There is a lot of negative talk going around the ‘church’ today about the new postmodern mindset. A lot of the talk is centered around the “no absolute truth” part of postmodernism – a concept that scares a lot of Christians.

Yet, the postmodern mindset is much more then “relative truth”. It is a mindset – nay – a worldview – a different way to look at the world around us – it’s not necessary “bad” or “evil” – it is just different.

For the past 500 or so years, the Western Church has been caught up in modernism – which held to a “single, universal worldview and moral standard, a belief that all knowledge is good and certain, truth is absolute, individualism is valued, and thinking, learning and beliefs should be determined systematically and logically.”

Postmodernism, on the other hand, holds that “there is no single universal worldview…community is valued over individualism, and thinking, learning, and beliefs can be determined nonlinearly.”[@more@]

In other words, postmodernism is closer to the worldview held by most cultures outside the West then it is to the traditional modern view of life.

For example, those living under a modern worldview are influenced by facts – which leads to belief – which in turn influences one’s behavior. Postmodern folks rely on experience to influences their behaviors – which then leads to their beliefs.

Dan Kimball does a good job of describing this shift and how it affects the church. Seeing that the emerging generation is more “hands-on”, Kimball sets up prayer stations around the church building allowing people to wonder from station to station praying.

Postmodern folks also have a love for more “vintage” expressions of the Christian faith – like classic art, stain glass windows, silence, etc. In fact, one article I read (not in Kimball’s book) suggests that the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches are posed for a great increase in numbers due to this mind shift.

While most of the book is great, I did have one beef with Kimball’s book – it almost seemed that he was writing down a formula for how to run an emerging church… It’s kind of funny that I got this impression since he makes several comments say the opposite…but for what ever reason, it came across that way.

I would liked for him to spend more time talking about the postmodern / emerging church mindset and less time describing how he “does church”….

In closing, Dan Kimball’s book “The Emerging Church” is a great resource in learning about the emerging Christian movement. Just remember that it is about a mindset and not a formula.