The Office Curmudgeon

Bringing it all together here. Frank Johnson references my blog post regarding Godcasting on Strategic Digital Outreach, providing his view on how to use this technology. Through his references we also find Mark Batterson who writes about taking your preaching off-road, and just recently Blogging Church posted a new podcast interview where Terry Storch interviewed Mark on his success with podcasting.

Whether you may be ready or not, Godcasting has started some in depth conversations on a new way to bring people to Christ.

Clif and I have occasional conversations on reaching postmoderns, and we, like Mark, see Godcasting as another conduit to bringing people to Christ. As I read and listened to the blog posts I referenced above, I have the strong feeling that this is not only a way to reach everyone, but can be the primary way to reach postmoderns.

Postmoderns church shop with Google, not the local phone book. They want to experience the church before having to walk into the doors, and those church websites that do it most effectively will be the ones winning that walk in. (See my post Personal Thoughts Of A Confessed Postmodern). They want to have theological conversations without feeling the closterphobic pressure of being preached to. They want you to tap the core conflicts they have in their life right now. Best of all, I’d wager they’re willing to listen. Perhaps while they’re working out, or driving to work, or doing whatever A.D.H.D. activities they tend toward. I think if you can converse with them, they will not be opposed to steping through the doors on Sunday.

I had heard of the term postmodern, but ignored it’s meaning up until a couple weeks ago, the act of which I was informed to be categorically postmodern. :/

It seems that the majority of medium to large successful churches are starting the full swing into finding the answers to post-modern thinking. I find more and more people in the discussion of how to reach them, and how they communicate — the wascally postmodewn.

I am now a confessed postmodern. I am indeed a postmodern, but not so much as my wife. She, being a couple years younger than I, exhibits more postmodern traits and I would consider her a tough case. This past Sunday, we attended a different church. After the service, we walked out of the church and she commented, “Scratch that one off the list. Adding it to my black book.” (Yes, she knows instantly whether something meets approval.) I had to dig deeper. Over time I’ve learned that she goes to church to worship God, not be preached to. She worships by singing in the contemporary band, and by singing and praising the Lord every day.

As we walked to the car and drove away, I asked her what a sermon needed for her to enjoy it. I’ll spare the details, but after many minutes of “extraction”, it came down to being entertained. Humor, relating the scripture to occurrences in her life, the use of visuals over written text, etc. If you can find a way to entertain her and at the same time embed the message into “the show” – you’ve got her. I intend to take her to an emergent worship service and see what she thinks, but I am guessing she’ll enjoy it. More on that after it happens.

I suggest that turning the sermon into entertainment isn’t desecrating the service in the eyes of a postmodern. I can hear the modern statement now, “A sermon is not entertainment.” But, if you entertain them, they will listen. If you preach to them, they will most likely squirm in their chairs and pews with ADHD tendencies. In the future, I imagine moderns reeling with what post-moderns will do to their sacred traditions. “You’ve totally ruined it! That is not worship!” you’ll hear them say, if you haven’t already. So I wonder if most moderns can even reach post-moderns, or will they be stopped short by their own worldview, powerless from making the changes necessary to reach postmoderns?