Customer Reviews

Post-Modern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century Church

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I read this book from cover to cover in one sitting, something I thought I would NEVER be able to do with a Len Sweet book. This is GREAT stuff! I can see (and hear) so many of Len's talks/sermons/lectures/previous writings merging into this book. I think it's the best he's done to date. I see so much of the "old" Len in this, - well grounded, and deeply steeped in the heritage of the faith, literature, history and science. He has not attempted to be cutting edge in his presentation, but rather has let his cutting edge message stand on its own. I think this works better for him (or maybe it works better for me, the participant in the work), and with the "pew-sitters" for whom this book will have its greatest impact. I think it works better for them as well compared to something like Aqua Church. A "must-read" for our pastors and church leaders.

Post-Modern Pilgrims, Leonard Sweet's latest book, discuss postmodern culture and serves as a guide for sailing the church through this moment in history. Sweet's Epic methodology sets the framework for the book, and explains how we must build an "EPIC church for EPIC times." Postmodern culture is E-P-I-C in that it is Experiential, Participatory, Image-driven, and Connected. Dr. Sweet devotes a chapter to each of these four principals and shows examples of how they can bring the church up to speed with the culture. This is an awesome book for anyone trying to understand the relationship between Christianity and culture. Buy this book, and you will not be disappointed!

Post-modernity is all the rage. It used to be that great epochs of history would be named and categorized only after the fact. Now, we try to define and judge history as it happens. It is probably fitting that in our wired world of blogs that our era of history would come with its own running commentary. Leonard Sweet, self-proclaimed theologian and futurist, offers his own commentary. He speaks to the Church in non-technical language about post-modernity and its implications for ministry.

Generally, I like Leonard Sweet. He is creative and fresh--witnessing to the relevancy of the gospel rather than trying to make it relevant. I have read a few of his other books, and I am a regular subscriber to his website for preachers, www.preachingplus.com. Overall, I am pleased with his book, "Post-Modern Pilgrims." Suggesting that we must continue to keep the past and the future in conversation is sound advice. His exegesis of modern American culture rings true, and it that light, his acronym EPIC is helpful. (Congregations need to promote consciously the ways in which their ministries area Experiential, Participatory, Image-driven, and Connected.)

Sadly, there are ways in which the book fails to go far enough. For all the talk of keeping the past and future in conversation, it is clear that the future dominates the book. The subtitle of the book is "First Century Passion for the 21st Century World." I would have loved some of that "first century passion." There is no extended treatment of how the early church understood itself or its mission, or why this might matter to the future of the church.

Although I tend to accept some of Sweet's concerns of modernity, he could sharpen his analysis. For example, Sweet asks the question, "Why has praise music been such a pet hate in so many church circles (pg 143)?" His answer may surprise you. The fault lies in the scientific method. I still cannot fathom how praise music is antithetical to the scientific method. Elsewhere, he suggests that modernity was "word-based" but post-modernity is "image-driven" (pg 89). The evidence for this switch, Sweet argues, is the importance of metaphor. However, what is metaphor if not "word-based"? Throughout the book, Sweet rejects modernity, while embracing the technology it has wrought.

The new world in which we live means the gospel should be expressed in new ways. However, I do not see in Leonard Sweet how the gospel critiques post-modernity. Could our over-reliance on technology be hurting real relationships? Could the 17th Century Reformers be right about their concern with icons and imagery? Could an ever expanding desire for experiences be idolatrous? Leonard Sweet praises the potentials for ministry in this post-modern period, yet the Church needs a better roadmap to navigate the pitfalls.

I think the best thing about this book is the fact that author is so honest with where he is at and what he believes. What he believes comes through strongly in this work, and is very authentic. Sweet articulates better than any I have seen what is going on in the world today and how the church does, and a lot of times, does not relate to it. I devoured this book and fresh look at theology from someone who is not afraid to push the envelope. While many authors in the Christian world rehash the same theories and patterns and ways to be a better Christian, Sweet challenges all of us to get with the times or be irrelevant. I would love to be able to take a class from Sweet someday, and really pick his brain on where he is at. If you enjoyed this book, you would enjoy the Erwin McManus book, "An Unstoppable Force."

Once again, Sweet shows is Postmodern Pilgrms why he is the premier cultural futurist for the church in the 21st Century. Len has done some of his most important work in reminding us that faithful churches in postmodern culture will be EPIC churches. By that Sweet means that they will be: Experiential, Participatory, Image-driven, and Connected. For any pastor or church willing to open their eyes and their hearts, Sweet provides vital and meaningful maps that will help us steer through the unchartered waters and ever-changing currents of postmodernity and allow us to continue to proclaim the vital good news of God's love made known in Jesus Christ in fresh and meaningful ways to a new generation of believers.

Sweet is to be commended for his unswavering commitment to calling the church to accountability and to remind us of the mission and ministry to which we've been called. As Sweet, himself, has so often reminded us, we are called to be an "Isachar People," those who know "the signs of the time and what it is that God would have us do."

Sweet reminds us that the 21st Century is a new and challenging time that will test the church and push it to the edge and call us to push the envelope! We owe him much for his prophetic word in reminding us that we are truly an "AncientFuture" people. May we be faithful to that which we have been called!

