David Anguish
How do we practice undenominational Christianity in a postmodern world? Unless we grapple with that question, we will find ourselves increasingly frustrated in any effort to reach more than a relatively small percentage of the lost. Think about just some of the challenges we face.
First, the very idea of undenominational Christianity assumes that there is a standard for what the church should be to which we can appeal. But the idea of appealing to any standard is met which responses ranging from disbelief to disdain. Even among conservative adherents of denominational Christianity, more people reject the notion of absolute truth. The idea that the Bible is open to a variety of different interpretations, subject to the perspective of each individual or group, is accepted as gospel by postmodern man. Any attempt to evangelize today's lost which does not show awareness of this worldview is doomed to frustration.
What is true of society generally is also often true of the church. Many in our churches today have absorbed more of the postmodern view than either they or their leaders often realize. Witness the replacement of a love for a "thus saith the Lord" / "God said it, that settles it" attitude with increased concern for what any given passage "means for me" which has come to dominate popular level Bible reading and study. Witness too the discomfort so many profess over "judgmental" preaching, proclamations which dare to say that people are lost without Christ and obedience to his will. Such concern is often not provoked by a failure to teach the truth in love (cf. Ephesians 4:15), but arises from the mistaken view that sin should never be called what it is, no matter how loving the rebuke and reproof (cf. 2 Timothy 4:1-4).
First Chronicles 12:32 reports the presence of "the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do" (NASB). Men and women with similar insight are the need of our time. Where they exist, surprise over current trends will be replaced by awareness of what needs to be done if we will speak intelligibly to our world. Teachers who understand the times will know that many of the people we meet will have accepted relativism and thus will be prepared to stress the truth about truth. They will not hesitate to declare a message of certainty, gently helping people past the uncertainty they have been influenced to cherish to the security they long for. They will resist the temptation to be driven by market surveys, "felt needs," psychological exhortations, and social issues over a concern for the fundamentals of doctrinal truth which provide the foundation for the kind of life which is truly practical. They will understand the modern fascination with constant change even as they continue to lovingly teach about things which must never change.
They will do these things because, in addition to understanding the times, they also understand the timeless. The truth that objective reality does exist. That knowledge of God's Word, the truth which frees, is possible (John 8:32; 17:17; Ephesians 4:15; Acts 17:1-4). That the Bible can be correctly interpreted and understood if people will apply themselves to diligent study of both its context and teaching (2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). That the call to evangelize to which they have responded presupposes that there is an objective teaching which can not only be known, but to which an obedient response must be given (Mark 16:15-16; 2 Timothy 2:2; Romans 6:17).
Following such a course may well require the greatest resistance to cultural influence of all, that which understands that heaven is a rest from genuine labor, not merely a different place of luxury. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Luke 9:23).