We Have to Step Off of the Platform

Many of you, my dear readers, are not going to like what I'm going to post today. Some of you will be profoundly disturbed. Others of you will shout, "Amen!" As I've said before, I don't corner the market on truth, and things I say could be completely wrong. This is just how I see it. You might see it differently, and that's fine. But in the midst of everything I write here, please remember that I'm not your enemy.

Also, I'm going to be writing about things in general. I may or may not be talking about you specifically.

A couple of years ago, at an English District pastor's conference in Detroit, we had a speaker who taught us about postmoderism. On his powerpoint presentation he flashed a cartoon of a trapeze artist floating precariously in the air between the trapeze he left and the trapeze that was coming toward him. He looked very confused as to what to do-- should he go back and grab the trapeze he just left or should he grab the other trapeze and go forward?

The presenter went on to say that the church is caught between two eras (represented by the trapezes) and is smack dab in the middle of the postmodern transition, hanging precariously and confused on which way to go. Some will desperately try to cling to the modernist era but will find that it is swinging back the other way. It's fading out of sight. The only way to go is through the postmodern transition forward to what lies on the other side (which no one knows about... yet). The presenter told us pastors that we have to let go of the "trapeze" and go flying through the air to the next "trapeze".

Fine. But there's a small problem with this.

Now I'm speaking generally... this may or may not apply to you. If it does, it's not an insult. I'm just telling it like I see it.-- The LCMS hasn't even left the platform yet!! We haven't even grabbed onto the first trapeze. We've dug in our heels, grabbed the pole, and stayed put. We threw the modernists out! Remember the '70s?

There were people who were trying to get the LCMS to grab the trapeze, step off of the platform, and swing. But we said no and they left and took the trapeze with them. They called it Seminex. We stayed safely on the platform. And we're still there!

The presentation in Detroit was inapplicable to us. While it's true that society around us is flying through the air, we are back on the platform hanging onto the pole. Now here comes the funny (or not) part.

We expect the people flying through the air between trapezes to come back to the platform and join us (we call that evangelism), BUT THEY CAN'T!! We expect postmoderns to revert back to moderism as a way back to our premodern epistemologies. But they can't do it. It's not that they won't. They can't. Their hearts and minds won't let them. And besides, the modernist era is dying. The trapeze is heading back in the other direction and into oblivion.

Here's something else that's funny (or not): we can't reach the postmoderns from the premodern platform. We can't jump out beyond the first trapeze out to the middle. It's impossible. There's no jumping allowed! In order to reach those in the fuzzy middle, we have to grab the trapeze and step off of our platform. Which means that, if we want to remain a viable church body, we'll have to embrace (gulp!)-- modernism! But we'll have to do that with the realization that we can't hold onto it for very long because it too is dying. But do it we must!

At the present time our church body teaches things that most people, in their heart of hearts, don't believe anymore. I sense this just by talking to people. The really nice ones will pretend that they believe and go through the motions, but deep down, they just don't buy it. They'll stay because they see no viable alternatives. The ornery ones who leave the church become atheists because they see no viable alternatives. It's an either/or for most people-- either stay and pretend or leave and have no faith at all.

Okay. Now some of you are going to get into the "itching ears" thing, but I don't think these people have itching ears. They have sick hearts. They're not belligerent. They're confused. They're out in the wide open desert with nowhere to go. We can invite them in but they would rather be out in the desert. We might think that to be a bit odd, but to them it makes perfect sense.

I know this is scary stuff. But if we want to be a church body that truly reaches people-- and I mean truly reaches people-- then there are some things we'll have to let go of (and you know what those are). Of course, we are not in any way obligated to do this. But if we don't we will shrivel on the vine and die. Our membership will continue to dwindle.

By the way, the same thing will happen to the ELCA unless they let go of the trapeze they're on.

What does this all mean? Next post!!