Leadership in a Postmodern Context

October 30, 2012

“The church is a modern institution in a postmodern world…”

“The church must embody the gospel within the culture of

postmodernity for the Western church to survive the 21st century.”

Emerging Churches - Gibbs & Bolger – page 17

Emerging Churches - page 34

“Taking postmodernity seriously requires that all church practices come

into question.”

Ken Shuman D.Min.

We must learn to separate the gospel from our culture.

Real “Jesus” ministry is only possible when we believe we are not moving into a void, that we go expecting to

meet the God who has preceded us. We don’t have God in our pockets and we don’t take God to others.

Transforming Mission by David J. Bosch

We should never have transplanted Christianity

without breaking the pot in which the plant came.

“From the beginning of his time in India, Newbigin knew he was an

outsider who needed to listen to and learn the cultures of that vast

country’s people.”

“He would do this by sitting in villages with local religious leaders and they

would read each other’s sacred texts. Then Newbigin made a discovery: he

needed to relearn the gospel itself. He realized he hadn’t come to India just to

convert the Indian people…”

Missional: Joining God in the Neighorhood Alan J. Roxburgh

“As he lived among these people, he realized that the gospel was converting

him; it was questioning some of his most basic assumptions.”

Missional - Roxburgh - page 43

“Newbigin understood & modeled the engagement between Scripture,

gospel, & culture in ways most church leaders still have difficulty

recognizing.”

Missional

“Christendom was in part, about the church at the center of the

conversation.”

Transforming Mission by David J. Bosch

Our hope lies not in trying to create (for instance) just an Indian Christianity but a

Hindu Christianity.

Missional Church edited by Darrell L. Guder

The gospel is always conveyed through the medium of culture. It

becomes good news to lost & broken humanity as it is

incarnated in the world through God’s sent people, the church.

Missional Church edited by Darrell L. Guder

To be faithful to its calling, the church must be contextual that

is, it must be culturally relevant within a specific

setting. The church relates constantly & dynamically both

to the gospel & to its contextual reality.

Missional Church edited by Darrell L. Guder

It is important, then, for the church to study its context

carefully and to understand it. The technical term for this

continuing discipline is contextualization.

Missional Church edited by Darrell L. Guder

We must learn the skill of exegeting both the scripture

& culture.

Emerging Churches page 48

Characteristics of Emerging Churches

• Identifying with Jesus.

“Emerging churches stress the kingdom of God much more…”

“It began as a change of focus from the Epistles to the Gospels, as a way to understand Jesus

more profoundly.”