I came into this course thinking that I knew a lot about this whole postmodernity gig. I mean, I'm of the Gen-Y, we invented this philosophical framework, right? And yet, it is so easy to become so immersed in a culture that we take for granted the values that culture subscribes to. Like Steve indicated on the first day, just as with the breath we can see on a frosty morning, we can only realise what we are living in when we step outside of it.
This course allowed me to step outside of my culture and take a long, critical look at what it represents. For me the first challenge was the reminder that many people see the Bible in a different "colour" than what we as believers do. How true it is that I have looked at the Bible in warm-fuzzy colours and simply ignored the startlingly obvious reality that the word of God is not all warm & fuzzy. Undertaking this course has allowed me to reflect upon how it is I use the Bible when talking to others around me, who may have a very different experience of the Bible to me.
The challenge I have been wrestling with throughout the course is finding a balance between creatively presenting the text of the Bible and the danger of overstepping the mark in 'dressing up' the message of the Bible. I guess it's a healthy concern, trying to respect the text whilst engaging with culture around us, while at the same time letting the text "speak for itself".
I was challenged by the comparisons we made when viewing the "Romeo & Juliet" clips. Clearly, things are done differently these days and we simply cannot afford in our church communities to not appreciate that. In particular, the idea of a "bare wall church" was prominent in my mind because, my church is very bare walled. As the youth pastor of my local church, I've often wondered how to better engage our young people with the teaching of the word. My, they've been started off on the wrong foot already when they enter a church with bare walls! I MYSELF find the walls of our church bleak and depressing, so why do I expect my young people to be any different? What a valuable insight this has been to me!
Before taking this course, I could sit and whinge about how we weren't engaging people around us in the community, how the way we did things was irrelevant and disempowering, and I could do that well. But what have I actually been doing to make things different? I love the idea of godly play - there is a skill which enlivens and personalises the text of the Bible. The notion of not merely 'preaching' from the front, but having the word read and shared around the congregation is also a help. I think I have developed some -delicious- new skills in how to do church.
As someone brought up in a tradition which values the word of God highly (one might argue perhaps higher than God himself :)), I found myself wondering if the message and authority of the scriptures was demeaned in some way if they were "used creatively in community". How do you 'creatively' challenge people to live holy lives? Is it cheapening the message to "dilute" it with engaging methods of presentation? While I'm still trying to reconcile all this somehow, I have been reminded that the Bible is a narrative, a story which includes us. I've been guilty of placing the importance of the content of the Bible over the purpose of the Bible, namely the communication of God's story in human history. I think we need to tone down a bit on the "Thou Shalt" attitude that we've given the word of God, I don't think it was ever intended to be used to belittle, to devalue, to hurt, to oppress, or to condemn. The truth of the Bible is that it speaks of God's faithfulness to all generations (and cultures). Perhaps I can do this truth a bit of justice by sharing this story of faithfulness in a more appropriate manner to those around me?
So how then does all this fit with my future ministry? The honest answer is I don't really know! I could speculate about some strategies I could employ which would make the text seemingly more culturally relevant, but I need to ponder on exactly what those strategies would be for a bit longer. I think the opportunities of postmodernity are great - people now have so many questions and are searching for truth and wholeness. We as Christians have the truth, and the answers to those questions, and they are found in God's word! However the Bible gets used in my future ministry, I trust that I will make it accessible to all who I share it with, that I might be sensitive to their learning style, to their background, to their confusion and to their honest desire to know truth.
If anything, this course has reminded me that the Bible is an exciting text! It is exciting because it is a story we relate to because we're part of it! If ever I make the word of God unexciting (and I define exciting to include challenging/convicting/transforming/dynamic), I have been reminded that I will be doing a great disservice to this story that so desperately needs to be told.
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4 comments:
I can resonate with many of the things that you said Josh. For some time now I too have been looking for ways to present the text in a way that brings it alive for people. I think many of us have felt like we have struggled to teach/preach the scriptures with contemporary methods. And I too, share your concern for “overstepping the mark” in presenting the Bible to a postmodern culture.
