Jesus Cropped from the Picture

More Identity, Less Method

make such declarative statements, and their desire to make thin lines between those “inside and outside,” make it challenging to provide comprehensible training for children. Embracing the Church’s Sacred Roots can help in this regard. Identification with Postmodernity Some Emergings may feel the exhilaration of a fresh movement that is acceptable to popular culture. It may feel hip, cool, and chic. But the Emergings’ emphasis on Postmodernity also puts them in a precarious position. When the freshness wears off, they may feel even more demoralized than before; lost and alone with no objective core. The Traditionals have the Bible and the Cross under which they can “find shelter in a time of storm.” Pragmatics have the Marketing Concept to help them navigate difficult waters when they are “lost at sea.” Emergings have no such ideas to give them coherence, leaving them without a place of shelter or a “star to guide them by.” Postmodernity, by its nature, does not give enough objective truth to form, or sustain, a movement. It leaves too much to the individual. The Great Tradition will always be a safe harbor to which worn-out Emergings can return. Also, whenever missionaries start with a desire to be culturally relevant, they are in danger of becoming enslaved to that culture (syncretism). When people contextualize the Bible to culture without the wisdom handed down through the centuries, culture tends to overwhelm their theology. Churches must develop deep roots of identity that provide the resources necessary to connect with the

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