Creating a Theology of Engagement for the Christian in a Postmodern Context

This dissertation creates a theology engagement that is suitable to the needs and challenges of Christians in a postmodern society. The main issue I wanted to address is the need for a clear theological approach to engagement for Christians seeking to authentically incarnate the gospel in a de-centered culture.
Because of Postmodernity many of us find ourselves increasingly on the margins of culture. That is a problem for many who are attempting to hold on to a centered, Christendom approach to Christianity. By that I mean, where the church not only holds the moral center but occupies a position of power and influence to inform all of culture. Unfortunately, if holding on to the center of culture is the goal then the future of Christianity in Western culture is obsolescence.
So, if we assume a position from the margins what is the posture, the model, the base and approach of the Christian who does not want to accommodate or equivocate to the prevailing culture? The project is to answer the question: What does it require theologically to lovingly engage culture and how is that theology to be implemented?
I believe that our theology does make a difference. There is a Rich Mullins song that states how important our theological belief system is. He sang referring to the Apostles Creed, “I did not make it, but it is making me.” I believe that. Our theology is not irrelevant or unimportant, but it forms who we are and how we are to act.
The approach taken in this dissertation is three-fold. The first is developed in the context of a local church. In this context, I gradually came to the awareness of my own inability to connect in a natural and effective way with non-Christian people. Much of what is delivered to the public by the church comes in the form of an event or attractional type model. The attitude that if we create an attractive church with a good worship band, decent children’s ministries, adequate parking, and semi-relevant preaching, people will
come to their senses and come to church to find Jesus Christ. The problem is that people are not coming and the model (in my opinion) is sadly lacking the vibrancy or contextualized theological basis for the task in our current cultural environment. I became
persuaded (and after doing the research – there are thousands of others as well) that there had to be a more theologically sound, organic approach. I planted New Community sixteen years ago and have observed certain trends theologically emerge as we as a community of faith have endeavored to engage our urban setting. These trends have been born out in community.
The second piece has been the contemporary literature. There has been a good deal written in the last ten years on how this engagement is likely to happen in Western culture. These ideas have been informed by brilliant missiologists such as Lesslie Newbigin and David Bosch and by contemporary ecclesial theologians such as Alan Roxburgh and Alan Hirsch to name just a few.
The last component employed to discover this theology is by personal interviews and interaction with young emergent practitioners both in the U.S. and in Western Europe. Through the networks that I am involved with and lead, the idea of a theology of engagement has been cultivated.
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There is a four-part progression to finding a legitimate solution.
The first could be summed up with the word—posture. Because of a reactionary attitude toward the church in our prevailing culture, a deeply rooted theology of the kingdom of God is needed. Having an open posture toward culture is required. Having a counter-cultural posture based on a theology of the kingdom of God is vital. I am not talking about reacting towards the externals of our culture but thinking deeply about the motivating core values. This allows us to be non-reactive toward the externals yet confident as the church.
The second aspect that I posit is summed up in the word “model”. How do we engage? Theologically, Christ must be our model. The aspect of his model that I believe makes the most sense in our culture is his incarnation. Christ, as Eugene Peterson translates John 1:14, “moved into the neighborhood.” This incarnational model is reflected in four components: Proximity, Humility, Revelation, and Sending (the concept of the Missio Dei).
The third aspect of this theology of engagement is summed up in the word “base” or a conversion context. We must understand to engage, we must embrace a theology of community. If we are to live out the life of God in our culture, it is presupposed theologically that we will live life joyfully in community. One aspect of the doctrine of the Trinity is that God has existed as community from time and eternity. An axiom that I put forward is, “As God is, so we should be, as God does, so we should do.” If God is personal and communal in his essence, we should settle for nothing less in our lives. I have come to believe that for a person to have the strength, encouragement, and vision to live an incarnational life, a “communitas” (band of brothers) is required.
The last aspect of this study is the idea of creating a sensitive contextualized approach. For this contextualization to happen we must commit to communicate in the heart language of the people we are attempting to reach, we must avoid misplaced religious allegiances, and lastly, we must realize the sovereignty of God in mission.