Leonard Sweet says, "To connect with postmoderns, the church will become more EPIC:
Experiential
Participatory
Image-driven
Communal
I think he is correct in what he says about being "image-driven." "Images generate emotions and people will respond to their feelings.
Postmodern culture is image-driven. The modern world was word-based. Not until the fourteenth century did truth become embedded in principles and positions. Its theologians tried to create an intellectual faith, placing reason and order at the heart of religion. Mystery and metaphor were seen as too fuzzy, too mystical, too illogical.
The church now enters a world where metaphor is at the heart of spirituality. Propositions are lost on postmodern ears; but metaphor they will hear, images they will see and understand. These come as close as human beings will get to a universal language. Indeed, it seems clearer than ever that metaphysics is nothing but metaphor.
Someday I will hold up my Bible before a congregation, shake it, and yell at the top of my lungs, "This is not a book about propositions and programs and principles. This is a book about relationships."
The church, not Hollywood, ought to be the world's greatest image factory. The greatest image in the world, the image that draws people into real, life-giving relationship, is the image of God in Jesus the Christ."
As communicators of the Gospel we are called to paint pictures of life in God's Kingdom.
1 comment:
An observation I have found quite apparent is that God works with a strategy of "providential relationships". In one hundred percent of the testimonies I have heard, people always, without fail, mention another person that helped them explode or greatly grow their faith. The Lord emphasises relationships in this way. Thanks Jamey for good works and good words. I hope you always continue your posts.
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