thejakers

In case you missed it, here is a great video released last week on the rise of the Internet, called “Did You Know 4.0″.

The statistics in the video are startling for sure. But they confirm what we intuitively already know – as a culture, we’re completely overloaded with information, especially the younger up-and-coming generation.

As the communications director at a church that has a average age of 26 or so, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the challenges that the Internet creates for us – and the Church at large – in terms of engaging people with the gospel. I’m going to be sharing here some of my thoughts on the subject over a few posts.

In this post I want to discuss why I think the Internet, and specifically social media, is ushering a fresh and new challenge for the church that I don’t think we’ve fully articulated, and that I’m not sure we are adequately prepared to engage. To be clear, I’m figuring out my thoughts on this as I go, and hope to open a healthy dialogue on this topic. Input from you will be much valued.

Post-Modernism is Dying

If you’re like me, much of your ministry training in terms of apologetics has been focused on contextualizing the Gospel for a post-modern mindset. And while this is important, I’ve got this sneaking suspicion that we’re fighting a battle that has already been lost in some respects. While we decry post-moderns, the reality is that the world has pretty much wholesale accepted this philosophy, which has been moving full force since the 1960’s. My concern is that as a church we may be fighting old battles and not seeing the new threats on the horizon.

I’ve been thinking that post-modernism is dying. It’s on it’s last legs. Taking its place is what I’ll call Digitalism. Whereas Post-Modernism (in simplified terms) was the subjection of truth to cultural context, Digitalism is the subjection of truth to personal context.

In a post-modern world, there was still some semblance of universal truth, granted it was solely within the realm of culture. But the reality was that you were still held accountable to the truth by those whom you interacted with within your culture. The reality of day-to-day interactions necessitated that people would call you on your crap and bring you in line with cultural truth. Why? Because whether you liked it or not, you were forced to be exposed to people of varying opinions, and more often than not, the majority opinion – public truth – was still upheld, and you were expected to adhere to it.

Whereas Post-Modernism was the subjection of truth to cultural context, Digitalism is the subjection of truth to personal context.

In the world of Digitalism, we are no longer forced to interact with those who disagree with us. Through our various Internet interactions, especially our social media platforms, we can easily delete friends from our lives who would dare to question our version of reality – our personal truth. For the Digitalists, the ego is supreme. Truth is derived completely from within, all reality is subjectified to personal taste, preference, and experience – and most importantly, only those who carry the same truth, or who are willing to not question that truth, are sought out to become part of community. Digitalists are creating worlds within worlds. Worlds that are not bounded geographically, but instead ideologically.

So my question is: How Does the Church Engage the Digitalists?

Part two of this series will explore some of my thoughts on what we are doing right and what I think we might do better to engage this cultural shift in its early stages. But in the meantime, I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts.

1. Do you believe that post-modernism is dying? If so, what are your thoughts on the concept of digitalism I’ve presented here?

2. What do you see as the important strategies we need to employ as the church to engage the Digitalists?

This is the first in a series of blogs I’ll share on the process of starting a Theology Pub here in Tempe, AZ.

So, I’m starting a theology pub. What is that you might ask? Good question. I don’t really know. It’s a relatively new idea – at least for modern American evangelicals. For folks such as Luther, whose wife brewed beer, and who enjoyed throwing a few back while discussing justification by faith with the locals, it was a simple way of life that didn’t need a cool title:

“Whenever the devil pesters you, at once seek out the company of friends, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some form of merriment.” Martin Luther

“Whenever the devil pesters you, at once seek out the company of friends, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some form of merriment.” Martin Luther

For Luther, beer was a gift from God, not to be shunned, but rather to be enjoyed – and it was best enjoyed in the company of others. I’ll just get the caveat out of the way here, Luther was against drunkenness (as we all should be).

Sermon on Soberness and Moderation against Gluttony and Drunkenness, 1 Peter 4:7-11, May 18, 1539

“God does not forbid you to drink, as do the Turks; he permits you to drink wine and beer: he does not make a law of it. But do not make a pig of yourself; remain a human being. If you are a human being, then keep your human self-control. Even though we do not have a command of God, we should nevertheless be ashamed that we are thus spit upon by other peoples. If you want to be a Christian, do not argue in this way: Nobody reproaches me, therefore God does not reproach me. So it has been from the time of Noah. And so it was with the Sodomites, who wanted to rape the angels; they were all so drunk they could not find the door. Sodom and Gomorrah perished because of a flood of drunkenness; this vice was punished. God does not tolerate such confusion and inordinate use of his creatures [i.e., food and drink].” (As quoted on Ted Tschopp’s Blog)

So with all this in mind (and the fact that I love pubs and beer – as do most of my un-christian friends), I thought what better way to be missional than to bring the gospel into the context of a local pub. So that is what we are going to do.

I’m, of course, not nearly the first to do this. Earlier this week I had a great conversation with Joe Thorn, pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in the Chicago area. He just hosted his first Theology Pub in March. Around twenty or so people showed up to talk about God, society, and culture – around 40% were unchurched and unchristian. Everyone loved it. The buzz is already building and a number of people who might not otherwise step foot in a church are very excited about the prospect of discussing Theology at a local pub.The eventual goal for Joe is to have a 50-50 split of church members/christians and unchristian folk.

I’m encouraged to hear the groundswell that is building around Redeemer’s program. Our own Lord is of course a model for us in this sense because he was quite often mocked for hanging out with “sinners” by “holy” pharisees.

Matthew 11:19
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Mark 2:15-17
“15And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  16And the scribes of1 the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’  17And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’”

In is in this spirit that I wish to start a Theology Pub – not as a cool anti-evangelical emergent thing, but rather as an intentional missional (by missional, I mean this) endeavor intent on spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to “those that are sick.” One pint at a time.

Please keep me in your prayers as I work towards launching this exciting adventure. Grace and peace.