williamson:

“You are a child of God, your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t be insecure around you.”

That quote hit me like a wrecking ball this past January and absolutely changed everything for me. Williamson’s quote jogged my memory and reminded of the message God gave me. I have studied it well. And I will not keep it to myself for the sake of others anymore. It’s who I am and I can;t be anything else, not even for people who might come to our church. I know how to change directions; I know it well. I have no problem with admitting error and re-calibrating. I’ve done it before. Sometimes swimmers change course in midstream. That’s not a bad thing! It’s a good thing because the bigger point to be celebrated is the fact that we are all in the water! I’m swimming there, and now a directional change must happen, midstream.

So, I just want to say that I do have a deep respect for the conversation with which the so-called emerging church was engaged. Some say the “emerging church” is dying today. I freely admit that I was one who had hoped it would die quickly. That hope, however, was rooted in my own misunderstanding and self-serving self-interests. I was wrong. I hope – I pray – that this conversation not only continues, but also grows stronger because it is beyond valuable. I could care less if it’s called “emerging,” but I do hope the conversation continues. It’s a worthwhile conversation. I knew it then and I know it now. The difference is I’m prepared to say it out loud, no matter the costs. We all should be prepared to do so if we honestly believe in it, regardless of the costs. Acts chapter 29 doesn’t have to be orphaned to Kierkegaard’s Philistine. </reflective rant>

Related posts:

• The Great Emerging Church Failure

• Emerging and Classic Brethren in Christ Ecclesiology

• Postmodernism, Pluralism, and Ethics

• Nine Traits of Emerging-Missional Worship

• Pagitt’s Three Categories of Emerging Ministry