What do DJs, tourists, and postmodern philosophers have to do with church? Apparently quite a bit. This recent book by Steve Taylor, a pastor in New Zealand, is subtitled “Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change.” Mr. Taylor draws from Karl Barth’s comment about the task of preaching being to sit with the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other. “I sit on the fault lines of a cultural shift. In my right hand, I hold a video remote. In my left hand, I hold the gospel of Jesus… Ours is the task of communicating the gospel in an age of change.” (19)
The book is in some sense a blueprint for how the church, or Christian communities, can apply the gospel to the changing culture. Each chapter is a postcard from an emerging church somewhere in the world. Each postcard highlights some activity that reflects the goals of emerging churches. Throughout the book there are also comments by different people in the margins that expand, footnote, or softly critique what Mr. Taylor writes.
Postcard 1 sets the stage for the rest of the book. In it, Mr. Taylor draws out the differences between Frank Zeffarelli’s 1968 Romeo and Juliet and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 Romeo and Juliet. Each sought to translate Shakespeare’s text into contemporary culture. The implication is that the gospel has not changed, but the culture has, and in order to communicate it effectively we need to re-translate it.
Mr. Taylor offers different perspectives on how this can be done. One is to view the church as continually being reborn. “If God is about birthing—and rebirthing—and we are to be about the things of God, then we, too, are called to acts that bring new life into the world.” (50) “The belief in God’s constant re-creation drives much of the emerging church. It is less a reaction against old forms and ideas and more a response to God’s call for us to join in with the continuous birthing of his kingdom.” (56)
Another approach offered is tourist spirituality. “Tourism can serve as a redemptive framework for postmodern mission, in which people are ‘tourists’ on spiritual journeys and the church operates as ‘tour guide,’ stimulating forward movement and nourishing the quest.” (83)
Perhaps the most interesting and telling perspective is that of cultural sampling, applying the activities of DJs to the role of the church. For Mr. Taylor this means playing television commercials, popular music, showing art, reading poetry, reading scripture, and much more.
My thoughts were generally mixed about this book. I think Steve Taylor makes some good points about communicating the gospel in a global culture that is almost entirely different than it was 10 years ago.
His analysis of where the modern church is lacking is accurate in several areas. One that I appreciated was that of the place of art in a worship service. For some reason, we tend to consider the reading of scripture, liturgies, and songs as the only legitimate forms of worship in service. However, if God gave us abilities for creativity, it seems those would be appropriate for the worship from Christ’s Bride as well. Mr. Taylor also has some good theological points that should not be missed, e.g. “Spiritual seekers can fall into the trap of picking and choosing a feel-good theology that doesn’t have anything to do with the truth of living life with God.” (82)
Contrary to what many critics of the emerging churches have argued, the Bible plays a role in Mr. Taylor’s view of church. In many of his theological points he seeks to root his claims in the words of scripture. There are, however, a few problems with how scripture is used. One is its role in service, in which a few services that he describes leave the Bible mitigated to either being one voice among many voices (154) or having no role at all (55). Another problem is the way Mr. Taylor exegetes scripture. The most prominent example is his use of 1 Peter 3:1-7, which he uses to argue that Peter was “sampling from culture and from the way of Jesus.” (141) Mr. Taylor assumes, without argument, that some of Peter’s imperatives for how husbands and wives relate are items from the culture, and this enables him to dismiss several elements of what Peter says because “our world is not Peter’s world” (143).
In contrast to Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy, this was a far more interesting read and a far more accurate description of what's going on in emerging churches. For anyone looking to find out what emerging church is all about, this is the book to read. It exemplifies the changes in methods for presenting the gospel that are happening, however, it never clearly presents the gospel. Mr. Taylor tells us we must remain orthodox and true to God, but what that means is wrapped up in metaphors of birthing and incarnation that are unclear at points. This is not a defense of emerging churches. However, it's mostly accurate as a description of the emerging church.