As the ugly duckling discovers he's really a swan, so some of us who assumed we were moderns discover we're not. 'Post-Modern Pilgrims' will solidify your faith in your calling and help you pay the price of your PM identity with courage. Who knows that you were not born for such a time as this? Leonard's work will clarify and encourage the frustrated 'outcast' and equip those with the uncharted calling of this Postmodern Reformation.

I had quite a lengthy debate about the book with a fellow seminary student, and I think that some of my comments from that back and forth will best illustrate what Sweet's book is about:

"We must remember Sweet's authorial intent here: "This book begins with chapters of cultural analysis devoted to what each of these words means in the acronym EPIC. The book ends with a more theoretical analysis of the social forces and intellectual figures fashioning this EPIC model" (Sweet, 30). He is not attempting to give us a systematic theology of how to approach the culture. He is giving a broad overview of the culture which we must engage: this is an introductory work to a much larger issue; by nature it is a survey..."

"Scripture is not commanding that we up and leave this culture and do everything the opposite that everyone else does: scipture admonishes us that while we're in the midst of this crooked and perverse nation, that we ought to not touch the unclean thing... in other words, be separate in that we do not participate in things that are evil: not just culture in general. Was Paul wicked for "...mak[ing] [him]self a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible" (I Cor. 9:19)? Paul continues by saying, "To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings" (I Cor. 9:20-23). Would we be out of line saying, "To the Postmoderns I became as a Postmodern?" I do not think this to be the case. Yet Paul here was clearly conforming to these cultures. How could he justify that? The reason was that he wasn't doing things that were `unclean' in God's sight...just as there are many things in the culture that in and of themselves are not unclean, and the church can safely advocate those things, in books like Sweet's. Paul also uses culture to further the gospel in Acts 17:22-34, where he first assesses the culture (vs. 23) and then uses quotes from their own poets as an introduction to the gospel (vs. 28 - quote #1 is probably from Epimendes of Crete, and quote #2 is from Aratus's poem, "Phainomena")..."

What this book is really for is enabling us to understand better our culture so that we too can follow in the footsteps of Paul and "to the Jew be a Jew to the Greek be a Greek, and to the Post-modern be a post-modern." In this regard, the book is excellent.

If this is the first that you have ever heard of postmodernism and the church, this is an incredible book for you to read. If you have read some other books by Sweet, it contains some expanded but not earth shattering new insights on the church in the 21st century. Everything considered, I am glad I bought the book.

The premise in this book is that the world is moving forward and may be passing Christians by. Newsmakers, technological advances, media figures and language are all changing at such a rapid clip that the church is apt to speak and act in ways that miss those who need to hear the Gospel the most. It is Leonard Sweet's contention that we must appropriate the best of the new if we are to have an authentic witness in the postmodern world. What is the postmodern world? While Sweet does not trace its origins, the term "postmodern" has been in common usage since the early 1970s and was popularized first in the world of architecture by Charles Jenks. Claimants for coining it range from Charles Olson (early 1950s), Leslie Felding (1968) and Jean-François Lyotard (1984)-R. Albert Mohler, Jr. in "The Integrity of the Evangelical Tradition and the Challenge of the Postmodern Paradigm," in The Challenge of Postmodernism: An Evangelical Engagement, edited by David Dockery (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), traces the origin of the term "postmodern" to Frederico de Oniz in 1934 and its first significant use in a treatise by Arnold Toynbee in 1939.
Postmodernism is used to express the sense that the mid-twentieth century goals and objectives (i. e. "modernism") had been tried and either been found lacking or have outlived their usefulness. Almost every other serious field of endeavor has now borrowed the phrase, as a way of saying that time is hastening on, and the field of religion is no exception. Leonard Sweet, is the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University, whose prolific output includes works such as Soul Salsa and A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe.
Sweet calls the church to become an "EPIC church for Epic Times", with the acronym EPIC standing for Experiential, Participatory, Image-Driven and Connected. In a series of chapters devoted to each of these concepts, Sweet explores each in turn, indicating how Christians might impact the larger world more effectively, while maintaining their authentic witness to the Living Christ. Prof. Sweet's contention is that the church is all too often a cerebral spectator, a word-driven environment disconnected from the larger community. He cites many examples and offers some ways that the church might put into practice so as to redress these concerns.
In one of the more provocative sections of the book Sweet lists the various ways that Jesus was a "rule-breaker". All of them are Biblically correct, but one wonders if he would not have been better served to say that Jesus was a "rule-fulfiller" as in, "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it". (Matthew 5:17). Even so, Sweet's point is well taken, as in this quotation: "Jesus even broke the ultimate rule: the law of sin and death". (Page 130). There are many good ideas in this book. One caution, however. A preoccupation with postmodern culture might obscure the timelessness of the Gospel by packaging it in current buzz words and topics de jour. Sweet seems to relish in knowing the latest trend or fad, but such things rarely last, whereas Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.

Sweet's illustration of the Kiss was extrodinary. He's right many of us in traditional churches are afraid to kiss the culture. I highly recommend this book to any who are wanting to be stretched in their thinking.