JR Woodward :: Blog :: Is Conversion a Four-Letter Word? Part III

  Ways of seeing 
  Originally uploaded by monoglot

I have appreciated the interaction with this topic thus far.  I finally had a chance today to respond some to your comments in part II, so if you are engaging in this conversation, please check it out.  If this is your first entry you are reading on this topic, you will probably benefit from read the intro and part II, prior to reading this one.  Now for part III. 

How Modernity Affects the Congregations I Serve and Visit
Those who live under the spell of modernity tend to view truth and reality in more black‐and‐white terms instead of color and often limit “the gospel” to the death of Christ, which gives them access to heaven. It is easy for those who live under the meta‐narrative of modernity to slip into the idea that the gospel is a set of objective facts for an individual to “believe” and a sinner’s prayer for individual’s to pray, instead of an invitation to “switch stories” allowing God’s reality to re‐shape them, so that they might partner with Him to bring more of heaven to earth.

The problem I have noticed in the congregations I serve and visit is that when individuals shaped by modernity limit the gospel and/or consider their understanding of the gospel to be the universal timeless “objective” truth, contextualization becomes unnecessary and the gospel becomes a proof text. The idea of "objective" truth has taken such a hold of some that their view of the gospel cannot be questioned or examined. The obvious implications for those who hold this viewpoint are that humility goes out the window and conversation is inessential.  It it just a matter of sharing the "objective" truth.  When this view is taken to an extreme, contextualization becomes demonized because the message is transcendent, and the incarnation is often forgotten.

This narrowing of the gospel tends to separate personal morality from social justice and justification from sanctification in such a way that the good news becomes irrelevant for this life and ineffectual for their own transformation. In other words, the gospel is not experienced as good news, so why share it with others?  But modernity is not the only story affecting people’s view of conversion. In the next post, I want to take a look at how postmodernity has affected people's view of conversion.