Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The Pragmatic Method

church history. Pragmatics do not have a common set of doctrines but are held together by their desire to meet the needs of the individual . Therefore, each Pragmatic might have a different idea about what the “glory years” were. For most, it was the age that was most personally satisfying to them as an individual. For example, many Boomers view the 1960s as the best days of their lives, while others see the 1970s or 1980s as idyllic. Some people look back to a time when they received Christ, or a time when they were vibrant in their personal faith; a season of life when they were growing in the Lord. They often engage in a life-long pursuit to “get that feeling again.” Common Antagonist The Pragmatic Method is against whatever “does not work.” So Pragmatics react against the Traditional Method for being too “churchy,” which, they believe, drives people away from the church. Each Pragmatic church sees itself in the process of survival; in competition with other churches or with activities that keep people away from church services.

David Wells expressed the fears of Pragmatics this way:

[They are] pushed along by the sense that things are stagnating in the evangelical world and the ways of “doing” church in the past won’t work with newer generations. That being so, churches must change their way of doing business or face extinction … Church is like a product now being rendered obsolete by the passage of time and the onrush of innovation. 84

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