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CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
Navigating the river of the postmodern world

K.J. Weinberger

The End of the World . . . As We Know It: Clear Direction for Bold and Innovative Ministry in a Postmodern World Chuck Smith Jr. Colorado Springs, Colo.: WaterBrook Press, 2001. 235 pp.

A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey Brian D. McLaren. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 2001. 192 pp.

Aquachurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today’s Fluid Culture Leonard I. Sweet. Loveland, Colo.: Group Publishing Inc., 1999. 269 pp.

Each of these authors shares something in common with the reviewer. They all have been or are church planters and all are in their mid-40s. The latter means they are children of the modern era, trying to transition to the postmodern world.

A helpful image used by one of the authors is that of land dwellers trying the experience of living and playing in the river. “Those in their 40s may only ever be able to come to the river’s edge and poke their feet in for awhile. Whereas my children will enter into the river as if they never knew any difference, and they will play in the current of the river.” The ability to play in the middle of the river may be more a product of our mindset and adaptability to our culture than mere age, according to McLaren.

Each book represents different progressions to river life and may be useful for various parts of our life journeys depending on how we are adapting presently, or immersing ourselves meaningfully with the claims of Christ in our age.

Smith’s book is a user-friendly introduction to postmodern ministry; hence, the best place to begin for those wanting to know “where the river is”. His approach is thoroughly modern: an analytical (historical and intellectual cultural antecedents) overview of the beginnings of the modern terrain to its end points at the river’s edge in postmodern beginnings. This may be a helpful port of entry for the modern land lover.

Smith is able to point to the water instructively: a world where opposites that are paradoxically held in tension are applied to the symbols of worship; the use of a storyteller’s multi-sensory approach; and the four entry points that a living God already gives us. It may be good introductory reading but leaves the prospective swimmer essentially still looking for action in the water.

McLaren uses the postmodern friendly format of an imaginative novel, and consequently finds the reader engaged at a deeper level than he might have if he had chosen a mere analytical overview. Dan, the lead character, is a burned-out pastor who must transition from his anguished modern world to this new world or choose to leave his pastorate in frustration. Neo (who is Dan’s daughter’s history teacher and who is theologically trained, black, and a former fundamentalist-cum-Episcopalian) becomes Dan’s postmodern mentor. The tale begins with redefining the containers Christianity is taking to inhabit this new world. Scripture, redemption and culture, and the church in relation to the Kingdom of God are relationally bantered away from popular academic pigeonholes and polar positions.

The latter part of the book consists of e-mails between the two friends followed by a connection between Dan and Neo’s African–American Episcopalian pastor. While the interchange on salvation is compelling, something strange happens to the direction of the book. What started as a journey to finding meaning in this postmodern world ends up merely “looking” – not to the future challenges of ministry but backwards. The author finds healing in the waters that helped redefine healthy Christianity in this culture and now wants to explore the liberal and liturgical worlds vicariously through this Episcopalian pastor.

One gets the feeling that McLaren is therapeutically trying to address his frustrated, narrower, evangelical, modern past. In doing so, McLaren may have both feet already in the river, but they point towards land, rather than playfully into the river. Nevertheless, this book remains an important read because it places itself in the realm of street level reality and contemporary church relevance.

Sweet’s Aqua Church is less academic and more church-leader friendly than his earlier books. This doesn’t make this book any less easy to integrate in its challenges. Because it is so interactive for both pastor and churches as a study book (each chapter has two sets of questions and projects), one is less likely to store this book.

True to its environment, this is a vignette that literally jumps right into the river without needing any account of the land from which it jumped. Twelve chapters depict areas that leadership needs to learn to navigate in this ever-changing, nautical world. Some chapters don’t sound like they are from the cultural edge (“Studying the Compass: The Bible” and “Casting the Anchor: Tradition”) unless one remembers that postmodern travel borrows freely from the past, present and future. The three chapters starting with the letter C (“Communication”, “Collaboration and Team Work” and “Creativity”) are more of the cultural edge variety.

As a recovering workaholic the chapter entitled “Taking Shore Leave: Sabbath Rest” may be the chapter that I first share with my family as a life style guide. The practice of creatively declaring sabbaticals and knowing one’s “alpha waves” of rest would do more wonders than many books on stress relief marketed today.

No one I have read can tell a story with more pulsating current imagery and then relate it to a scripture passage with more power and life than Sweet. Even if one is disinterested in postmodern ministry, the artistry of Sweet’s written page is compelling in its evangelical passion to embrace meaningfully those Christ had called us to minister to.

K.J. Weinberger is church planter of the dwelling place, a church plant in Kitchener, Ont.

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Last modified November 5, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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