I do believe that we as theological students need to find methods that will allow us to preach in ways that brings Christianity’s basic truths in fresh ways to our culture; not just churched people but also to our broader culture. In the readings I came something that really struck a cord with me. Christine McSadden believes that our preaching needs to recover a sense of the apologetic, which articulates the basics of our faith clearly, simply and hospitably to our audience. I also think that this gives us an opportunity to really hone what we truly believe, and from my understanding (or lack of) of postmodern culture values those who really know and live what they believe. The fact that you need to ponder which strategies would be the best to use also resonates in me too. As you say, Postmodernity gives us great opportunities to reach many people with the message of the Bible. But sometimes I find it hard to know where to start.
Josh, I love the tension you write with. On one hand you are in the culture and post modernity is living out all around you. But on the other hand you are wrestling with how this impacts your faith and also how you can share the gospel with others. I can really identify with you as I also find myself in that same place.
In regards to presenting the text from different approaches, I agree with you and do believe there is a danger of ‘dressing up’, or as Steve puts it ‘sexing up’, the text and we need to stay true to the living word of God. I found Steve’s1 theological framework he delivered on the first day of class helpful in knowing that presenting the text with colour, imagination, in community and through various approaches is actually biblical and just not a savvy educational technique or methodology.
As a part of this process we need to be bringing colour to the bare walls of our churches and exploring how the ongoing story of God is living out in our midst and then wrestle with how we present this and link it back to God’s story which is documented in the bible. All the best Josh as you continue to wrestle with this task, I know as you do, you will grow.
Blessing, Mike
1 Steve Taylor, Tabor Adelaide Lecture Notes, 2008.
Josh, thanks for your reflection. I appreciated your wrestling with the course and looking for different ways it can used in your future ministry. One dominate themein your reflection, which I resonated with, was the issue biblical authority and using the text creatively: where does the text stop and the creativity take over - 'dressing up the Bible' as you put it?
Part of the answer I think lies in allowing the text to direct the creativity. What I mean by this is allowing the text to speak for itself. The creativity that surrounds the text is a way of drawing the text out and provide a number of 'vantage' points in 'seeing' and 'hearing' the text. Godly play, as you suggests, allows this as the text is told alongside images and symbols that take us deeper into the unfolding story. The 'wondering together' allows us to engage together under the text and doesn't diminish the Bible's authority but allows for it to be expressed in a more heuristic way 1). Ultimately whether we do ‘Godly play’ with adults or children or both the act of story telling invites all, both storyteller and participants, to discern the word of God together.
Good luck with the ‘Godly play’ Josh.
Chris McLeod
1) Berryman J W 1995, Godly Play: An imaginative approach to religious education, Augsburg/Fortress, New York, P.34
Hi Josh. Thanks for your reflection. I understand your concern about maintaining the balance of creativity and the accompanying danger of overstepping the mark…although I do find the Bible intrinsically creative. Taylor (2005) touches on your precise concern in his book noting, “there is a fear that ‘playing’ with God and with God’s word might take away from the holiness and awesome power of God”. (1) He goes on to describe an Easter service where he gave people sand and pipe cleaners to make an Easter Garden, which generated many questions and many people reaching for their Bibles. Rather than drawing people away from the biblical narrative, it actually turned them towards it in a fresh, questioning way, engaging their hearts and minds concurrently. After a long argument with yourself, I liked your conclusion that, “I have been guilty of placing the importance of the content of the Bible over the purpose of the Bible, namely the communication of God’s story in human history”. That’s the nub of the tension for us all, isn’t it?
Hope you enjoy using Godly Play. I am working on a version of this about Mary to use in our pre-evangelistic young mother’s group for Christmas time (at Easter and Christmas we give people plenty of notice that we will be discussing the spirituality of the season, and usually get the best attendance of the year). I found that it pushed me exegetically in more expansive ways than normal sermon preparation, extending my concerns over far more of the Biblical record, causing much pondering/meditation all week on Mary’s life and faith.
Every blessing on your work and your (godly) play
Kerry
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(1) Steve Taylor, The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to create a community of faith in a culture of change. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005
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