The Conviction of Things Not Seenby Todd E. Johnson, ed.(Brazos, 2002)
The best way to reach postmoderns may be to return to a simpler time. Not the 1950s. More like the premodern church era.
That’s a common theme in this collection of essays in tribute to Robert Webber, college professor and founder of the Institute for Worship Studies. Webber has contributed to our understanding of worship as it is affected by postmodernism, something more resembling the first century than the twenty-first century. While the chapters read like treatises for a journal of higher education, within each essay we find a simple appreciation and admiration of Webber.
“In his most recent work (Ancient-Future Faith, Baker, 1999) he defines the threefold mission of the church as evangelism, education, and making an impact on the world. This threefold mission has further implications for the church of the postmodern era,” writes Dennis Okholm, Webber’s colleague at Wheaton College. “We come back to where we started—namely, Webber’s recognition of postmodernism’s receptive bent toward classical Christianity’s understanding of worship, his unwillingness to allow reason to dominate over mystery, or verbal communication over the symbolic.”
Mary E. Hess says postmoderns must be taught a new (old) language: “A generation of people socialized within a mass-mediated popular culture, in which explicitly theological language is often represented as belonging only to vehement fundamentalists, must now find ways to reclaim explicitly theological language that has resonance with their own experiences.”
Constance M. Cherry, who is on the faculty at Webber’s Institute and is executive director of worship and music at First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, says the church is in an age of disorientation regarding worship. “The longer the church stays fixated on style-driven worship and the longer it ignores the implications of postmodernism, the longer the period of disorientation will be.”
Befitting a man raised a fundamentalist Baptist who became an Episcopalian, the essayists cover a broad theological spectrum and a range of issues, including denominations, multiethnic churches, and the future of evangelism in this new era.
Bob GordonCharlotte, North Carolina
A Is for Abductive: The Language of the Emerging Churchby Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren, and Jerry Haselmayer(Zondervan, 2002)
Three forward thinkers offer vocabulary lessons. Author Leonard Sweet, Washington D.C. pastor Brian McLaren, and consultant Jerry Haselmayer have written a primer for Christian leaders puzzled about postmodernism. Some of the “language of the emerging church” examines current terms and concepts, some of it is of their own making—like “abductive.”
As society shifts to experientialism, this “postmodern encyclopedia” is designed to help Christian leaders make the shift, too. Forget deductive reasoning. Even inductive logic is out. By abductive reasoning, the authors say, we “seize people by the imagination and transport them from their current world to another world, where they gain a new perspective.”
Carmen DiCelloPottsville, Pennsylvania
Jim Cymbala’s Prayer List
From the Top 25 books that have influenced his ministry, the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle recommends these works on prayer and people of prayer.
The Life and Diary of David Brainerdby David Brainerd (Baker)
The Person and Work of the Holy Spiritby R. A. Torrey (Spring Arbor/Zondervan)
The Autobiography of George Mullerby George Muller (Anchor House)
Daniel Nash: Prevailing Prince of Prayerby J. Paul Reno (Revival Literature)
Humilityby Andrew Murray (Anchor House)
E. M. Bounds—Man of Prayerby L. Dorsett (CLC)
The Path of Prayerby Samuel Chadwick (CLC)
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