The greatest flaw of the postmodern church

This was posted in the Wordsmith's Calenture (link on the right) but I thought it was worth posting here too, since nobody really goes there.

The greatest flaw of the postmodern, contemporary churches such as the Pentecostals and AOGs has to be the fact that they (we) are mired in the culture of our day - postmodernism, where individual truth reigns supreme and deification of whatever we hold as an ideal is common.

We see it with Hollywood celebrities, Presidential candidates - and, more recently, preachers and worship leaders in church. Often people are drawn to church by the sheer power of a person's name. Not that there's anything wrong with that initially, but if that becomes why a Christian attends church, then the basis of that Christian's faith is at best shaky and at worst heretical. One of the two main purposes of the church is to act as a sort of portal to God; a way in which people can come and regularly encounter God.

However, it seems as though many have forgotten how to encounter God naturally; perhaps they never learned how to begin with. These days, it's more about who's leading the worship and who's speaking, rather than what one can gain out of what's being preached. In other words, a combination of individual consumerism and celebrity deification, rather than a connection to God.

Now, this isn't to say that coming to church to see a guest preacher is wrong; simply that the level of expectation should be the same regardless. If we are more excited about going to church for one person over another, we must examine our motives for even being at church in the first place. Granted, we're all human, but if we at least bear this in mind, we can check ourselves and be mindful of where we're heading.

This is a byproduct of the greater culture that we are all a part of, and many will argue that we cannot help but be affected by that culture. True, but Christians are called not only to work within culture, but to try and change it for the better as well - "in the world, but not of it". While we are a part of postmodern culture, it does not mean that we have to slavishly adhere to the ways of thought and the practices that come with it.

Which brings me to the second main purpose of the church; impacting and loving others. The church is clearly called to make a difference in the world by showing unequivocal and unrestricted love to everyone, to help the widow, the orphan and the poor (to use a Deuteronomic turn of phrase). Jesus summed it up as "love the Lord your God, and love your neighbour as yourself".

It seems that we've forgotten this - were the church to return to this ideal, to put God before all other things, we would surely be able to look beyond the individual to see God. Were we to do so, we would truly be "in the world, but not of it". It is, perhaps, a change that we need to make.