Postmodern demise of sermons?

November 2, 2004 · Filed Under theology

Thanks to Rev. McCain’s Cyberbretheren for the heads-up on this…

Interesting article from the Associated Baptist Press entitled “Speakers predict sermons will change in next wave of postmodern worship”. The main thrust of the article is speculating about the demise of traditional sermons, as worship service formats change in response to the culture.

Interesting quotes:

I don’t think we will have master orators much longer, predicted Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia in Houston and a frequent commentator on postmodern culture. Art, dance and music are new forces that will play increasingly larger roles if the church is to be relevant to the Millennials, today’s teens and young adults.

The postmodern person “celebrates experiences” and wants to “engage all the senses,” he explained. “They have shorter attention spans and they process information differently from earlier generations. They learn through narrative — stories — and the visual is very important.”

This does not surprise me, even as it saddens me. It’s symptomatic of the misguided equating of worldly popularity with “relevance” and, thus, “effectiveness,” all at the expense of Truth & faithfulness.

As Rev. Dean Kavouras recently posted in a CAT41 TableTalk email (quoting a recent sermon by Rev. Peterson):

Still, the kingdom of heaven, even the kingdom within you, suffers violence. And it hurts. But if there is no violence, no struggle, then there is no kingdom. And that just may be what history sees as the demise of the Church in America: no struggle. When Church and culture are indistinguishable, the devil has won.

INdeed!

-ghp

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Tags: christianity, church, lutheran