Articles for tag: Postmodern Culture

April 11, 2012

By Rick Chromey Gen X is rising. From the Tea Party to the emerging church movement, a new breed of leader is operating. Unlike previous generations in recent history, Americans born between 1961 and 1981 don”t feel a need to work within institutional frames. In the 1990s they pioneered dot-com companies to launch a World Wide Web. During the past decade they”ve revolutionized dig- ital learning, wireless communications, reality television, and thousands ofÂ “third place” cultural experiences from coffee shops to fantasy sports to “emerging” churches. Now in their 30s and 40s, this generation rides the leading edge of unemployment, foreclosure,

April 10, 2012

Christian Standard

Church Leadership

Gen X Rising (Part 1)

By Rick Chromey The next two decades will produce unimaginable change. By 2040, much of what we now call “modernity” will be history as the digital revolution finalizes its reinvention of commerce, communication, and education. In 2010, Amazon e-books outsold print books, and in 2011, Borders booksellers filed bankruptcy, signaling an end of the age of Gutenberg. The iPad and Kindle are changing how we read. The CD and DVD are dead media (and books are next), while Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter continue to flex digital muscles. In the midst of this cyber revolution stands a generation waiting to

January 3, 2010

Christian Standard

Church Life

Local Church Membership”“Who Needs It?

By John Castelein I am pleased with the turnout. Chatting in our living room are two elders from our local church, George and Henry, and four seminary students. Jim is an intelligent MDiv student with a noninstrumental background. He can be somewhat argumentative. Diane is a new counseling major. The other students do not know she is a divorced mother who faithfully attends her church without any support from her boyfriend, the father of her little girl. Cole is single and wonders whether he belongs in seminary. Larry wants to be a church planter and has a great passion to

September 23, 2007

Christian Standard

Conferences & Gatherings Organizations & Events

NACC: It”s Time . . . to Preach

By Joe Grana When I was in school, a chapel speaker predicted that preaching would not exist by the year 2000. He was partially correct: preaching as we “knew it then” does not exist. And that probably is good. However, preaching is not out of vogue. The foolishness of preaching Paul described (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) was not the act of preaching, rather, it was the message of the cross that seemed foolish to those perishing, but the power of God to those being saved. So it is today. Preaching the cross will continue to impact lives, but the way it

September 16, 2007

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Church Growth

Emerging, Emergent, Missional: What’s the Difference?

By Gary Zustiak Confused by the terms emerging, emergent, and missional? That would be normal, because many people use the words interchangeably in discussing the current church scene. I apologize if I unfairly portray any group, but we must do some generalizing if we are to provide definitions for these movements to help guide the average church member through the blogs, magazines, and books that focus on them. “¢ An emerging church is an evangelical church that seeks to engage postmodern people, especially the unchurched and postchurched, with the story of the gospel and to challenge them to a radical

September 16, 2007

Christian Standard

Book Reviews Reviews

5 Books About Emerging/Emergent Churches

By Gary Zustiak EXILES: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture By Michael Frost Hendrickson Publishers, 2006 Frost is professor of evangelism and missions at Morling College in Sydney, Australia. His book is scholarly, yet very practical. It carefully lays out what the church must do to effectively communicate the gospel to a postmodern world and retain those Christians “who find themselves falling into the cracks between contemporary secular Western culture and a quaint, old-fashioned church culture of respectability and conservatism” (p. 3). Exiles acknowledges the yearnings of those in the emerging church movement who long for church that is more