In this article Kevin Miller explores
the nature of postmodern leadership by posing a list of ten questions, or what
he terms “pomo ponderings.” First, I should like to state that I do not agree
with the label “pomo” as applied to people who have aligned themselves with a
post-modern approach to life and ministry, as it is an off-handed reference to “homo,”
which is a derogatory term in its own right. With that aside, this is a really
insightful article into the nature of postmodern leadership. I thought the most
important questions that Miller posed are as follows: 1) “What accounts for the overwhelmingly
white, middle-class makeup of the postmodern-ministry conversation?” 2) Does
the emergent “conversation” welcome business people and engineers along with
their enthusiasm for artists? 3) Is there not something strange in saying that
we are certain that everything is uncertain?
I found the first question particularly
relevant because I once overheard a campus ministry leader, who had an Indian
background, tell a white student who was obsessed with postmodernism that, “Only
white people have time to think about that stuff.” I thought, “Wow, that’s
totally true!” Then I thought about the nature of leadership and theology. The
way we approach Jesus, or the Bible, can be so culturally-conditioned that no
one outside of our culture understands it. Leaders of post-modern movements
lead “away” from modernism, but probably 99% of the world doesn’t even know
what trends characterized modernism. Do leaders only attract people like them?
How can we attract people who are different?
Final dibs of the quarter! :)
ReplyDeleteFirst to digress to address your digression. I have heard the term “pomo,” used prior to this article, though infrequently. I can see the link between the two terms, though I am not sure it is intended to be an insult.
ReplyDeleteSecond, excellent choice in articles! I appreciate reading a view of post-modern Christianity that is more balanced. I was also struck by the author’s point that, truly, this seems to only be a Caucasian movement. I’d like to push this a bit further—how many homeless people discuss the new wave of postmodernism and its effect on the change? Or Christians who live below the poverty line, praying that a paycheck will sustain them until the first of the month? This may be an exaggeration, but could this not be the over-thinking of a privileged culture? “Only white people have time to think about that stuff!”
As leaders, I think our primary job is still to preach the gospel, which includes grace and equality for all people, regardless of race, geography, or socio-economic status. Our responsibility as pastors, whether it is at a small African-American Baptist church or a Manhattan cell group, is to consider others higher than ourselves (Phil. 2) and emphasize our mutuality with the other, pomo or not.