Matt Stone, at Eclectic Itchings, (recently Circle of Dionysius) raises the question, “Is it helpful to characterise the postmodern / modern cultural shift as a generational gap?”
He goes on… “Should ministers view churched youth as postmodern simply by virtue of their age? Should they assume there is no postmodern / modern gap between people of the same generation? Should they delegate responsibility for postmodern ministry to youth pastors? Or is the “generational gap” interpretation too simplistic an analysis? Could it be that many churched youth live in a semi-permeable modernist bubble, and that postmodern ministry which uses churched youth as a benchmark is way off base? Could it also be that treating postmodern ministry as a youth phenomenon leaves many adults adrift?”
I’m sure there’s a story behind this helpful set of questions. Here’s one of my stories.
At the Queensland Synod meeting in 2003 (Uniting Church) Craig Mitchell led us in an interactive multimedia exploration of potential connections with young adult subcultures, including body-related spirituality, rave community, beach life and hospitality. Afterwards I was talking to a fairly conservative Evangelical minister – who was fuming. “My daughter would not be interested in any of this. She’s never gone near the sub cultures Craig’s talking about. Why didn’t we talk about Jesus tonight? Because that’s what she would be interested in.”
Yes – there lies the challenge. Some of the people in those subcultures outlined by Craig were members of my church. Many other church members were disgusted at having to hear music from a rave party, especially with the ‘blasphemous words’ of “Tonight God is my DJ”. When we talk about the church struggling to engage with postmodern culture, that includes young people.
Postmodernists don’t usually grow into modernists. Often it’s the other way round. We’re more likely to consciously engage with the challenges of postmodernity when we get to the point of synthesizing and integrating our beliefs and values, in early adulthood or later in life when we’re stretching our boundaries. There’s a developmental factor happening here. I’ve noticed that the most conservative people around are often people between the ages of 14 and 20. They’re dead certain that the model they’ve inherited is the way to go. It’s not until they’ve had the freedom to synthesise and integrate their own faith and values that they become more open to seeing things more laterally.
However, we’re all, no matter what age we are, living and breathing the air of a world that has modernity and postmodernity mixed up together. Modernism is alive and well in the education system my teenage children are in (Christian school teaching Queensland State curriculum). Success is measured in terms of getting assignments in on time, with the correct learning outcomes fulfilled. They’re told what to learn and how to present that learning. Original thinking is not encouraged. At the same time the English classes are engaging with discourse analysis of film as text. What’s coming through for my kids is that modernism provides containers for measurement and precision. Postmodernist critiques help them recognise that their lives do not fit neatly in those boxes. It’s a case of ‘This, and more’.
The 12/25 Challenge
Matt’s questions are in response to “The 12/25 Challenge: Reaching the Youth Generation”, a paper presented to the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization hosted in Thailand by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization last year. The lead writer of the article was Roland Werner from Germany (pictured left).
In the paper Roland’s team says:
“In general, there are four cultural barriers facing the church in ministry with youth. Firstly, there is a church versus unchurched barrier. The vast majority of youth in the world are unchurched and do not readily understand or care about the church’s message.
In the Western world there is a modern versus postmodern divide. Much of the church continues to hold to formulations of doctrine that were a response to modern issues. They served their time well. Today’s youth has a postmodern sensibility and traditional ways of explaining the gospel message typically do not answer the questions that many youth have.
Thirdly, there is a technological gap. The advent of computers and the internet have changed the way people communicate and think. The church often lags behind.
Fourthly, there is an age or generational gap. The result of this is a cultural divide. We have a missiological task before us. As with any other missional work, we must employ the forms of the culture in order to communicate the meaning of the gospel.”